Rearing notes for what we believe is the larva of the salt marsh moth (Estigmene acrea). It was collected on willow (Salix) at Albany Hill (Albany, California).

Rearing Notes 5/19/17-5/??/17:

See ​Estigmene acrea?

We found what we believe is the larva of the salt marsh moth (Estigmene acrea) on willow (Salix) at Albany Hill (Albany, California).

Well, what do you know - another species found on willow again. It's  another Noctuid; this time an Arctiin just like the Lophocampa maculata larva we found earlier on the same trip. We aren't positive on the identification, but it looks to be the larva of the salt marsh moth (Estigmene acrea). The larvae of this species can be quite variable and are extremely polyphagous, making it hard to say for sure, but based simply on general appearance and behavior, there's a good chance. The larva is brown and hairy with some yellow and red patterns on the naked cuticle, and crawls with great speed when disturbed.

We went collecting at Albany Hill today and found two species of tussock caterpillars: the spotted tussock moth (Lophocampa maculata) and what we believe is the salt marsh moth (Estigmene acrea).

We normally take a trip to Albany Hill everyday to pick pipevine leaves for our pipevine caterpilars, but we never have enough time to actually look around and collect anything there. However, since today our pipevine caterpillars were especially voraciously and finished all their leaves by noon, we had to go to the Hill early in the afternoon today and decided to take a peek to see if we could find anything.

After walking along the creek at the side of the Hill or some time, we thought we had a chance of finding some rutulus eggs or larvae, but instead what we found were some tussock caterpillars. However, they weren't the typical Orgyia vetusta larvae that we usually find on the willows here, but the less common, stunning larva of the spotted tussock moth (Lophocampa maculata) - see Found a Lophocampa maculata Larva.

​​After finding the Lophocampa maculata caterpillar, we started heading back along the Hill's creek, and stumbled across yet another species of tussock caterpillar, possibly the larva of the salt marsh moth (Estigmene acrea?).

Besides these two species, we spotted several Papilio rutulus flying along the path on the bottom of the Hill like we usually do, but we couldn't net any this time, though they were almost certainly male anyways. 

​Authors
Alan Liang