Sycamore Tussock Moth I may be hooked on dragonflies—OK, there's no "may" about it—but I remain a bona fide naturalist, so every life-form is definitely of interest. Butterflies, of course, are fascinating subjects for photography and natural history study, and so are their night-shift brethren and sister-en, the moths. Several years ago, when I got my hands on a review copy of Caterpillars of Eastern North America, a wonderful field guide by University of Connecticut biologist David L. Wagner and published by Princeton University Press, I figured it was time to learn to identify the adolescent stages of the lepidopterans. I've been hard at it ever since, so when I was out this morning and this fine fellow literally dropped on my t-shirt, I picked up David's book and got to work. I'm not at all positive of this, but I think it's the larval stage of some kind of tiger moth in the genus Halysidota. I was under a sycamore tree when the creature dropped by, so it could well be Halysidota harrisii, the aptly named Sycamore Tussock Moth.