We received a question through the All About Worms Facebook page about red and orange caterpillars that a reader recently found on an apple tree. To call them “red and orange caterpillars” is at once insufficient and overreaching. It is insufficient because the creatures aren’t only red and orange; they have black heads and legs, and some orange parts of their bodies might just as easily be described as yellow. White hairs also cover their bodies, and they are striped lengthwise, from head to tail. We overreach, however, in claiming without explanation that these creatures are caterpillars. The reader identifies them as worms, so we must explain why we think they are instead caterpillars. This explanation is of course tied to the matter of identification, which is what the reader is wondering about, and to that topic we now turn.

A few days ago we received a question from a reader who sent us a picture of what appears to be a red caterpillar with eyes. (Just a few days ago, we answered a question about a yellow worm with eyes, and the “worm” in question was in fact a caterpillar, so evidently people are seeing lots of caterpillars with eyes recently.) Along with the picture, the reader asked one question (slightly edited for clarity): “What kind of animal is in the photo?” Presumably, he is wondering what the red caterpillar with eyes is, so we will limit ourselves to the matter of identification.