Caterpillars or Not

Milkweed Tussock Caterpillar

I have shown this caterpillar before.  I had a doubt when I viewed this scene.  It looked to me like the large ones had babies.  I did some reading about this caterpillar.  I learned that they have only one family a year.  The caterpillar goes through instars. An instar is the period between molts.  A molt it when they crawl out of their skin and form a new one.  They go through three instars and then form a cocoon in which they overwinter.  These are maybe first instar and second or third instar caterpillars.

Macremphytus Sawfly

According to Caterpillars of Eastern North America, this is Macremphytus Sawfly.  It is not a true caterpillar.  I have been noticing these for about three seasons.  There is a dogwood plant in the pine forest on which they appear every year.  I had started to think that they would not come this year.  I was watching the plant each day as I passed it.  One day they appeared.  In a day, they had stripped the plant of all foliage just as they have every year.  On the second day, there were still a few left.  I stopped to photograph them as my friend Sam and his wife came up the trail.  Sam said that the plant is Red Osier Dogwood.  Thanks, Sam.  It is the only site of which I am aware that this happens.  There are many other dogwoods but I don't see these "caterpillars" them.  It is an interesting mystery.

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