A gigantic caterpillar - Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Here is a caterpillar that I found in my backyard in Texas near the Gulf Coast on May 17, 2007. Please leave comments, especially if you can identify what kind of caterpillar it is!

**UPDATE**
Due to the information given to me by all of you youtube users, it has been determined that this insect is, in fact, a Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.
Thank you all who replied!

By the way, sorry for the lack of sound.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• bug
• outside
• outdoors
• caterpillar
• may
• summer
• backyard
• texas
• crawl
• butterfly
• insect
• interesting
• neat
• nature
• biology
• house

[squito94]

I'm wrong about the i.d. I looked it up and the species I thought it was doesn't occur in your county. I looked at the swallowtails that were listed in your county and the one this resembles the most is the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus). Their host plants include wild cherry, sweetbay, basswood, tulip tree, bird, ash, cottonwood, mountain ash, and willow.

[yanman1586]

Hello. Thank you for the update. I'll change the title if you think that it is an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.

[squito94]

Looks like a Western Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio rutulus). Their host plants are birch, elms, cottonwood, willow, alder, sycamore and aspen. What trees do you have in your yard?

[yanman1586]

Hello! Thank you for your interest! I filmed this video in my backyard in Texas, specifically Brazoria County (which is directly south of Houston). I have quite a few trees in my yard, and I know for sure one of them is a sycamore. Unfortunately, I do not know the names of the remaining trees. I will try to update my video title and descriptions to include this information. Thanks again!

[redrumrob]

WOW, that's the same one that we found today in our yard in Round Rock, just north of Austin and I cannot find anything about it.

[yanman1586]

Round Rock huh? This caterpillar must be regional.

By the way, I just recieved a message from a person named slaughterhater on youtube, and he (or she) says that it is a tiger swallowtail. I have not looked up any info on it yet, but that is a start!

Thank you for watching, by the way!

[amandachung1]

I WANNA BE THE VERY BEST THAT NO ONE EVER WASS

POKEMON! GOTTA CATCH EM ALL!

OMG IT DA REAL POKEM'ON ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ :D

[Mullikaji1]

Never seen this before ,thanks for teh upload .

[garge7676]

@garge7676 touch it then smeel your fingers

[garge7676]

i saw one just like it yesterday at my sisters place. when it feels threatened it tucks its head in and thoes two spots on its back make it look like abig head and it moves it back and forth.... pretty cool

by the way i live in newfoundland canada which is pretty far north from you guys in texas.

[gloritath]

@squito94 I am not sure if that caterpillar is the biggest, but still it is awesome!

[EmilyJBlove]

This is exactly the same kind of caterpillar we found on our front porch in Everett, Washington. It was a grey color but had the yellow "eyes" on its head. We have it in a jar now and it settled itself on a branch and tied itself with two threads to the branch. After two days there, we thought it was dead, but nope, it started to wiggle and it did clean its guts. Now it looks like a 2 inch stick stuck to a branch. Can't wait to see what happens next.

[jokkiejoker]

i did saw at my house i was preety scared of butterfly until the fly to me and landed on my hand i was shivering last time but i saw it so beautiful and harmless im not scared of i anymore =D

[TsukuyomiUchiha]

i have a pet swallowtail.

when you poke it, it sticks out these long orange things at you and dances xD

[oldpat420]

how would we know it isn't someone else who wanted to be reincarnated as a million butterflies?

[shugo22]

it looks like a big crawling piece of....

you know what i mean...