Spiny Oak Slug, Euclea delphinii, is the Saddleback caterpillar of a limacodid moth, the Spiny Oak Slug Moth

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This flat, green spiky caterpillar was on the Laurel shrub that I was watering today. Strange orange spikes, eh?

Spiny Oak Slugs come in many other colors, including pink.

Their bodies are usually green but may also be yellow, orange, or red.

They have spines with black-tipped bristles that I had to use a bright light and a magnifying glass to see them.

It eats sycamore, willow, ash, oak, hackberry, chestnut, as well as many other trees and smaller woody plants.

Saturniid moths include royal or regal moths and the giant silk moths.  The caterpillar can't be missed! They move around  move like slugs, gliding on their prolegs and suckers.
Read more at this link for the University of KY College of Agriculture.

The adult moth that it grows into is pretty gnarly looking.
  Spiny Oak Slug Moth Bug Guide

Spiny Oak Slug Moth What's That Bug


Beautiful but strange and furry.


Bugs In the News has another interesting piece about them.

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