Acronicta funeralis – 3rd instar.

I’ve got a bunch of these caterpillars, raised from eggs. They are all thriving, and looking like adorable little lumps of bird poop at this point. As you can imagine, this is a great strategy for not getting eaten. Who wants to bother with a lump of unappetizing bird poop? It even has a lump of white “uric acid” as the last few abdominal segments.

They are going to undergo an amazing transformation soon into a completely different set of colors/patterns, I’m pretty excited! After a while they get bored with the bird poop mimic strategy, and take on another form. Stay tuned, it should happen within a week or two.