Dasychira dorsipennata – Sharp-lined Tussock

Family Erebidae    Hodges # 8293

Caterpillar foods: has been reared on oak, hazel, birch, elm, beech, Amelanchier, willow (Bugguide)  and cherry (see below)

8/14/2020  Caterpillar found eating Black Oak

 

8/20/2020  Oak leaf damage

 

10/24/2020  Put inside a flowerpot, buried in the ground for the winter.

 

3/6/2021    Taken out 3/6/2020.  It stayed still for a long time – not moving, not eating, not growing.

 

5/3/2021  Finally started moving and eating – I didn’t remember what I had fed it, so offered several choices and it chose Black Cherry.

 

5/23/2021  Eating black cherry

 

6/2/2021

 

6/10/2021

 

6/10/2021

 

6/24/2021  Made a cocoon in the bottom of the jar, dug down into sphagnum.

 

4/1/2022  I kept the cocoon for a long time – not wanting to believe it was dead.  I overwintered it again.  But when I opened it up one end was dried up and wrinkled.  I put it outside just in case, but I think it didn’t make it.