Dryocampa rubicunda

This caterpillar was racing across our driveway, heaving its body along in lurches. It is a “green-striped mapleworm.” It looks big and fat enough to pupate. After the animal emerges from the pupal stage, it will be a “rosy maple moth,” one of the more striking of our local moth species. Here in Tennessee, this species goes through several generations each year, so the moth will likely lay eggs in September and get one more generation completed before the winter. The pupae of the year’s last generation overwinter in the soil and emerge as moths in the spring.