Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!zodiac!rosenblum
From: rosenblum@zodiac.rutgers.edu
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Can someone identify these caterpillars?
Summary: In northeastern USA, caterpillars in conical cases
Keywords: caterpillars, lepidoptera
Message-ID: <13.26e3ce52@zodiac.rutgers.edu>
Date: 4 Sep 90 15:54:58 GMT
Reply-To: ROSENBLUM@DRACO.RUTGERS.EDU
Followup-To: poster
Organization: Rutgers University - Graduate School of Management
Lines: 34

A few weeks ago (some time in August), my wife and I were walking along
the west bank of the Hudson River in Edgewater, New Jersey.  This is
opposite the upper West Side of Manhattan.  On and around a wooden
railing alongside some gravel banks of the river, we saw a large number
of caterpillars.  Each caterpillar had a little case of its own that
seemed to be made out of what looked like coarse dried mud.  A
caterpillar and case were together about 2 or 3 cm long, with the case
being about 1 to 1.5 cm.  The case was shaped like a narrow cone,
rounded at the apex, with the front of the caterpillar sticking out of
the open end.  The head and true legs of the caterpillar were always
outside of the case, with what I'd guess was about the rear half of the
caterpillar hidden in the case (I didn't bother trying to pull one out
to see for sure).  The caterpillars were moving slowly carrying the
cases along with them.  The caterpillars themselves were, if memory
serves me right, dark brown or black, with longitudinal light colored
(yellow? -- I don't remember exactly) stripes.  I don't recall how many
stripes there were; it might have been one, two or three.  The
caterpillars were perhaps 3 mm wide; in general, they looked sort of
like gypsy moth caterpillars without the hair (except, of course, for
the cases).

Does anyone have any idea what these might have been?  Please reply to
me directly; I'll summarize to the net.  Thanks in advance.
-- 

Daniel M. Rosenblum, Assistant Professor, Quantitative Studies Area,
   Graduate School of Management, Rutgers University (Newark)

ROSENBLUM@DRACO.RUTGERS.EDU \/ same machine,
ROSENBLUM@DRACO.BITnet      /\ different networks

ROSENBLUM@CANCER.RUTGERS.EDU \  / CANCER & PISCES are machines in a
ROSENBLUM@PISCES.RUTGERS.EDU  ><  VAXcluster called ZODIAC, so these
ROSENBLUM@ZODIAC.BITnet      /  \ 3 addresses all go to the same place.