Black with Yellow Tufts

[minuetcat]

My husband noticed a whole bunch of these guys while he was repairing a customer's boat hoist along the New Jersey Shore. Are they some kind of caterpillar, or another type of larva perhaps?

Comments

[takwish]

That's a larva of the multicolored Asian ladybeetle, Harmonia axyridis.

[minuetcat]

Awesome, thanks! We have tons of those beetles here, so that would make sense. I just wish we had more in our vegetable garden...

[takwish]

They have lot of different color/pattern variants. Look at the Wikipedia page here for some examples.

[minuetcat]

These guys definitely are love.
I was trying to find out the same last night, and couldn't find any definitive info one way or the other.