caterpillars
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Monarchs, Mostly
All the Monarch caterpillars I’ve seen this month in Green-Wood. Not overwhelmed by the numbers, unlike two years ago. Black Swallowtail for a change of pace. *** I thought this Judith Butler interview on gender was excellent. It was an exchange of emails, so much better than a conversation; the written word is still the…
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Wavy-backed
The caterpillar of the Wavy-lined Emerald Moth (Synchlora aerata) sticks bits of plant material to itself. I’ve seen this before, but only on instars half this size. Nice to be able to get some feet in these shots. FYI: some green lacewings stick clumps of lichen to their backs. Try as I might, though, I…
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National Moth Week: Polyphemus
A one centimeter-long instar of the Polyphemus Moth on a white oak leaf in Green-Wood. It’ll get bigger…the final instar can be 6cm long (about 2.5″). If this survives all the vicissitudes, it will pupate and return next year as a large moth. Found last winter: I think these are all Polyphemus cocoons. From this…
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Tiger Swallowtail
A couple of caterpillars of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly. When they are in their early stages or instars, they look a bit like bird turds. But when you look closer, your larger-than-average predator brain will note some curiosities. The “eyes” are fake, by the way.(Some caterpillars pretend to be twigs…) As they get older,…
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Wasps and Caterpillars
This Euodynerus hidalgo wasp was digging into this old rudbeckia (or maybe it’s a coreopsis). For almost nine minutes. This European Tube Wasp (Ancistrocerus gazella) seemed interested. Ah-hah! Caterpillar! From deep inside the flower. I think it’s Homoeosoma genus. The Tube Wasp did not steal this prize. The wasp flew her prey off to her…
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Oaks to Caterpillars to Birds
The National Wildlife Foundation has a county-level guide, the Native Plant Finder, to native plants that support caterpillars. Why caterpillars? Because they are esentially the foundation of the food chain for song birds. Even the seedeaters that come to your feeders for seeds and suet in winter feed their young caterpillars. Caterpillars are relatively soft…
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Cats!
When a body meets a body coming through the… Apiaceae. Black Swallowtail caterpillar fit to pupate. The Asteroid, AKA Goldenrod Hooded Owlet. A reprise of the Common Buckeye caterpillar. Five were seen in the same small patch. The blue spines! Our old friend the Monarch. On the same day, two days ago, a female was…
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Webworm Days
Fall Webworm caterpillars have been everywhere. This one was on a raised bed on the sidewalk next to the local high school last week, with barely a tree in sight. I don’t even remember where this was, back in July. Here’s yet another, along the 5th Avenue Green-Wood fence. Uh-oh! You see, everybody knows the…
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The Mosaic
All this week I’ve been detailing little pieces of the great mosaic of life around here. That’s what this blog has been doing for years now, sure, but this week’s cicada / Cicada-killer wasp / Mockingbird sequence was vary connect-the-dots. Usually I see something and then say something, building up observation after observation, painting a…
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American Dagger
There is so much going on “in” an oak tree. The biologist E.O. Wilson has written that you could spend a lifetime voyaging like Magellan around a single tree, discovering all the interrelated life associated with it. Quercus is definitely one genus where this applies very well. This British study found 284 insects associated with…
Backyard and Beyond 