My son Jasper loves books. While his go to favorites vary over time, there have been a few that he always comes back to. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is one of our regulars. But he doesn’t just like to have the story read to him, he likes finding and pointing to the illustration of the caterpillar on each page. In fact, he likes pointing out the insects in pretty much any book where they appear. Besides caterpillars,…
On a recent walk I led along the Agawam River Trail for the Wareham Land Trust, I noticed a small clustered group of 3 caterpillars on the underside of a greenbriar (Smilax sp.) leaf. While I normally don’t try to identify most caterpillars, which tend to be small, green and nondescript, these caterpillars were so striking, with their bold black and white markings and yellow undersides that I figured I’d give it a shot. It didn’t take long to pin…
The distinctive wooly bear caterpillar (Pyrrharctia isabella) has reddish-brown hair in its mid-region and black hair at both its anterior and posterior ends, giving it a banded appearance. If disturbed or threatened, the caterpillar will defend itself either by “playing possum” (rolling up into a ball and remaining motionless) or by quickly crawling away. The one in the photograph below was actually running away so fast it was difficult to capture a clear picture. Unlike some moth and butterfly species,…