Catepillar ID anyone? Moths? Butterflies?

[playinmud]

Found these 1 1/2" catepillars curled on the underside of the leaves of a red-twig dogwood bush. Anyone know what these are? They have high-tech coloration, black and white upper portion with yellow bellies and feet. They are not hairy and have no horns or spikes. Sorry the pics are fuzzy, I took them with my phone's camera.

Anyone?

Thanks,

[nanny_56]

My guess would be some type of Tent worm or Army worm. Butterflies do not not lay their eggs in groups.

[Chris_W]

I'm afraid I really can't tell from that picture. There are quite a few caterpillar ID website out there, but this is a bit fuzzy for me to really tell if this is smooth, fuzzy, or the exact colors for me to look it up. And I have a couple butterfly books around here somewhere, but can't find them now Sorry...

Chris

[playinmud]

Thanks Nanny and Chris. Sorry about the pic, only had my cell phone on me.

They are not fuzzy at all, they're smooth like an inch worm, only larger, about an inch and a half long. They almost look like they have banding on their white bodies, but it's a series of dots that make up the banding. They have black faces and the "feet" and underside is a bright yellow. Like I mentioned earlier, a very high tech color pallette (black, white and yellow).

Here are a few more pics (again, sorry for the cell phone poor quality).The last one has one at the bottom that is curled up staying out of the hot sun, but you can see the dot pattern/banding. There are some cool worms!

[govgirl75]

It is a striped larva, Macremphytus tarsatus, also called the Dogwood Sawfly.
Glo

[Chris_W]

Thanks for IDing that one Gloria. Its funny, I had looked up the Dogwood Sawfly but only pictures of the white one came up. Also, in the above pictures I couldn't tell that they were a little fuzzy, so that meant I was going in the completely wrong direction on these.

That does explain why there are so many of them together, like Claudia mentioned they aren't butterfly caterpillars.

I can't believe they aren't doing more damage with so many of them!

[playinmud]

Thank you! So I guess I should go out and hand pick them off and dispose of them. I had no idea. It's been so hot they weren't eating much. That may change with the cooler wet weather we're having. By the way, they're on the red-twigged dogwood where I work, they're not mine, but I know they'd appreciate the intervention.