Many insect species are inhabited by diverse communities of microorganisms that contribute to host biology by the production of vitamins, digestive enzymes and amino acids. Little is known about the intestinal microbiota of Lepidoptera, one of the five megadiverse insect orders that comprise important crop pests. As a first step to study the significance of gut microorganisms to Anticarsia gemmatalis we isolated gut bacteria from fifth-instar larvae reared on soybean leaves. For this purpose, larvae were externally sterilized in 100% ethanol and aseptically dissected. The gut of three larvae was homogenized in 0.85% saline solution, centrifuged at 1,000 RPM, 2 min and the suspension was collected for analysis. Serial 10-fold dilutions were spread on Luria Bertani (LB) medium for enumeration of culturable heterotrophic bacteria. Dilutions were also spread on 2% (w/v) agar medium supplemented with 0.1% (w/v) carboxymethylcellulose, 1% (w/v) xylan, 2.5 % (w/v) pectin and 0.2% (w/v) starch for estimation of cellulolytic, xylanolytic, pectinolytic and amylolytic bacteria. Proteolytics were enumerated by spreading 10-fold dilutions on Standard Methods Caseinate Agar (SMCA) plates. Plates were inoculated in triplicate and incubated at 37°C for 5 days. Total heterotrophic bacteria on LB were 7.0 x 10⁷ cfu/mL.  High counts were also obtained for starch (7.8 x 10⁷ cfu/mL), protein (6.7 x 10⁷ cfu/mL) and cellulose degraders (3.3 x 10⁵ cfu/mL) while pectin and xylan degraders were relatively low. Colonies grown on SMCA plates were transferred to LB for posterior characterization of their proteolytic capabilities. This is the first demonstration of the presence of bacteria in the gut of the velvet bean caterpillar. Studies to evaluate their nutritional contributions to the host are now being conducted.