I posted your photo to the Butterflies and Moths of North America web site, and one of their intrepid members has ID’d your caterpillar as Sphecodina abbottii, or Abbott’s Sphinx moth caterpillar.
Host plant for the caterpillar is - you guessed it - grape vines. So, not really a “good guy”, as they will eat the leaves. The caterpillar goes through several morphs, so they can look pretty different, depending upon how old it is.
I think this is what they call the fifth instar nymph stage of the green stink bug. Found it on my hat today after mowing my orchard. Needless to say it got squished.
Hey guys, sorry I made my own thread. I was a dummy and should have just posted it here!
If there is any way to move it to this thread go ahead. If not no worries. I just felt bad since I started a whole new thread rather than putting it on a thread that is for this purpose.
Getting ready for the leaves to start falling and walked around the orchard. I spotted this on my Nadia. At first I thought aphids but after looking at them closely I noticed many of them had wings. Do some aphids have wings or are we looking at something else?
Oh man. They sound like positive creatures to have in the garden except for one thing, I have Mason bees. Are these the same parisitoid wasps that are known to invade Mason bee homes and destroy the pupa?
Tiphia wasps were imported to control Japanese Beetles and the USDA is supposed to do all sorts of studies before letting anything go to make sure they won’t affect native species.
I noticed last night that some of the cells of the laminates are now filled up and mudded over. I’ll be real curious how many cacoons I get from this. I’ll try to grab a picture tonight.
