Grey Dagger Moth (Acronicta psi)

Hi Bonitin, nice caterpillars! This is a duplicate entry though I'm sorry to say, with 'Acronicta' being the correct spelling. I just spotted it as I added another moth, and I recently added a pic of a moth to this entry. :) (I think mine is the Grey Dagger and not the Dark Dagger, lol! The Dark Dagger appears to be a slightly different colour, and not darker grey as one might think!)

http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/go/669/

I'm now thinking yours might be a Dark Dagger, Acronicta tridens, it has the yellow blobs along the back although they are pale,

http://ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?id=2736

http://ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?id=1868

http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/showimage/1100/

See what Ken says.

Thanks for trying to clear this up wallaby :-) Well I find the spelling rather confusing as when I googled the name I find it spelled as well like 'Acronycta psi' as 'Acronicta psi.
here is a French site f ex. where its spelled like I did; you can find the name when you scroll down to the 12th image http://www.inra.fr/opie-insectes/f-tilleul.htm, there are other's too but also for the other spelling...

I still think mine is Acronicta psi as it has the 'tall 'hump' on the back.
http://ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?id=1868

I know the colour of its back on mine is misleading as it appears as white (probably because of the dull day) but I remember it being yellowish.

I noticed that with Acronicta tridens that 'hump' is smaller..

I wonder if they have made a mistake in the spelling, still we have two entires and the English version is with an 'i' so I would ask Ken to move yours. :)

I did see the larger hump on yours, the Dark dagger looks to have one too but maybe not as big. The side colour on yours is more orange too but I'm not sure if that is due to age.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/showimage/1100/

Ken has a book on moths so he should be able to tell for sure.

While waiting for Ken's opinion here are some more sites that spell it with the 'y' instead of 'i'

http://caliban.mpiz-koeln.mpg.de/~stueber/westwood/moths1/high/IMG_3383.html

a Russian one;

http://www.agroua.net/plant/chemicaldefence/pests/p-131/

a German one:

http://www.zum.de/stueber/spuler/raupen/high/tafel_21.html

etc..

I don't recognise any of the sites, maybe they copied each other, lol.

If you look at the sites listed with a google, they are, in general, recognised sites.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Acronicta&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

These are the sites I trust:

http://ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?bf=2284

http://www.leps.it/indexjs.htm?SpeciesPages/AcroRumic.htm

http://www.hlasek.com/acronicta_megacephala_746.html

http://www.bioimages.org.uk/HTML/T21205.HTM

http://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/Files/JV/JV49.3.shtml

http://www2.nrm.se/en/svenska_fjarilar/svenska_fjarilar.html#Acronicta

There is a caterpillar pic on this site which looks like yours, so it probably is A. psi.

http://www.habitas.org.uk/moths/species.asp?item=6379

Well I found these sites when I googled the name with 'y'.
And yes, it is probable they copied from each other like I did (lol) from the German site where I found my caterpillar on one of their caterpillar image cards.

But of course the sites you give look very thrustworthy and more serious, some of them I already have in my favorites list, I should add the others too. The North-American site looks very impressive but unfortunately probably cannot be used for ID European species.

There are a few on the US site which we have, and yes it is easy to get confused if others have made the mistake!

Everything is ok now wallaby, I've reported it as an error and my images have been moved :-)

:)