Yellow-shouldered, pin-striped, purpled-crested...

This morning while eating sliced apples and peanut butter, Kyle placed gold-colored metal tray in front of me.

And what merits such a presentation? Four Saddleback Caterpillars, Sibine stimulea, that he found on his palm tree. When he woke up this morning he saw strange spheres, many and little, on the floor below the palm. Seeds?

No, no dear reader, caterpillar frass.*

*(what is "frass," you may say? Let's ask the Army Corps of Engineers; like average engineers cubed, they know they have an answer for everything: FRASS )



And the caterpillars?
Creatures.
Alien, spiny and bright green.



The USDA guide to “Caterpillars of the Eastern Forest” describes the Saddleback as, “another unique slug caterpillar. Charcoal black or brown, with unmistakable lime green abdominal saddle. Saddle with central patch ringed with white. Dorsum of first and eighth abdominal segments with fingerlike lobes bearing numerous stinging spines. Sting intense and of considerable duration. Food: broadly polyphagous on trees, shrubs, grasses such corn, and other garden plants.”

“Slug” caterpillars lack the overly soft, gasket-like legs of other caterpillars and instead have a set of elliptical suckers, giving them a very slug-like demeanor.

The USDA guide lists some other members of the slug caterpillar group – members of the moth family Limacodidae,—you may find hugging the surface of smooth leaves in your woods if you bother to stare at leaves macro-zoom close. They include such dandies as the:

Monkey slug
.......Red-cross button slug
Purple-crested slug
.........Spiny oak slug
Pin-striped slug
.............Small parasa
Crowned slug
.........Yellow-shoulder slug

that a slug might be so fancy.