These older caterpillars are dark brown to black in color and covered with long, stiff, black hairs. Each section of the caterpillar bears a pair of colored spots. The first five pairs are blue and the last six are red. The eastern tent caterpillar , fall webworm , and the mourning cloak are three different caterpillars that can be confused with the gypsy moth. The eastern tent caterpillar appears early in the spring, usually before the gypsy moth.
Tent caterpillars live in a large, silken tents in the crotches of trees.
Fall webworms appear during the mid to late summer, much later than the gypsy moth, and also live in a protective webbing located at the ends of tree branches. Caterpillars of the mourning cloak butterfly live in large groups, and for this reason, they might be confused with the gypsy moth. However, gypsy moth caterpillars are very hairy, have red and blue spots, are much larger, and therefore easily distinguished from mourning cloak caterpillars. Gypsy moth pupae are brown and somewhat teardrop-shaped. Unlike many other moths, gypsy moth pupae are not enclosed in a silken cocoon.