Wooly Bear Caterpillar
The Wooly Bear caterpillar looks spiky and dangerous, but in reality he’s just fuzzy and soft. They’re very common out here on the grass and shrubs; it’s one of the larger bugs that actually eats grass. The wooly bear turns into the Isabella Tiger Moth, a rather drab-looking, reddish-brown moth with very little in the way of markings.
The caterpillar gets its name in part from its hair, but also from the fact that it actually hibernates through the winter. The Wooly Bear actually has a biannual life cycle: the first group of caterpillars hibernate through the winter and become moths in the early days of Spring. These moths lay eggs that hatch into the second group of caterpillars in late Spring/early Summer. The second group become moths in late Summer and lay the eggs that become a third group of caterpillars in early Autumn. This third group will hibernate and become next year’s first group of caterpillars.
Be sure to wash your hands after handling a wooly bear, however: their only defense mechanism is to shed their hairs, which can cause itching.
Slowly getting the site back onto an even keel. It's nice to get back into the old posting rhythm.
Athena said,
September 20, 2007 @ 9:46 am
Well gee! That’s the most interesting ‘bug’ I’ve seen/learned about in a while! I’ve never actually seen a furry caterpillar in person before, so I always like seeing the pictures. And that’s awesome about the biannual life cycle! I’ve never heard of something like that in the animal world before. Tho I’m sure after reading about it, that there’s plenty of other animals/insects that do the same. Thanks for sharing! (As always.
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Insect Picture of the Day » Wooly Bear on the Moon said,
October 4, 2007 @ 7:01 am
[...] Oh, a wooly bear has been on insectpod.com before, so this post was more about the picture than the critter. If you’d like to know more about these caterpillars, check out the previous wooly bear entry. [...]
DeeJaye6 said,
October 8, 2007 @ 1:46 am
Beware the urticating hairs… Urtication!!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urticating_hair
St. Lawrence Tiger Moth Caterpillar (?) said,
June 7, 2008 @ 4:06 am
[...] moth, in the family Arctiidae. These are pretty large moths that have fuzzy caterpillars, like the well-known wooly bear caterpillar. This one isn’t a wooly bear, but I think it is the caterpillar of one [...]