There aren’t many types of caterpillar here anymore. There used to be, but for the past several years it’s been all cabbage moths, generically green caterpillars that grow up to be boring white moths. I don’t know what happened, but as a Crazy Bug Lady I have major sads about it.
Well, this morning my mother found a new one. She saved some for me to identify, and they were very beautiful- they turned out to cross striped cabbage worms. Look at those gorgeous chartreuse stripes!
Later we went hiking. And what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a big black and yellow caterpillar on a rock! I can’t seem to upload the pictures we took, but apparently it was a contracted datana.
Also on the hike, we passed one bush that was infested with tent caterpillars. I didn’t get close enough to ID the specific species- to be honest, they creep even me out- but I could see them moving around inside their little silk tents.
It may be mundane and pointless, but I just wanted to share: today has been a caterpillariffic day.
Lovely. Years ago I made an aquarium home for a Horned Tomato Worm. One day it was just gone. No cocoon, no way to escape - just gone. Every once in a while, I’ll remember him and wonder “what the heck ever happened to my Horned Tomato Worm?”.
Thanks for this. When I was a kid, I used to raise all sorts of insects, especially praying mantises. Nice to know some people are still interested in these things.
I always look out for caterpillars. (I also love the etymology of the name: from Old French chat pelose or “hairy cat”). A few years ago I was camping at Death Valley during a superbloom, the flowering event that takes place after decent winter rains. My friends are also naturalist nerds, as I am, and when I spotted this friend, and squawked aloud, they came dashing over, and we all admired it for several minutes. It’s a white-lined sphinx moth, btw. It was probably the largest organism within several square meters. Deserts are cool! Caterpillars are cool!
The green and black one will become an Eastern Black Swallowtail and the hairy weird one will become a non-descript White-Marked Tussock Moth. I buy extra parsley plants every year for the swallowtail caterpillars - the butterflies love to lay their eggs on those plants.
Back in April we had a western tussock moth caterpillar invasion. They’re pretty neat looking as individuals, but they’re kind of a horror when you see hundreds descending from the trees and massing in clumps everywhere.
yep. I’ve planted parsley the past couple of years, and even with the tiny bit I have I’ve been invaded by parsley worm.
this past month I had over a dozen on the parsley I had in a 1’x3’ planter. They grow into nice butterflies so I left them be, but I should have culled at least a few because I think they ran out of food before all of them grew fully.
I’ve been letting the milkweed grow and spread for a few years, for the monarch butterflies. Lots of caterpillars this year, those little things can destroy a milkweed plant in a few days! They’re pretty small, smaller than a wooly bear. Which I haven’t seen any yet this year.
I used to feed those to my lizards. I’m not squemesh, but watching a lizard chomp on a huge squishy, still living animal (tomato work or pinkie mouse) was a bit off putting.
Now as for seeing caterpillars. I caught an American Dagger Caterpillar (moth)…on my arm…while I was driving. I’ve never pulled over and gotten out of my car that fast. I’m guessing people passing by assumed there was a bee in the car.
Last week my wife found a caterpillar chowing down on the parsley I have in a small pot on the back porch. We thought it looked like a monarch until we realized they go for milkweed, so she googled it and determined it was a swallowtail.
Then she made the mistake of mentioning it to our granddaughter, who became obsessed with it and wouldn’t leave it alone. We wound up putting it in a container with some sticks and store-bought parsley for it to eat. We must not have washed the parsley well enough because it wasn’t moving the next morning.
(Maybe next time grandpa says “just leave it alone” they’ll listen, dammit.)
Really? In a caterpillar thread? What kind of lame-ass safari has caterpillars as the selling point? There was just a safari thread here, you dumb fuck!
