What type of caterpillar/worm

[swampratt]

I love my little Golden Nature books I have had since I was a young troublemaker.
This was a 1951, 1956 copyright.

 

[Shadowrider]

I found this guy on my mom's mint plants the other day. I've found that just about every bug like the blooms on mint plants. Knats, flies, bees, wasps, if it flies they seem to like them.

 

[swampratt]

@Shadowrider
Looks like my insect book calls that one a Red Admiral

 

[Bocephus123]

Google 'Orange dog caterpillar'. I think that might be it.

Is that something a bird left behind? No, it's an orange dog caterpillar, the larvae of the Giant Swallowtail butterfly, which is native to our area. Believe it or not, that caterpillar is about to transform into a beautiful blue and black butterfly.

Think of the orange dog as the ugly duckling of the caterpillar world. Found on all varieties of citrus leaves, these caterpillars begin life very small, with an irregular brown and white coloration camouflaging them to look almost exactly like a piece of bird excrement.

very cool i missed a lot in school!

 

[SlugSlinger]

I have what looks like small bag worms that normally hang off evergreens hanging off all 80 trees of various kinds in my yard this year. Never had that before. Really makes it difficult to mow. My understanding is that they eventually turn into butterflies. It is sure going to be a big flock of them if it happens.

From the Tulsa master gardener email:

https://files.constantcontact.com/818c06f7001/55b8038f-d43d-427a-942a-9130db0b1afa.pdf?rdr=true