Yellow bear caterpillar

7054.         Rusty coloured caterpillar. Have also found more yellower ones with small patches of the rusty colour. This is a first with eggs. Ottawa, Ontario. Canada

Number 7054. This looks like a yellow bear caterpillar (Spilosoma virginica; Lepidoptera: Erebidae); the adult is known as the virgin tiger moth. The white objects are not eggs, but the cocoons of a parasitic wasp in the family Braconidae. When the larvae have finished feeding on the innards of the caterpillar, they chew through the caterpillar’s skin, spin a cocoon and undergo pupation.