Underneath it all

It doesn’t look like much, perhaps even an oversight—the terrarium left sitting on the front porch stoop, while others’ homes are now tidied for Christmas. But, the frosted glass and pile of leaves within are there, just as I like them.
Something’s going on--underneath it all.

Giant Leopard Moth caterpillar

As summer days were waning and butterflies had moved on, I found a hairy caterpillar wearing his woollies for winter—the prickly, black bristles that sprout from bumpy knobs in rings winding around his body. Bands of red skin flashed through them, as he bent and wiggled along. Intrigued, I kept him—and placed him with three more in the terrarium that always waits, ready, for something to come creeping.

Swainson's Thrush watching

For several warm weeks, they ate. And I was happy to bring them their favorite—short stems of that unwelcome honeysuckle, with the tender, fresh leaves at the tip. Then the days turned sharply colder and from the tree above, leaves fell in piles to the ground. Slower and slower, each day, they moved. Until they one day, I found them curled head to tail, resting in slight depressions they’d found or made for themselves in the rich, dark dirt I’d given them.


I peek in on them now, from day to day, as wintry frost lines the windows of their room.
Underneath the leafy blanket, next year's beauty sleeps.

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It's in the Bag

So, how cool is this!?
A caterpillar that carries his own silk spindle-shaped stocking, decorated with leaf clippings he’s gathered, easily overlooked amidst the oak branches. He moves deftly along, leaf by leaf, feeding and resting--ducking quickly inside and closing the opening if disturbed.


Bagworms are the larval stage of a generally unseen moth, hanging in camouflaged houses – covered with everything from sticks and berries to needles and grains of sand.

Lacy black filigree against a pale white face peek out at me, and six grasping legs emerge from the safety of their shelter. The long, soft and tender wrinkled body behind stays within—only stretching to reach what he cannot grasp.











Soon he will fasten his stocking securely to the branch, tie down the opening and pupate. If male, he will emerge as a winged adult moth. The wingless females remain inside their silk enclosure, and after mating, leave eggs behind for spring.

Certainly, this little character, camped out on an oak branch stuffed neatly in a vase on my kitchen table wins this year’s “cool creature award.”
He’s definitely got it in the bag!

Thyridopteryx sp. on silk

Bagworm house of oak leaves

Thyridopteryx sp.
Can you see the bristles on his abdominal appendages?
They keep the bag from slipping off.

Captive Caterpillar on the Run(way)

I persuaded my captive caterpillar to model his flowery outfit,
his runway an upturned pencil in the vase where his flower had been.

Synchlora sp. on Queen Anne's Lace

Can you find him here?

Click on images to enlarge

Synchlora caterpillars disguise themselves within the flowers on which they feed by adorning their bodies with flower pieces cut from the same plant. As old pieces wilt and turn brown, they are replaced with new, making it almost impossible for prey to find them unless they move.

Have you seen...

Just when you think you’ve seen it all, been there, done that, outsmarted the tricks of camouflage and mimicry—along creeps another.
And gives new meaning to the term, “decorating with flowers.”

This little Synchlora caterpillar blends perfectly with the Queen Anne’s Lace from which he's feeding, and for good reason. He’s cut pieces of the flower around him and attached them to hooked bristles on his back! As those wither, he replaces them with fresh new ones—and continues to feed beneath his flowery disguise.


Unlike many other caterpillars who require a specific host plant, Synchlora caterpillars are able to feed from a variety of plants.
Picking and arranging flowers as they go.
Yellow, purple, orange or red.

Maybe you’ve seen them?
Or maybe not!

Synchlora sp. feeding on Queen Anne's Lace

"Have you seen...." is an effort to discover the unusual beauty in things not usually appreciated for their beauty.

There's more information about these intriguing creatures here.

Communal Caterpillars

Hey, where’d everybody go?

I stand here waiting excitedly, like the kid who was thrilled to get an invitation to the coolest party ever, only to find it’s a joke.
There’s no one here but me!

The hundreds of Milkweed Tussock Caterpillars that have been feeding off these leaves have gone their separate ways.
In a week's time, from their tiny, almost hairless, black-headed beginning on the underside of a single leaf

they've eaten their way, higher and higher.
One leaf at a time.
Avoiding the veins in order to not be washed away by the milky flow.
Leaving the white skeleton behind.

Yesterday, a party of nearly 300, snuggled together in the space of just one leaf—now all have dispersed.
Their communal life over at the third instar.



They'll continue to feed on their own now--one by one, at other milkweeds.
But for now, it's just me.
This party's over.

Wild child

I recall receiving a greeting card at my high school graduation, with the introduction, "For someone outstanding in their field," only to open it and find a sketch of a small person standing neck deep in grass under a wide sky. How I chuckled.
But, I find myself out, standing in my field, a lot these days--as the summer brings on the next wave of wildlife--the moths and butterflies.


While not too many insects can tolerate the toxic and sticky latex of the milkweed, caterpillars of the Milkweed Tussock moth have made a meal of it. These social eaters move from leaf to leaf as a group, leaving nothing but the skeletonized remains.


In days, they'll begin to resemble these tufted black and orange caterpillars of last summer.





Such a wild child, slipping into the unnoticed life of a drab adult--a silvery brown moth I've never seen.







So many others become more striking.

Common Buckeye

Little Wood-Satyr

Spicebush Swallowtail

Great Spangled Fritillary

Silver-Spotted Skipper

I never realized, years ago, how much truth was hidden behind the humor in that verse.
How, almost every day, it would be there, that my greatest satisfaction would be found.
Out, standing in my field.

Great Spangled Fritillary

Click photos to enlarge

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