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Excerpts from Jim Conrad's
Naturalist Newsletter
from the July 9, 2017 Newsletter issued from Rancho Regenesis in the woods ±4kms west of Ek Balam Ruins; elevation ~40m (~130 ft), N20.876°, W88.170°; north-central Yucatán, MÉXICO
TIGER MOTH CATERPILLAR
One morning on an herbaceous vine twining up the Guazuma ulmifolia tree next to the hut a couple of blackish, fuzzy caterpillars caught my eye nibbling at the vine's leaves. You can see them below:
Another shot better displaying the striking patterns and colors of the caterpillar's hair tufts is shown below:
There are many caterpillar species similar to this so when I sent the pictures to volunteer identifier Bea in Ontario I made sure to include the information that this week's caterpillar was feeding on one of several kinds of milkweed vines, family Apocynaceae, maybe the genus Matelea. Bea figured out that its the Tiger Moth Caterpillar, genus Euchaetes.
*UPDATE: In 2024, much more information is available on the Internet and it looks like this is EUCHAETES ANTICA, occurring spottily from the US Southwest near the Mexican border, south through Mexico to about Costa Rica.