common_nature | Entries tagged with insect: caterpillar

I found a giant silk moth caterpillar crawling around a can on the patio. I love Saturniid moths. They get huge, and many look spectacular. Even their caterpillars are big and interesting. This one is about the size of my pinky finger, so it's probably a middle instar and still has a lot of growing to do. I'm really excited to see one of these guys. I expect the birds will be excited too -- these are the Polish sausages of the caterpillar pantry.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: excited

steorra

Yesterday I went for a walk in the woods with a couple friends. We saw a big fat green caterpillar on the path. It was probably about as wide as my finger. It had rows of little orange dots along its sides that looked like they had little hairs projecting from them. We weren't sure if it was alive, but my friend picked it up with a leaf to move it off the path, and it wriggled.

Later we saw a white-and-black moth on the wall of a restaurant where we were waiting for take-out.

That moth and its wing patterns made me think of a moth of a different sort that I saw in August last year. It was on one of the choir music stands at my church. I took it outside on a piece of sheet music and it eventually flew away. It was dark brown with lighter-brown criss-cross-y patterns on its wings.

If anyone has any tips on what any of these are, I'm interested.

( 4 pictures )

nanila

[Click to embiggen.]

A patch of nasturtiums in our central flower bed is currently being decimated by a horde of large cabbage white caterpillars. Since I have to fight to keep the nasturtiums from taking over said flower bed, I don't really begrudge them their feast.

nanila

I was weeding the garden the other day and disturbed this electric green caterpillar, which I think will eventually become an angle shades moth, assuming it likes its new location under a large aquilegia plant!

spiralsheep

The most spectacular caterpillar I've ever seen in the flesh was a Pale Tussock Moth larvae (@ flickr) but I didn't have my camera. I did have my camera for the following four encounters, although three of them were moving fast enough to be difficult to cap. Ironically, it was the moth imago with wings that was still.

1 Caterpillar, Scarlet Tiger Moth, Callimorpha dominula, Worcestershire 04-11

1 Caterpillar, Scarlet Tiger Moth, Callimorpha dominula, Worcestershire 04-11

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Common Nature

wonder and joy and mystery in everyday things

Entries tagged with insect: caterpillar

Polyphemus Moth Caterpillar

A caterpillar and two moths

Cabbage white caterpillar

Angle shades moth caterpillar

In which there are four caterpillars and a moth

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