Dance like your lives depend on it!
White-marked tussock, Orgyia leucostigma, caterpillars are a crowd favorite, and even years into rearing them, breeding them, and exploring their bizarre natural histories, we are still witnessing and capturing new behaviors to share with you here. After each shed, the caterpillars find themselves immediately vulnerable. Their arsenal of different defensive setae, or hairs, are wet and matted and relatively useless against any attackers that happen by. So what do they do? The
CATERPILLAR OF THE WEEK PART II: Sicya macularia - Beautiful Pupa
If you thought our Sicya macularia caterpillar was beautiful, then check out their pupa! During open hours last week, myself and three visitors were looking through our nursery when we saw something shimmering between some folded aspen leaves being held together by a thin layer of silk in our Sicya macularia habitat. When we investigated, we were all shocked to see this golden pupa! Since this is the first time we have reared this species at The Caterpillar Lab, and perhaps s
CATERPILLAR OF THE WEEK: Sicya macularia - the Sharp-lined Yellow
Many caterpillars physically mimic their surroundings to avoid detection from birds, and our new CATERPILLAR OF THE WEEK, Sicya macularia - the Sharp-lined Yellow, is a stunning example of this. You may have seen some of our early season twig displays with very convincing brown or tan twig caterpillars, but the Sicya, or SiMa as we call it in the lab, have two dorsal protrusions and beautiful lime green and burnt red colors, that expertly mirror a young thorny twig. In the wi
Cecropia Caterpillar Spins its Cocoon
Last night we made our first attempt to capture a time-lapse of our largest native caterpillar here in New Hampshire spinning its magnificent cocoon. Hyalophora cecropia, the Cecropia Giant Silk Moth, gets as large as a breakfast sausage and spins a huge, complex, double layered cocoon - we want to see every moment! Check out near the end of this film, when the caterpillar appears to apply some liquid to the silk that quickly dries, staining the cocoon brown. Most finished ce
CATERPILLAR OF THE WEEK PART II: Pistol Casebearer (Coleophora species)
Our pistol casebearers (Coleophora species) are more than just a pretty shell. Most of the time they appear as an unmoving growth on a twig, but gentle tickles with a paintbrush are enough to get these little guys moving and exploring for our camera. Silk clearly plays a huge role in a casebearer's life, even beyond using it to create their mobile homes. The casebearers were quick to release silk and hang down when disturbed, and eagerly reinforce their ties to a twig perch w
CATERPILLAR OF THE WEEK: Pistol Casebearer (Coleophora species)
There is so much to see if we only bother to look. This week's COTW is the Pistol Casebearer (Coleophora species), a creature that we have encountered before, but had never taken the time to examine closely before today! We start out each spring collecting vast amounts of leafing-out cherry to feed our growing collection of eastern tent caterpillars back in the lab. And each spring we notice tiny, crusty, burned-looking... things... attached to the stems or clumsily dangling
CATERPILLAR OF THE WEEK: PART II - CTENUCHA SPINES
Our Virginia Ctenucha may look soft from afar, but as you can see from the photo, that fuzzy appearance is put into perspective with a close up look at the hairs, or better referred to as spines now. These barbed spines have some unique properties. It’s been suggested that the black spines may change into white spines as the Ctenucha sheds depending on the season. This is to more efficiently thermoregulate. By switching to white spines in the warmer months with greater sunshi
CATERPILLAR OF THE WEEK: VIRGINIA CTENUCHA (Teh-Noo-Cha)
Welcome back for another edition of COTW! This week we will set our sights on the Virgnia Ctenucha (Ctenucha virginica) in the Tiger & Lichen moth subfamily (Erebidae: Arctiinae). With bright warning coloration and tufts of barb-like hairs covering its body, everything about this caterpillar says “DON’T TRY TO EAT ME OR I WILL MESS YOU UP!” But even though it looks like it could be a venomous species, it’s actually quite harmless to humans. Both the common name of the caterpi
Hatching Buck Moth Caterpillars!
Yesterday during open hours at The Caterpillar Lab one of our overwintered New England Buck Moth (Hemileuca lucina) egg masses began to hatch! It was rewarding to watch the process with visitors under our digital microscopes, and then to film as dozens of tiny black heads chewed their way out from within the winter-hardened egg shells. Buck moths are unique among New England's Saturniid Giant Silk Moths (think Luna, Cecropia, Io) in that they fly in the fall and overwinter as
