Insect Picture of the Day

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Steve Jackson sends us this gorgeous photo of a Black Swallowtail Caterpillar–the same kind of caterpillar that mauled Siegfried.

Steve captured the majesty of this beautiful caterpillar perfectly, but the photo is just the beginning of the awesome: he also sent in some great details on the bug itself:

Photographed this May in Austin, Texas, on its food plant. From my notes at the time:

“25 butterfly caterpillars, all the same type - white, with black stripes and yellow-orange spots - on a single plant of Queen Anne’s lace. They ranged from spiky quarter-inchers with a pale band around the middle to smooth 1.5-inchers with no band, but there were enough intermediate sizes, with intermediate morphology and colors, for me to feel pretty sure they’re all the same kind. Yes. A bit of web research: Black Swallowtails. The little spiky, banded ones are first instar.”

I watched them for a while as they grew, and moved a few to an untenanted plant in my office’s back lot. When bothered, they inflate orange horns on their heads and drool very carrot-smelly green stuff.

Okay, first off: Steve Jackson takes notes. Second? If I hadn’t been running this site I would not have known the word “instar”, which refers to a partial metamorphosis. You can think of it as a “stage” in development. For example, house centipedes start out with four legs, then grow an additional pair of legs every time they molt into a new instar. Third, Steve moved some of them to a plant by his office where he could watch them more closely.

I don’t know how long Steve Jackson has been doing bug research, but I know for a fact that he does something different for his day job. What excites and inspires me is seeing people who aren’t professional entomologists getting out there and learning about bugs by watching bugs instead of by watching Animal Planet.

Seven kinds of awesome, Steve. Thank you!