Amazing Cecropia Moth Caterpillar Pictures
to fully appreciate you need to enlarge each picture by clicking on the picture, then clicking again for very large.
I found this guy on the base of a Manitoba Maple tree. I had never seen one before, but it is the caterpillar of the Cecropia Moth - Canada's largest moth.
I kept it to show the granchildren, but before they came it had wrapped itself in its winter cocoon. I will now keep it to watch it hatch in the spring. It needs to be kept outside over the winter in order to hatch. The four little "legs" are for locomotion, while the other limbs (look like little yellow rubber boots) are for grasping the stem or stalk. Take particular note of them when you blow the pictures up.
Also note that the little protruberences lining its back look like little candles when enlarged.
He is altogether one of the most beautiful and grotesque creatures I have ever seen.
