Explore Outdoors ~ Wandering Caterpillars

 Maybe you saw some cute, furry caterpillars wandering across your yard a few weeks ago? They look so fuzzy and cute - but don't pick this one up! Unlike the friendly woolly bear, this hickory tussock moth's hairs will sting. The hairs contain a mild venom that can cause an itchy rash on your skin. Those irritating hairs help protect the caterpillars from predators such as birds and bats. 

You can find out more about the hickory tussock moth at What's That Bug.

Are there any late fall caterpillars still wandering around? 

Go on a caterpillar hunt (remember to leave them alone, though. They're looking for a place to spend the winter!)

Explore Outdoors ~ Caterpillars in the Carrots!

 One day I noticed that someone had been chewing on the carrots. The green tops, that is - and they had nibbled them down to the stems! At first, I thought it might have been a rabbit. But no ... a rabbit would have bitten off entire stems. This was a more dainty diner.

 

I looked and looked and nearly gave up. But then I saw the culprit!

 

 A black swallowtail caterpillar! Notice how the color helps it blend in with the shadows of the carrot leaves. I wanted to get up-close and meet it face-to-face.

 

 

 

This week, get to know a bug up-close and personal! 

 

How to Ask a Caterpillar a Question

 

 One Long Line: Marching Caterpillars and the Scientists Who Followed Them
by Loree Griffin Burns;  illus. by Jamie Green
64 pages; ages 7-11
‎MIT Kids Press, 2024

“This is a story about unusual caterpillars, curious people, and fascinating conversations,” writes Loree Griffin Burns. The caterpillars are pine processionaries. The caterpillar watchers are Jean-Henri Fabre and Terrence Fitzgerald, one working in France, one working in America, their studies separated by nearly a century.

And the conversations … they were with the caterpillars. How does one ask a caterpillar questions, you ask? If you’re Henri you play tricks on them and observe how they respond. Henri noticed that the caterpillars walked head-to-rear. He noticed that they seemed to follow a strand of silk – except for the leader who was tasked with finding the way. What would happen if he took away their leader? Would a caterpillar always follow the one in front of them? And what would happen if he could get them to march in a circle? When Henri died, he thought he’d answered his questions. But…

 

   … there was more to find out. At the turn of the millennium Terrence Fitzgerald, an entomologist at SUNY Cortlan began asking his own questions of caterpillars. He’d studied other social caterpillars who used pheromones to communicate, and he wondered whether Henri’s pine processionary caterpillars might have used pheromones. Henri was not around to chat with, but he could ask the caterpillars. One question he asked was: if the leader didn’t lay down any silk, would the others still follow? Terrence would have to play some tricks to get the caterpillars to answer – just like Henri did. You can find out more about his research and watch a video here.    

 

I love how Loree brought Henri and Terrence’s experiments to life. I love how she showed their process of asking questions, testing, and repeating the tests to learn how the caterpillars do what they do. Most of all, I love how she shows that “Science is one long line of learning.” Henri Fabre wasn’t the first naturalist to wonder about – and study – pine processionary caterpillars. Terrence Fitzgerald won’t be the last. Questions about these caterpillars (and other caterpillars) will continue as long as there are curious naturalists.

It’s not just questions about caterpillars either. Scientists are asking millions of questions about whales and space and dinosaurs and trees and fungi. What sorts of things are you wondering about? And how can you answer those questions?  

Thanks for dropping by today. On Monday we'll be hanging out at Marvelous Middle Grade Monday with other  bloggers. It's over at Greg Pattridge's blog, Always in the Middle, so hop over to see what other people are reading. Review copy provided by the publisher.

Explore Outdoors ~ Last of the Garden Cats

 Last week I was weeding the small and sorry-excuse-for-a-carrot-patch when I came across a very hungry caterpillar.

Black swallowtail caterpillars love carrots. And dill and parsley and anything, really, in the carrot family. On this particular day they were dining on Nantes Fancy. Given the late date of planting, and the weeds I let go, I figured the caterpillars would get more nutrition from the carrots than I would. So I left them to it.

This is the time of year butterflies are migrating, but for these late-summer swallowtails it's too late to flee to warmer climes. Like woolly bear caterpillars, swallowtails will find a sheltered place to overwinter as pupae. Then they'll emerge in spring, ready to lay their eggs on whatever I've let go in the garden... perhaps the dill?

What caterpillars do you find hanging around your backyard, park, or street plantings this week?

Explore Outdoors ~ Garden Cats

 A couple weeks ago, while counting pollinators for the Great Sunflower Project, I noticed this handsome caterpillar clinging to a stem in the fleabane. I was attracted to its stripes - beautiful colors! But when I asked my lepidoptera friend what it was, she said "what color are the spiracles?" Those are the tiny breathing holes on the side. I have no idea, because I can't find this sneaky cat now!

 

This week take a closer look at the caterpillars hanging out on the stems and leaves of plants around your yard. You might discover unexpected beauty!

Book reviews are on vacation for a couple weeks ~ see you next Wednesday for some more backyard science exploration.

Explore Outdoors ~ Striped Things

 

I was weeding in the garden and discovered this sly cat hiding in the fennel. Well, not "hiding" - more like chowing down. Apparently swallowtails love fennel. And I love the colors!

This week look for stripy things around your yard and neighborhood. You might find stripes on a fly, or a beetle. Maybe even a different kind of caterpillar.

Explore Outdoors ~ Woolly Bear Behavior

Broly0, Wikimedia Commons

Woolly bears ~ the fuzzy black and brown caterpillars of the Isabella Tiger moth ~ are on the move. As the days grow shorter and cooler, the fuzzy caterpillars are searching for a place to curl up and hibernate.

My friend, Colleen, is passionate about all things lepidoptera. She stops to help woolly bears across roads whenever she comes upon them. She picks them up and carries them to the other side, in the direction they were headed. And over the past few years, she’s noticed something interesting about the woolly bears in our part of upstate New York.

“Normally, when you pick up a woolly bear, it curls up in your hand,” says Colleen. This is its defense: hide the tasty soft parts of its body and look like a prickly hedgehog to potential predators. “But some of them thrash back and forth.”

Curious, she decided to raise some “thrashers”. She put them in a container with food – pilewort and dandelion leaves – and put a screen on top. Later, she noticed some bullet-shaped pupae. Tachinid flies, perhaps?

Tachinid flies parasitize other caterpillars. The female fly lays an egg on the unsuspecting insect and the larvae grow inside - eating their host from the inside out. Then they drop to the earth and pupate in the soil. Colleen wonders whether tachinid fly parasites might cause the thrashing behavior of the woolly bears.

photo by Colleen Wolpert

A Backyard Citizen Science Project:

You can help collect data. Just pick up any woolly  bear caterpillars you come across and make a few notes:

• do they curl or thrash?
• when did you observe this (date)?
• where were you? 
• Put your observations in the comments below.
  

Then, if they were crossing the road, put them on the side where they were headed. 

You don't have to raise any of the "thrashers", but if you want to, make sure to give them fresh food every day – they love nibbling on dandelions and pilewort (shown in the photo). Also put some grass and fall leaves in for them to hide under. Clean out the woolly bear home daily, so moisture doesn't build up and cause mold - and keep a tight cover on the bear cage. You don't want them to escape!

Not a Bean

Not a Bean 
by Claudia Guadalupe Martinez; illus. by Laura Gonzalez
32 pages; ages 3-7
Charlesbridge, 2019 

theme: nature, caterpillars, plants

Next to the arroyo a seedpod grows on the yerba de la fleche, a desert shrub.

This is no ordinary seedpod, for when it hardens and falls to the ground it begins to jump. It rocks and rolls right into the shade. That’s because there’s a caterpillar inside – a caterpillar that doesn’t want to get too hot

What I like about this book: It’s a counting book! As the jumping bean moves through the landscape, it passes two saguaros, three snakes, four coyotes. But wait! it gets better porque algunas palabras son españolas. So it’s partly a language book. Hay dos saguaros, cuatro coyotes… and, after a bit of not-a-bean adventure, siete amigos who play a traditional bean game. And it’s very much a nature book about the life of a caterpillar that lives inside this special seed.

I also like the back matter, where author Claudia Martinez provides a glossary of words in Spanish, a counting lesson, and more information on the jumping bean moths. And Laura Gonzalez's illustrations which bring the desert to life.

Beyond the Books:

Get a hold of some jumping beans (maybe you can find them in a toy store) and try a couple experiments. Shine a light on one part of a plate and create shade on another. Where do the beans go? What if you put a hot water bottle under half of a plate? Or put an ice pack under it?

What happens to jumping beans when no one is watching? Here’s one videographer’s imaginative take.

Learn to count to ten in Spanish. Here’s a fun kid’s song to help you along.

Today we're joining Perfect Picture Book Friday, an event where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copy provided by the publisher.

Wednesday Explorers Club ~ a very hungry caterpillar

I was wondering where the dill went! Having eaten the leaves, this very hungry cat is going after flowers. Eating things right down to the nibs, as you can see. My, what sharp mandibles it has!

I would put it over on the parsley - but there's another cat chowing that down. Queen Anne's lace? All chewed up... guess I'm sharing dill with the swallowtails this fall.

What kinds of caterpillars do you find in your garden, yard, neighborhood park?

Wordless Wednesday

Very Hungry Caterpillars

gypsy moth caterpillar (creative commons)

How much can a single caterpillar eat? A lot! Caterpillars are basically eating machines. They need to be if they hope to get through all those instars (larval stages), into a cocoon or chrysalis, and reach adulthood in time to mate or migrate.

One summer the gypsy moths were so numerous we could hear frass dropping on leaves like rain. Bits of leaves littered the ground - crumbs dropped by the herbivorous gluttons devouring our forest canopy. Reference books mentioned that gypsy moths could defoliate entire forests - but there was not one word on how much an individual caterpillar consumed.

So we decided to take prisoners and find out for ourselves. Or plan of action: give them leaves and see how much they eat over 24 hours. Sounded easy enough.... So we made up cozy homes cells for our captives, one caterpillar per gallon jar, and gave them leaves. Before feeding them, though, we traced each leaf onto a piece of centimeter graph paper. That made it easy to approximate leaf area by counting squares and parts thereof. The next day we took out what was left of the leaves and traced them. Now we could figure out how much they ate.

Summer is the perfect time to go caterpillar watching. And there are so many things to discover about caterpillars: what they like to eat, how they move, where they hang out in the hot part of the day...

Here are a couple of handy resources for budding caterpillarologists (people who study caterpillars):

Everyone needs a field guide, and Caterpillarology is full of hands-on ways to look at these guys.

Also check out  the Butterfly School.

Drop by STEM Friday to see what other science books and resources bloggers are sharing.