The Isabella Tiger Moth caterpillar is called the (generic) Wooly Bear, the Black-ended Bear, and the Banded Wooly Bear. Many tiger moth caterpillars are fuzzy, earning a group name of wooly bears or wooly worms. There is an amazing amount of information out there about wooly bear caterpillars, and much of it is contradictory, which is explained by the fact that there are many different kinds of caterpillars that are called Wooly bears. Like the feline tigers, the adults of many species are hairy and sport bold color patches, stripes or patterns (consider the striking Leconte’s Haploa ). If you have sound-making ability, you also need “ears,” and those are on the thorax, too. They “vocalize” to attract mates and to defend against predators. Tiger moths are unusual in that they have an organ on their thorax that vibrates to produce ultrasonic sound. If you have an older insect guide, they’re in their own family, Arctiidae, but everything that was once in Arctiidae is now in subfamily Arctiinae. Tiger moths are in the family Erebidae, a diverse group that includes about 250 species of tiger, underwing, Zale, tussock moths, etc. in North America and many more worldwide (except Antarctica). Pyrrharctia is a “monotypic genus”-there’s only this single species in it-and they’re only found in North America. In this case, the ubiquitous, rust-and-black-banded Wooly bear caterpillar turns into a lovely, less-common, caramel-colored, or cream, or yellow moth called the Isabella Tiger moth ( Pyrrharctia Isabella). Without further ado, here’s a slightly up-dated version (some new words, a few new pictures) of a rerun from 2015, which was a slightly up-dated version of the 2009 original.Īs often happens with the moths, one life stage may be more conspicuous, and the adults and caterpillars may even have different names. Those little fur coats must be a lot warmer than they look. The BugLady was amazed to see, on the walk back to the car, a few wooly bear caterpillars crossing the mowed trail. On Sunday, the temperature was in the high 30’s (-ish), and we clocked a few wind gusts around 40mph – and got 37 birds. We’ve counted just under 800 birds since early September, and some of the weather has been – interesting. The BugLady has been hanging out on the hawk tower this fall, logging migrating raptors for the Western Great Lakes Bird and Bat Observatory. Last week’s episode was the 600th original (not rerun or tweaked) episode, and the BugLady is going to take a two-week victory lap (but she will fill the space with tasteful reruns).
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