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November 07, 2006
Woolly, Woolly....
Every fall, I get a few questions about banded woolly bear caterpillars. These ubiquitous reminders of a summer long gone and a winter soon to appear, are interesting members of the moth family Arctiidae - the Tiger moths. The common brown and black banded species is known in the adult form as the Isabella moth, Pyrrharctia isabellae. A definite transition from beast to beauty, in this instance.
This fall, it seemed that we had very few warm and sunny days -- so when I had a nice weekend day, I was often driving somewhere, and it seemed that this year, I encountered a lot of woolly bears crossing the road -- maybe it was the same cue for them - a sunny day is the day to move elsewhere. This story from the WI DNR is a nice summation about wooly bears.
The woolly bear caterpillar is one of the species that does not complete its larval development in one season. In the fall, the caterpillars travel to find a place to hibernate for the winter -- under a log, leaf litter, or other protected spot. Once warmer weather returns in the spring, they crawl out from their niche, and resume feeding -- most often on weeds on the plantain family. Once they have reached the stage where they are ready to pupate, they crawl and find a bark flap or some similar protected niche, and spin a coccoon. In June, the adult Isabella moths emerge, looking strikingly different from the larva. The wonder of metamorphosis still amazes me.
A specimen of the Isabella moth from the UMMZ collection.
Some good resources about Isabella Moths:
Capture a Bear for the Winter
Nature Things for Kids
Moth Photographers Group
Entomology Note No. 10 - Flying Tigers
Posted by mfobrien at 11:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack