Caterpillars Caterpillars Full-screen, JPEG images, can be viewed by clicking on the small images. Most of the serious pests which defoliate trees and shrubs are caterpillars, the worm-like larval stage of butterflies and moths.
Caterpillars are voracious feeders.
When large numbers occur together, they can completely strip the leaves from a tree. Several colonies of the eastern tent caterpillar helped themselves to this wild cherry. Their silk tents can be seen in the branch forks. Eggs of the eastern tent caterpillar are laid in distinctive shiny masses which encircle small twigs. The caterpillars hatch just as leaves begin unfolding in the spring.