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Io Moth
This common insect, which ranges from Canada to Florida, and westward and southward to Texas and Mexico, subsists in the larval stage upon a large variety of trees and shrubs; in fact, the caterpillar is almost omnivorous. The larva is a beautiful object, the body being green, ornamented with a lateral stripe of pink and creamy white and covered with clusters of branching spines. These are possessed of stinging properties, and the caterpillar should be handled with extreme care, if painful consequences are to be avoided. In spite of this defense the larvae are greatly liable to the attack of ichneumon wasps, which destroy multitudes of them.