Trading Cards Preview!
In celebration of the incredible diversity of native caterpillars, here is a quick sneak peak of our caterpillar trading card series. How many of these do you recognize? Are you going to collect them all?
THE LIFE OF A PARASITOID FLY
(Make sure you get to the time-lapse in this video!) There is so much diversity and intrigue to be discovered just beneath the surface of the world we casually observe each day. Look increasingly closer and there is no end to what may be uncovered. Finding a caterpillar beneath a leaf is only ever the start of a much larger and more complex story. The caterpillar also represents a journey through time, growing and changing, becoming a pupa, then an adult moth. Or perhaps the
HATCHLING CATERPILLARS!
Maybe this won't be as popular a video as those of fluffy puppies and kittens. But we think these little guys are pretty cute. There are a few surprises here. The very last clip is something we witness quite often at the lab. Did you know about it?
livestock season opens!
And the 2017 livestock season opens with a simple row of small vials. On this warm and foggy March 1st night I walked up the road and over melting snow to investigate red maple and blueberry buds with a UV flashlight. I found seven species of overwintering caterpillars just beginning to explore the swollen buds. I hope they don't get too bold - we are forecast to drop back into the single digits by the weekend. Stay tuned for some of the first new imagery of 2017!
