I recently bought a male fern and, a couple of weeks later, a hay scented fern from the same local garden center. These are native ferns and I have them growing in tubs in a shady corner of the garden. I noticed something was nibbling the fronds and at first thought slugs. I was looking at them today and some of the new fronds were partially stripped. "Caterpillar damage" flashed into my head so I looked more closely and sure enough I spotted these fellows on the fronds. Anyone know what they are? I wonder if they're local/native, or something that came with the ferns from the production nursery. I'm going to leave them alone in the interests of wildlife preservation, and hope they pupate before they irrevocably damage the ferns, but I'd love to know what they are.
