Today down at Cerrito Creek near El Cerrito Plaza shopping center, we discovered an interesting caterpillar we had never seen before and have identified it as the larvae of the Gray Furcula Moth (Furcula cinereoides). Cerrito Creek begins in the Berkeley Hills, serving as part of the border between Alameda (Albany) and Contra Costa (El Cerrito) County and ends in the San Francisco Bay. After suffering from urbanization efforts in the 1900's, a lot of restoration projects have been made on the creek and it looks pretty nice today, consisting mostly of native trees and shrubs with a decent amount of wildlife still around. At least down at the El Cerrito Plaza, the creek is surrounded by many riparian plants such as willow, cottonwood, live oak, sycamore, and alder, as well as ceanothus. We had decided to visit mainly because a lot of these trees are listed as food plants of the Western Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio rutulus). We also wanted to check out the quality of the ceanothus leaves for our Ceanothus Moth caterpillars (Hyalophora euryalus) but in the end neither endeavor was successful. However, when we were searching a willow tree (Salix spp.), we discovered an odd looking caterpillar under a leaf. The caterpillar was very small, probably a second or third instar and it was currently in apolysis. Immediately we identified it as some species of prominent because of its characteristic forked tail, but were unsure of the exact species. After we got home we identified it as a Gray Furcula Moth caterpillar (Furcula cinereoides). We also realized that the caterpillar's tails were supposed to be of equal size and length but that was not true of our caterpillar. It is hard to tell, but it appears that one of the tails had been broken at the tip. Regardless, we are interested to see what becomes of this caterpillar and how big it will grow since we have never had one in the past and hopefully we have identified it correctly! - Brian
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Timeline 2012–2017
Albany, California This timeline is a series of daily posts recording our observations on and experiences with various insects in Albany California and surrounding areas, from 2012-2017. Since we did not publish this site until 2016, posts before that were constructed retroactively. Starting in August 2017, we moved to Ithaca, New York; posts from there on can be viewed at Timeline 2017-present: Ithaca, New York. Archives (1,011)
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![]() ![]() Full Species List (Alphabetical by scientific name) Note: - Not every species we encounter is necessarily presented on this site, rather a selection of those that were of particular interest to us and that we felt were worth documenting. - We can't guarantee that all species have been identified accurately, particularly taxa we are not as familiar with. Lepidoptera Actias luna Adelpha californica Agraulis vanillae Allancastria cerisyi Antheraea mylitta Antheraea polyphemus Anthocharis sara Argema mimosae Attacus atlas Battus philenor hirsuta Bombyx mori Caligo atreus Callosamia promethea Coenonympha tullia california Citheronia regalis Cricula trifenestrata Danaus plexippus Eacles imperialis Erynnis tristis Estigmene acrea Eumorpha achemon Eupackardia calleta Furcula cinereoides Heliconius erato Heliconius hecale Heliconius sapho Heliconius sara Hyalophora cecropia Hyalophora columbia Hyalophora euryalus Hylephila phyleus Hyles lineata Junonia coenia Langia zenzeroides formosana Lophocampa maculata Manduca sexta Morpho peleides Nymphalis antiopa Orgyia vetusta Orthosia hibisci quenquefasciata Pachysphinx modesta Papilio cresphontes Papilio eurymedon Papilio glaucus Papilio machaon oregonius Papilio multicaudata Papilio polyxenes asterius Papilio rumiko Papilio rutulus Papilio zelicaon Phyciodes mylitta Phyciodes pulchella Pieris rapae Plejebus acmon Poanes melane Polites sabuleti Polygonia satyrus Pyrgus communis Rothschildia jacobaeae Samia cynthia advena Samia ricini Smerinthus cerisyi Smerinthus ophthalmica Strymon melinus Trichoplusia ni Uresephita reversalis Vanessa annabella Vanessa atalanta Vanessa cardui Unidentified Lepidoptera Hybrids Papilio glaucus × Papilio rutulus Papilio polyxenes asterius × Papilio zelicaon Orthoptera Melanoplus devastator Phaneroptera nana Pristoceuthophilus pacificus Scudderia mexicana Trimerotropis pallidipennis Phasmatodea Carausius morosus Phyllium giganteum Mantodea Mantis religiosa Phyllocrania paradoxa Hymenoptera Apis mellifera Bombus vosnesenskii Brachymeria ovata Linepithema humile Pediobius sp. Polistes dominula Xylocopa varipuncta Unidentified Diptera Lucilia sericata Unidentified Hemiptera Brochymena sp. Leptoglossus sp. Nezara viridula Odonata Argia vivida Libellula croceipennis Coleoptera Coccinella septempunctata Cycloneda polita Diabrotica undecimpunctata Hippodamia convergens Araneae (Class: Arachnida) Araneus diadematus Phidippus johnsoni |