We received the following email a little while ago: “it’s black with yellowish stripes and hairy. What is it?!” That is the entire message, and no picture was sent with the email. We presume our reader found some sort of creature that he wanted us to identify, and just decided to convey this desire in the most concise manner possible. Based on its description, it sounds like our reader found a caterpillar, so below we explore some caterpillars that are hairy and have black and yellow stripes.