Family Identification Hairy, especially with four tussocks on the back:- LYMANTRIIDAE. Just hairy:- ARCTIIDAE, ANTHELIDAE, and NOTODONTIDAE. Smooth with a pointed horn on the tail: SPHINGIDAE. Smooth and walks in a looper fashion: GEOMETRIDAE, CATOCALINAE, and PLUSIINAE. Big red rump : Day-Flying Moths (AGARISTINAE) Smooth, hides by day, destroys lawns and crops at night: Cutworms and Armyworms (NOCTUIDAE) Rears up and pokes a forked thing out of its head when disturbed: PAPILIONIDAE, and NOTODONTIDAE. Everts stinging hairs when disturbed: LIMACODIDAE. Carrying a silk cocoon around with sticks or leaves glued to it:- PSYCHIDAE. Special Caterpillar Species Chelepteryx collesi huge: more than 10 cms long, Uraba lugens has a tall hat on its head, Plesanemma fucata has a spike on its head, Polyura sempronius has four spikes on its head, Euproctis melanosoma black and hairy, with 2 red knobs on the tail, Spodoptera litura smooth, dark brown, 4 yellow spots on thorax, Ochrogaster lunifer walks in precession, Coequosa triangularis green with 2 black knobs on its tail, Theretra oldenlandiae black, orange spots, wiggly tail spine, eats Balsam, Endoxyla leucomochla Wijuti (or Witchetty) Grub. Non-Caterpillars Some insect larvae look like Caterpillars but are the larvae of insects from other orders. They differ from the larvae of Lepidoptera (true caterpillars) in only having six legs, and not sixteen (the six true legs plus an extra ten prolegs) which most Caterpillars have. Gum Saw Fly larvae, Bottlebrush Saw Fly larvae, 'C' grubs, Leaf Beetle Grubs, Yellow Lady Bird larvae, Cherry Slugs. Bardee Grubs.

Some Caterpillars are easy to identify because they have some unique characteristic, but most are rather similar to each other. Most taxonomy has been performed using the adult forms, so the only sure way to determine their species is to rear them through to the adult butterfly or moth, and then identify that. Some can be identified to the family. Some can be identified to the individual species. Some are not true Caterpillars at all.

If you cannot get enough information from the rest of this page, please feel free to contact us, and tell us: country (not obvious from email!), state or province or area, length and diameter, colour and description, circumstances in which it was found, possible foodplants, and if at all possible: a photograph of it. We don't know much about non-Australian species. Outside Australia, you might like to contact : curator@pconline.com or sorbello@say.acnatsci.org for North American species, and tpittaway@aol.com for European species.