Thanks to Ben Coulter and the other folks at BugGuide for the ID of this caterpillar, that I had photos of in the previous post, as Acharia horrida. Slug caterpillars have worldwide distribution, mostly in the tropics. The one Americans are most familiar with is the saddle-back caterpillar. Most, maybe all, the caterpillars in this family have poisonous setae. The photos online show the adult moth as a drab brown thing that non-Lepidopteran fans would not look at twice.
The brown jay in the photos below is no dummy - it knows to wipe all the setae off before enjoying dinner. It worked for almost 10 minutes on this one caterpillar before swallowing it, moving to several new branches to wipe the setae off. I took a lot of photos. :-) The best are below, and some of them are almost a movie. This particular brown jay is in its second year. You can tell that because it has lost the eye-ring and has only touches of yellow left on its bill. I also saw adults displaying this same behavior. In the final shot you can just make out the remains of a gooey mess in its bill.
The brown jay in the photos below is no dummy - it knows to wipe all the setae off before enjoying dinner. It worked for almost 10 minutes on this one caterpillar before swallowing it, moving to several new branches to wipe the setae off. I took a lot of photos. :-) The best are below, and some of them are almost a movie. This particular brown jay is in its second year. You can tell that because it has lost the eye-ring and has only touches of yellow left on its bill. I also saw adults displaying this same behavior. In the final shot you can just make out the remains of a gooey mess in its bill.
