Catocala

Catocala larvae from Eastern North America. There are approximately 80 named species in Eastern North America. Some do not have any reference photos for caterpillars (larvae). Available larval photos are posted with the individual species listed under Larva (caterpillars).

Notes for much information on this page summarized from Owlet Caterpillars of Eastern North America p. 212-213.

For a better chance at having a Catocala larva identified take photos of head (front) view, top view of entire larva, dorsal view, ventral view. Also note host plant/tree as these caterpillars have specialized diets.

Detailed information about each species is available by clicking on name which links to iNaturalist page with distribution maps, seasonality charts, food plants, and much more.

Underwing Moths (Catocala) & Larvae - A companion guide for iNaturalists
https://images.peabody.yale.edu/catinat/

NOTE - Since this post was initially started just for Catocala from Eastern North America, not all are listed in the following links. Refer to A companion guide for iNaturalists for other Catocala not listed below.

Willow and poplar (Salicaceae) feeders

Oak (Fagaceae) feeders

Species group - Oak

Blueberry (Ericaceae) feeders

Catocala andromedae - also azalea
-- https://images.peabody.yale.edu/catinat/andromedae
Catocala gracilis
-- https://images.peabody.yale.edu/catinat/gracilis
Catocala sordida
-- https://images.peabody.yale.edu/catinat/sordida
Catocala louiseae
-- https://images.peabody.yale.edu/catinat/louiseae

Rose family (Rosaceae) feeders (apple, cherry, hawthorn, etc.)

Basswood (Tilia) feeder

Catocala cerogama
-- https://images.peabody.yale.edu/catinat/cerogama

Larvae (caterpillars)

Species groups - host plants

Species group - amorpha

Species group - ericaceae

Species group - rosaceae

Species group - hickory

Species group - oak
(missing SG addition) - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/202489141

Species group - poplar/willow

Species groups - undecided

Species group - agrippina/atocala

Species group - agrippina/lacrymosa

Species group - aholibah/verrilliana

Species group - amatrix/cara/carissima

Species group - amatrix/parta

Species group - andromedae/gracilis

Species group - andromedae/louiseae

Species group - angusi/habilis

Species group - angusi/robinsonii

Species group - antinympha/badia

Species group - badia/muliercula

Species group - briseis/cara

Species group - briseis/concumbens

Species group - cara/carissima
(temporary holding while waiting for Curator to add Species group)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/272430628 (cara/carissima)

Species group - cara/concumbens

Species group - connubialis/micronympha

Species group - consors/epione

Species group - connubialis/delilah

Species group - connubialis/lineella

Species group - delilah/desdemona

Species group - epione/piatrix

Species group - grotiana/semirelicta

Species group - grynea/mira

Species group - grynea/praeclara

Species group - grynea/ultronia

Species group - habilis/robinsonii

Species group - judith/serena

Species group - lacrymosa/paleogama

Species group - luctuosa/retecta

Species group - meskei

Species group - meskei/semirelicta

Species group - micronympha/similis

Species group - micronympha/verrilliana

Species group - minuta/similis

Species group - miranda/ultronia

Species group - muliercula/piatrix

Species group - nebulosa/subnata

Species group - neogama/maestosa

Species group - obscura/residua

Species group - retecta/vidua

Species group - ulalume/vidua

Observation group:
287206851 white-head obs group
-- https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/280574851 ( also in - Dark morph Catocala relicta)

Observation group:
172051579 Dark morph Catocala relicta

Species group - TBR-Catocala To be Reviewed-Late Additions

Species group - reared

Comments

Maybe it would be worth adding links to the observations in the species groups we are adding, and also a link of the Ventral View field observations? Not sure if that fits in with your purpose for this page. Awesome that you are collecting all this information in one spot. Thank you!!

Posted by mossman13 about 2 years ago

Sounds like a good idea about the ventral views. I think for now I'll keep all the Catocala info on one page but if this starts getting too long, I'll probably break the links down into smaller sections for ease of making single links for posting.

Posted by woolcarderbee about 2 years ago

Made a separate page for Catocala maestosa but will also leave the info on this page for now.
https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/woolcarderbee/98341-catocala-maestosa

Will have to review my html coding as some things aren't working as planned.

So I don't have to look for this link when needed
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/useful-html-tags-for-inaturalist-comments-and-other-text-wiki/6198

Cool! Are you adding links to other species as you have time? There are a variety of other species that could be added with RG photos as well. Let me know if you want a list of ones I think would be good to start with.

Yes. Let me know which ones should have priority and I'll add them as I have time.

nuptialis, abbreviatella, whitneyi, amestris should all be good (I have a lot of reared examples of abbreviatella and amestris to add at some point if that impacts what you add).

Some that I have images and reared images of but haven't gone through the pool of other images yet: serena, amica (amica/lineella), obscura, judith, insolabilis, habilis, antinympha, minuta, meskei, micronympha

Suggested species have been added.

I wonder if there is a way to collect a link of reared examples here under the RG link for each species? I don't know the best way to do that, if we found a way it would probably add a lot of good photos that would augment the RG observations, and lots of the reared photos (like almost all of mine) won't show up in the RG link if they have been marked captive... Not sure the best way to filter for that, because if you only do the 'captive' filter then you miss any observation the observer took in the development series initially when the larva/organism was still wild. I guess you could filter by that one Reared Insect Nymphs/Larva project? But that would mean the observer would have had to add their observations to that project. Hmmm...

I have been adding observations of reared caterpillars and other insects as I come across them. Anyone can add examples of anything in the taxon Pterygota as long as there is either a link to the adult or the adult has been included along with the immature egg, larvae, and/or pupa.

So far this is what shows up for Catocala on
Reared or bred insect larvae-nymphs

As long as one of the photos in your group is not marked "Casual", the entire series can viewed if one knows to click on the Observation group link.

There are some other links I would like to add. Specifically some which show examples of what to photograph for best chances of getting an ID. Ex., Top, side, venter, head, host plant if available or at least a mention of what was nearby. Any other thoughts?

For head, I would make it clear that we are wanting to see the whole head face-on to get the lower portions of the head (which are often not visible from above). Otherwise that sounds good. Will think about anything else and let you know.

Hey! Is there a place on here where we could store the species groups we are using for easy reference? Then we could make sure we're being consistent when entering one. We could maybe put them by foodplant category (since that is one of the species groups anyways)? Just don't want to enter something as neogama/maestosa and another one as maestosa/neogama etc.

What I recall us using so far:

hickory
neogama/maestosa

oak
micronympha/similis

poplar/willow
meskei/junctura

rosaceae

ericaceae

amorpha
whitneyi/abbreviatella

What I can do is list the plants/trees and then the species. "Owlet Caterpillars..." has the common foodplants listed for each species. I'll set up a sample listing to see if that works. Is that what you mean?

I guess I meant that when we are adding the 'species group field' for some of these, it would be helpful to have a reference of the specific order/names we are entering into that field so that it stays consistent over many larvae. For example, so that we continue to add all species in one group as neogama/maestosa rather than accidentally typing maestosa/neogama in reverse order (or poplar/willow rather than willow/poplar) for some observations. Also, if we had a record of existing species groups, if somebody wanted to go back and review a species group it would be easy to see the ones that they could search for. Does that clarify at all?

This is looking great! Thanks for all your work here!

Posted by mossman13 over 1 year ago

Looking forward to this year's postings of Catocala caterpillars. Probably need to check the links to see if more have reached RG.

Just checked - Several Catocala ilia or Complex Catocala ilia-complex larva have now been posted for this year.

Posted by woolcarderbee over 1 year ago

Catocala

Legume-feeding (Fabaceae) feeders

Gale- and Sweet fern-feeding (Myricaceae) feeders

Hickory and walnut (Juglandaceae) feeders