Caterpillar
Steve Jackson uses the scientific method in much the same way I do, specifically in a slightly amateur fashion that positively reeks of enthusiasm. Steve has learned to look at things and think about them, rather than try to capture measurements that match what he’s already read in a book or on Google. He watches behavior and learns from it. He has learned to see what is in front of him, rather than learn the word for what he is seeing and assume that the word is the thing. He has an appreciation for science that is, in a word, “awesome”.
If he had a lab, it would have a Jacob’s ladder and a monster on a table. I’m just saying. Oh, and one of those machines that goes parp.
Anyway. The reason for this comment is that Steve has this to say about today’s caterpillar (click the larger version to see all of the caterpillar):
“I think this guy is a tent caterpillar, or at least closely related, but there were no tents visible. He was just standing still on an oak trunk, looking incredible. I don’t have enough depth of field at that range, sadly, so the good focus here is on the head. This is a big guy: 55.5 mm long. How do I know this? Because, not having a ruler with me, I broke a twig to his exact length and brought it home to measure.”
See? Awesome.
tceisele said,
April 28, 2008 @ 11:01 am
Yep, it’s a tent caterpillar all right, one of the kinds that doesn’t make tents.
We had a massive infestation of a related species some years ago, and it was pretty appalling - they completely defoliated practically every tree for miles around. Walking in the woods, there were hordes of them rappelling down on silk threads, dropping all over your head and tangling their shroud lines around you. The normally pale-colored tree trunks were absolutely black - because they were coated with caterpillars. If you stood still, you could hear them munching, munching, while their droppings rained down, patter-patter-patter.
When the trees were stripped, they washed across the landscape in a seething wave, eating any vegetation they could find, digestible or not - grass, lilacs, rhubarb, pine needles, scraps of paper and dead leaves - until, twitching, millions of them finally died, with their vile, hairy, festering corpses spurned by even the birds.
The survivors built cocoons on any available surface, coating the siding of houses and outbuildings, filling the eaves, and lining crevices in tree bark, where hordes of earwigs abruptly appeared, ripping into the cocoons and devouring the contents. There were no survivors, and then the earwigs, too, died.
The carnage [1] finally ended around the middle of July. The surviving trees leafed back out, and all returned to normal. It has been over five years now, and I haven’t seen another forest tent caterpillar since then. All is at peace, until next time.
[1] Hey, what would be the abuse-to-plants equivalent to “carnage”? “Foliage”?
David Brady said,
April 28, 2008 @ 11:21 am
tceisele: Good heavens. That’s horrible. And by horrible, I mean that was awesome tell us more!
Yeah, I was that kid at scout camp….
JFargo said,
April 28, 2008 @ 11:38 am
The picture is awesome, and the description from Steve. The write-up was great too, and made me laugh.
Then I moved on to the comments, and tciesle completely blew me away with his horror story of infestation. That’s absolutely amazing, and I agree: If there is more to tell, tell it!
David Brady said,
April 28, 2008 @ 12:22 pm
Hey, what would be the abuse-to-plants equivalent to “carnage”? “Foliage”?
Years ago I was explaining to my wife the basic classification of trees. “These trees are all coniferous,” I said, “while those trees are–”
She interrupted me.
“Herbiferous?”
And there you have it. Since then, in my family, trees are classified as “Herbiferous”, meaning a tree that eats herbs¹ and “Carniferous”, meaning trees that eat other trees.
¹ Later we upgraded herbifery to include the occasional squirrel, because out here in Utah you typically only see squirrels in the evergreens. We haven’t actually seen it, but we presume from the evidence that there is clearly tree-on-squirrel predation going on.
AJ said,
April 28, 2008 @ 12:40 pm
tceisele, your story reads like the best short horror fiction!
Really interesting colors on that caterpillar, it’s like the Chinese turquoise that has brown veining instead of black.
Entr0physt said,
April 28, 2008 @ 2:27 pm
Look at those back patterns! It’s a Mandelbrotapiller, in full iterative cycle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelbrot_set
We do have a slight problem with tent worms and cankerworms here in GA, nasty little buggers:
http://www.insectimages.org/images/768×512/2733040.jpg
http://www.sciencepunk.com/v5/gallery/webtree.jpg
Ever seen The Mist? You wake up one balmy summer morning like any other, step outside for the sunrise, and all you can see is rotting horror. Not only are there dead cutworms everywhere (in the grass, in the AC unit, in the cracks of your car’s side mirrors), but that rice-crispies sound that lulled you to sleep the night before was the rolling death machine that erased every last scrap of plant life in the area. Freaky, football-sized cocoons of grey silk are stuck in between the tree limbs, hanging from branches, car bumpers, telephone wires and lawn jockeys. And they’re all _moving_ inside. The big cocoons kinda shudder and twitch like the ones in Gremlins, and all the trees are stark and sticky. To top it off, the cocoons are loose and fluid, wrapped around their moorings in a chaotic kind of way that looks more like a giant spider infestation than any kind of moth.
http://www.bugwood.org/PAT/pics/11-10.jpg
http://www.bugwood.org/PAT/pics/11-6.jpg
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/mecklenburg/depts/hort/john/insects/cankerworm/tent1.jpg
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/mecklenburg/depts/hort/john/insects/cankerworm/webworm1.jpg
b13 said,
April 28, 2008 @ 9:29 pm
That is some fantastic detail on that tent-pillar!