The larvae of antinympha, badia and muliercula all feed on plants in the Myricaceae, antinympha on Sweetfern (Comptonia peregrina) and badia and muliercula on Bayberry/Myrtle (Myrica/Morella). Mature larvae of all three species are highly variable and essentially completely overlap with one another, with morphs ranging in color from gray, brown, to maroon to black, lightly stippled to mottled to strongly striped; prominent white dorsal and ventral pinnacula, no A5 embellishments, head capsule with reddish brown stripes, no lateral filaments, venter yellowish with varyingly elongated dark spots throughout. Some muliercula have a substantial dark line connecting many of the dark ventral spots, which appears not to be the case in badia (traces of the line may be present); however, sibling larvae from the same muliercula brood can have connecting lines either present or absent. The Sweetfern foodplant separation is crisp in the field and provides the best means of distinguishing antinympha. The geographic ranges of badia and muliercula are now largely allopatric with a narrow zone of sympatry along the coast in southern New England focused on Rhode Island and Massachusetts (badia is largely absent from the former southern portions of its range, and muliercula has been expanding northward). Larvae not from Sweetfern in the sympatry zone need to be reared for certainty of identification, the default being muliercula. Immatures of all and especially antinympha are light steely gray-green and rest exposed on the upper leaf surfaces, and shift to more typical cryptic underwing behavior on stems and branches when the larvae mature and their pattern undergoes corresponding change.