caterpillars
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Cocoon
The winter woods are quiet and relatively monotone in color. But look closer. (And listen!) We were looking at tree buds. This big cocoon with remnants of leaf-covering was just hanging there. One of the giant moths of the family Saturniidae made this, I think. Will it make it? Has it already be taken over…
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Yikes!
Another detail from Audubon’s BoA. I’ve read that JJA had help with the plants in some of his paintings. But what about insects like this one? * Gosh, this is rude. But bracing: the Rude Pundit begs to differ with this notion that we should respect the half-assed, conspiracy-addled, anti-intellectual ignorance of GOP-voting fools.
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Oregonia
There’s your beautiful world, NW edition. Here’s Masha Gessen, an old hand at autocracy, on surviving Trumpism, very necessary reading now.
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Caterpillarpoop
This is that lone Monarch caterpillar I saw a few weeks ago. I saw it again the next day, along with this little green pellet. Some quick research revealed that it was exactly what you’d think it was. Something of what goes in must, after all, come out.
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One Singular Sensation
I have not seen a Monarch caterpillar in New York City since 2010. Now, I haven’t been actively surveying for them, but whenever I see milkweed, I do look closer. Six years is way, way too long a period to go without. As you probably know, Monarch have taken a severe beating from habitat destruction…
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A Great Wall
Sunset Park is buttressed by a rough stone retaining wall that has become the home of numerous lifeforms. Above is the southwest-facing flank. Here’s the northeast wall, along 41st St. That’s where all the following were found:The presence of lichen, which doesn’t tolerate pollution, means the air here is relatively good. Indeed, elevated near the…
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Pyrrharctia isabella
What is Autumn without a Wooly Bear crossing your path?
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O brave new world
That has such creatures in’t! These are all new discoveries for me, excepting the last, because there’s one thing the arthropods prove, and that’s ever-new discoveries.The aptly-named named Saddleback caterpillar (Acharia stimulea), about 2cm long. The adult moth is one of the fuzzy indistinguishable brown jobs, but this larval stage form is amazingly unique. The…
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Yellow Bear
Yellow Bear caterpillar (Spilosoma virginica), sometimes known as the Yellow Wooly Bear. Compare with one I photographed last year: they come in a great range of colors. According to Wagner, the pale early instars are gregarious, the older instars wonder lonely as a cloud. (I may have hopped-up Wagner’s description a bit.)
Backyard and Beyond 