Beware the cute caterpillar

 My daughter Terry is an avid gardener.  She is also very observant, seeing so many wee creatures many of us often miss.  Recently she sent me pictures of a newcomer to her Gladiola.  He/she is a caterpillar and not a familiar one.  I have always picked up caterpillars-usually those fuzzy black and brown ones called Wooly Bears who are purported to be able to predict the upcoming winter.  They are soft with black faces and shiny bright eyes.  One that used to be a very familiar sight was the green hairless Monarch butterfly caterpillar. There used to be many of them nibbling away on Milkweed.  Now we seldom see those tall, pink, flowering stalks along the roadside or in the meadows.  I loved the fragrance.  As children my sister and I spent hours removing the drying pods in the Fall, opening them to release the silky parachutes, each  with it's small brown seedman dangling beneath.  These are the mainstay of the Monarch butterfly larva.  No Milkweed--no Monarchs-no caterpillars to fashion the silvery chrysalis in which the worm changed into a butterfly like magic.  Like every child of my era , we had placed a stalk with the dangling chrysalis into a jar to await the emergence of the winged flyer.  When he appeared, we released him to watch as he stretched those damp new wings, letting them dry in the sunlight, testing them in the breeze, before taking flight. 

Anyway--back to the one you should definitely NOT pick up or touch or let your dog or cat near.  It is called a saddleback caterpillar.  Sure looks as though he is wearing a saddle-very unique and easily identified.  He is the larva of a very attractive small lavender and white moth.  They are usually found in Florida and Alabama  sometimes in MEXICO.  Creatures of all types are now being found in new places, and apparently this is one.  Take a good look at this one if you find him in your flower bed.  They normally feed on a type of palm leaf, so perhaps this one mistook the Gladiola for a palm.  I looked on Wikipedia for anything resembling the photo Terry took and sent me.  It described a very toxic creature who could cause severe reactions from just a touch of one of his "hairs".  Those hairs are actually tiny darts carrying a nasty toxin which can cause liver damage, migraines, urticaria, among many other serious illnesses.

So do enjoy all the immense variety of small creatures dwelling hidden in our own back yards.  But WARNING--know who he is before touching.