# Polyphemus caterpillars



## Galapoheros (Apr 17, 2007)

About 1/2 inch now.


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## moose35 (Apr 17, 2007)

those look cool. they look like one ifound when i was a little kid. and after playing with it and letting it crawl all over me i started breaking out from it.

 gala...do they have some type of poison/irratint?


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## Galapoheros (Apr 17, 2007)

It suuuuuure looks like it, right?  I was going to say "no" but I'm not really sure.  Maybe they do have a little ammo that bothers some animals like dog noses.  But they are harmless to humans.  You can pick them up with no probs when they get bigger.  I plan on posting a pic in this thread as they get bigger.


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## bugmankeith (Apr 17, 2007)

Cool! They get big when full grown, and turn into those gorgeous moths!

The only moths/butterflies i've ever raised were silkworms,gypsy,tent,bagworm,monarch,painted lady, and the one polyphemus caterpillar that cocooned for me.


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## froggyman (Apr 17, 2007)

where do you get those. the only catapillers/moth larva i can find onlinw are painted ladies


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## Galapoheros (Apr 17, 2007)

I usually find 2 or 3 females around my yard in the Spring and Summer.  But there is always and chance I would not see any.  I saw that P.jasonius was overloaded.  He sent me 10 eggs.  I thought they fried but 9 of the 10 hatched.  I've bought them from a website too,  Bill Oekle(sp?) sells several sp eggs, and cocoons.


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## ORION_DV8 (Apr 18, 2007)

I work in a lab that studies these guys it seems they employ acoustic aposematism by clicking their mandibles together before puking out a distasteful substance essentially their bile and last meal. the hairs on them are inocuous. Manduca caterpillars also click and puke. One of my lab mates was just published in Nature on the subject.
cheers
ORION


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## Dorcus (Apr 18, 2007)

Those look awesome!

P.s What are they feeding on?


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## Galapoheros (Apr 20, 2007)

ORION_DV8 said:


> I work in a lab that studies these guys it seems they employ acoustic aposematism by clicking their mandibles together before puking out a distasteful substance essentially their bile and last meal. the hairs on them are inocuous. Manduca caterpillars also click and puke. One of my lab mates was just published in Nature on the subject.
> cheers
> ORION


They are eating Live Oak leaves.  I noticed that clicking noise a couple of years ago when I had a few of these.  If I remember right, it was a real fast clicking.  They could speed it up or slow it down, sounded like a Geiger counter.  It depended on how irritated they were getting.  I never had one puke on me though, a lot of other caterpillars have but not this sp yet.  I guess I've never irritated these enough for that to happen.


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## LeilaNami (Apr 20, 2007)

If you guys want any P. jasonius might send ya some.  He has like...80


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