The Urban Pantheist

Urban Nature Walks happen on the last Sunday of the month--this shouldn't surprise me, but it often does. I sent out the call: is anyone else planning to walk somewhere? Fortunately my friend Teá said she was heading to Stonybrook Reservation to look for caterpillars! We ended up circumambulating Turtle Pond at a leisurely pace looking for all kinds of living things! This pair of bullfrogs is a good first sighting.

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Waxworms are moth caterpillars that, in nature, develop in the hives of honeybees, feeding on the wax and other products therein. Because they spend their larva lives in the dark of the hive, they are colorless and maggot-like.

They happen to be very hardy caterpillars that will survive a relatively long time if kept at a low temperature--say, in a refrigerator. This has contributed to them being incorporated into the captive insect food industry. These are intended for cotton-top tamarins, which are tiny monkeys. They are likewise fed to captive birds and reptiles. They are also perfectly good food for humans, and if you read the book "Edible" by Daniella Martin, you will find a simple recipe for preparing them. (No, I haven't tried them yet.)

Striped garden caterpillar Trichordestra legitima

I've complained about common names several times before on this blog, but it's hard to quibble with this one. I found this caterpillar while we were tearing down our vegetable garden for the fall. When I picked it up, it curled into a defensive position, and when I showed it to Alexis she initially mistook it for a striped garden snail. The resemblance was so close that I wondered if it was a case of mimicry, but it turns out this is a native caterpillar, and it is unlikely to have evolved a likeness to a European snail. More likely the curling helps face that lateral yellow stripe at potential predators to convince them that the larva is not edible.

This caterpillar's taste are extremely broad: while in that section of our yard it may have been eating bean plants, violets, goldenrod, aster, cherry, or raspberry. The adult is medium sized brown and gray moth that would have been really frustrating to try to identify, and then more so to learn that the species is named for the larva.

This box is at the service entrance of the zoo. This is where you go if you are bringing a truckload of meat or pine shaving to the zoo. The box has a button and a speaker on it to talk to Security to have them come and let you in. None of this activity seems to bother the American robins who built a nest on it and raised some chicks there.

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This caterpillar seen at Glen Moss Stream in Vermont (posted a few days earlier) is the larva of the Baltimore checkerspot (Euphydryas phaeton). Like the Baltimore oriole, it is named after Lord Baltimore, whose emblematic colors were orange and black (or possibly gold and black). Both the larva and the adult butterfly are so colored. The Baltimore checkerspot is the Maryland state insect. Maryland's official obsession with the state colors extends to the state cat (calico) and the state flower (black-eyed susan) as well as of course the state bird and insect.

Photos by urbpan. Location: Olmsted Park, Boston.

Urban species #290: Wooly bear

Along with ladybugs, wooly bear caterpillars are among the most adored of the insects. This is not due to any function or service that they perform, simply their attractive, panda-like appearance, and the lack (or concealment) of such objectionable insect features as creepy abdominal segments, horrible mandibles, ugly appendages, and alarming pinchers. As far as most people are concerned, wooly bears are simply tiny cylindrical mammals. While it's nice to see at least one insect admired, it's baffling that very similar animals that have patchy "fur," or none at all, are reviled. Caterpillar hair is a defensive structure which helps prevent birds and other predators from eating the butterfly or moth larvae. Some caterpillar bristles contain venom and are dangerous to touch, but wooly bears can be handled safely.

Wooly bears are common throughout North America. Unlike picky specialists like the monarch, these caterpillars will eat nearly anything, from the dandelions to maples and many other plants in between. Introduced plants such as plantains may help increase the numbers of wooly bears in cities--these plants persist late into the fall and even winter, allowing the caterpillars a longer feeding season. Wooly bears are conspicuously active in fall, seen crossing sidewalks in search of a place to hide and sleep through the winter. In spring the caterpillars wake up and pupate, transforming into Isabella tiger moths, rather nondescript yellowish brown creatures.

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cross-posted to invertebrates