Comments for large brown caterpillar with green spots (Imperial moth caterpillar)
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large brown caterpillar with green spots (Imperial moth caterpillar)

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Imperial moth caterpillar
by: Moni

Teresa
As I noted this caterpillar pupates in the soil. So give it a little time, before your husband prunes...should probably wait until, late winter anyway...and the caterpillar should be safe in its cocoon in the soil. :-)
imperial moth caterpillar
by: Teresa

thanks for the site to help identify a caterpillar that I just discovered today on my Japanese persimmon tree in Spring, TX. I hope that he will not decide to winter over here, as my husband tneds to trim back plants aggressively & he'll hve to be on the lookout for the chrysalis.
Imperial moth caterpillar
by: Moni

Stacy
Your photo is of an imperial moth caterpillar. There is a greenish form and a brownish form. Yours is of course the brownish form. The size indicates it is about ready to pupate. The large larva migrate across the ground to find a good place to burrow in and pupate. They overwinter as pupa. This caterpillar emerges into a large beautiful moth.
See this page for other Bugguide photos of this insect - http://bugguide.net/node/view/4757/bgimage

The caterpillars feed on leaves of bald cypress, basswood, birch, cedar, elm, hickory, honeylocust, maple, oak, pine, sassafras, sweetgum, sycamore, walnut.
Adult moths do not feed and sometimes come to lights at night in the summer.

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