Sad Update

I came into my office a couple weeks ago, after my weekend, to find the little hickory horn devil deceased.  :(

I'm not sure what caused its demise.  It had food, and it had been eating.  I'd also provided water, just in case.  Maybe it was lack of sunshine - my office is very dark.

On the other hand, my coworker is the caterpillar queen, and she has a house full of cecropia, polyphemus, imperial and monarch caterepillars.

Yes - monarchs!  At last we are starting to find some.  We now have TWO at work (whereas by now we normally have had 50+ go thru our monarch monitoring containers.

Plant more milkweed!!!

It's Hatched!

Eight days ago, a regal moth laid her egg on my hand.  We brought it in and put it in a jar.  We looked it up to find out how long it would be until it hatched, and then what it would eat.  The experts said the egg would hatch in seven to ten days.  

Yesterday was day seven.  The egg had a dark spot on it.  I went out and grabbed a hickory leaf and we placed leaf and egg into a larger container.

This morning I came in about 10:00.  The egg was all black.  I looked at it again about 12:30 - the egg was empty.

 

It had hatched!  Over on another leaflet, there was the baby hickory horn devil!  And what a baby it is - check it out:

  Look at all those spines and things! 

And here it is with my finger in the background...just to give you an idea of scale.  It is maybe 6mm long.

If you take your motion sickness tablets, you can watch the video of it's first steps in the sunshine:

It hasn't taken even a tiny nibble from the leaf we gave it.  So we added a fresher leaf and a leaf of another hickory species.  We don't know which one it will prefer, but whatever it first snacks on, that will be the one we will have to keep feeding it.

 I will keep posting the progress of our little friend, either here or on the Dahlem blog:  Dirt Time at Dahlem.

Random Stuff

Earlier this week, while on our evening walk, I noticed a sulphur buttefly deceased along the side of the road.  I didn't think much of it - we often find butterflies and moths who had terminal encounters with vehicles.

But then I found another.

 And another.

And groups of them!

I only found two survivors, and this one I'm not sure actually made it.  What in the world happened?  On the way home, I counted 44 bodies in about a quarter-mile stretch.  This was not normal.  The only thing I could think of was puddling.  This road is a dirt road, and we'd recently had a fair bit of rain.  Could all these butterflies have been puddling, and then gotten run into by vehicles that either didn't see them or didn't care?  I can think of no other explanation.  

On a cheerier, note, however, we also saw this kestrel!  It really liked this oak tree (lots of birds do, especially starlings, which nest in its many cavities).  It soared around a bit, then came to rest in the tree.  Took off, flapped around, returned to rest.  I'm glad to see this bird - I haven't seen a wild kestrel for many years - just the merlins in the Adirondacks.

Meanwhile, at work, we had someone bring us this mystery caterpillar:

We looked and looked in our caterpillar ID books, but to no avail. I finally sent this shot off to BugGuide and the answer came back "dogwood sawfly."  Not a moth or caterpillar at all!  It turns out that this larva is quite a pest of dogwoods.  The adult is a fly, but looks somewhat like a wasp, but it's the larva that does the damage.  Now, I didn't see it listed as a non-native insect, so, although it does damage to dogwoods, it must be a native insect, and therefore, part of the circle of life for our native plants.  If you have ornamental dogwoods, well, that's something else.  Go native - the plants and their associated critters are used to each other.  You will get some damage, but that is natural!  Plants are food - not museum specimens.

Very Cool Caterpillar

How cool is that!?!

You can read all about it on my other blog here.  (I posted the video on this blog as back-up in case it didn't post over there.)

Not Just Another Pretty Face

This Hickory Horn Devil, or, more beautifully named Regal/Royal Walnut Moth, was brought in to us at work today at the close of our Birds, Blooms and Butterflies Festival.  All squashed up, it measures about four inches in length.  When it is stretched out and on the move, it is much longer.

This is the first one of these I've ever seen.  (In fact, today had another first for me: not one, but TWO giant swallowtails, but I'll post that another day.)  This caterpillar is so impressive that  wherever we carried it, it drew a crowd.

Once a common species across bottomlands, woodlands and forests, from Florida to Massachusettes and westward to Texas, it is now disappearing across much of its range.  No wonder I've never seen one!

This behemoth spends a good portion of its life in suspended animation.    There is only one generation per year.  When the caterpillar gets ready to pupate (between August and November), it burrows into the ground, where it spends the winter in a subterranean cell - they don't spin any sort of cocoon.  Now that's different.

As the name suggests, these 'pillars eat the leaves of hickory trees, but they will also consume ash, butternut, cherry, cotton, lilac, pecan, persimmon, sumac, sweet gum, sycamore and walnut.  This list, apparently, it not conclusive - other species may also make up the diet.  This particular horn devil was found on the ground beneath a walnut tree, so that is probably what it was eating.  Right now we have it in a large jar.  We are hoping it is getting ready to pupate, based on its size and the fact that the folks who found it said its head was partially buried int eh soil.  So, I've filled up its jar more than halfway with soil, just in case it feels like going underground.

If/when it does bury itself, we will dig a hole and bury the jar outside for the winter.  This way the animal will have the greatest chance for survival.  Come spring, we will dig it up and, with fingers crossed, wait for it to emerge as an adult.

As terrifying as this caterpillar looks, it is considered to be quite harmless.  I noted that when touched, it swings its head sideways, and its tail end, making itself into a sideways c-shape.  Perhaps this is to scare off potential predators into thinking they are about to be gored.  However, when asked if she would hold it for a photo for me, so I could have a size reference, one of my coworkers said absolutely note.  She said that these caterpillars have a "strong grip," and looking at those claspers, I don't doubt her at all.

Below is (hopefully) a video of this wee beastie as it took off across the desk during the photoshoot.

The Larvae in My Life

Yesterday I posted on my garden blog a photo taken a couple days ago of a tomato hornworm in my garden.  It was covered with the white pupal cases of a braconid wasp that had parasitized it.  Last night I went back into the garden to see if I could find it again, and I did.  It wasn't looking too happy.  Upon closer inspection, I noted that the pupal cases had all "hatched" - the wasps had matured, emerged and flown away.  

According to the literature, the caterpillar should be dead by now, since the wasp larvae had mostly turned its innards into soup before pupating.  Yet this fellow was still hanging in there.  It raised it's head when I plucked its leaf from the tomato plant.  By the end of the photo shoot, however, it was decidedly more limp. Bummer for the hornworm, but GREAT for the garden - more little pasarsitoidal wasps have entered the world to wreak havoc on the hornworm population!

Not all caterpillars are detrimental, at least from a human standpoint.  Case in point - here we have a curled up leaf on a native spicebush plant.  What could be inside?

Oo!  Peek-a-boo!  Look at that!

This green and yellow lovely is a spicebush swallowtail caterpillar.  Like all caterpillars, it eats the leaves of its host plant, in this case the spicebush.  However, it doesn't seem to destroy the whole plant like, oh, say, the tomato hornworms do.  These are lovely black and blue butterflies when they become adults.

 

This beautiful little caterpillar was perishing on the sidewalk out in front of the office when I found it a couple weeks ago.  I knew it didn't wasn't long for this world, so I brought it in to photograph and ID.  We thought it looked similar to the cecropia moth caterpillar, so that 's where I started.  Sure enough - it was on the page opposite the cecropia in my caterpillar ID book:  a tulip tree moth larva.  The tulip tree moth is a silk moth, like the cecropia, and as an adult it sports large brown wings with tan and white markings.  According to this book, when the adults emerge, the main courtship flight takes place about 15 minutes before dusk high in the air near the tops of the tulip trees.  It is something to look for!

A New Project

 During our evening stroll last night, in the 90+ degree weather (bleh), Toby and I came across this humungous furry black caterpillar lumbering down the middle of the road.  Well, both of us being the curious beings that we are, we had to check it out.  Toby gave it a good sniffing, and I gathered it up in a plantain leaf and carried it home to a) photograph (see what happens when you don't bring your camera on walks?), and b) ID.

Of course, it promptly curled up into a prickly ball, warding off all dangers, namely Toby and me.  I later discovered that in addition to the bristles lending it protection from potential predators, scientists believe this animal also has some chemical protection, as evidenced by the bold coloring of both the caterpillar - see below - and the adult moth - more on this in a moment.

Now, in both these images, where the caterpillar had coiled up and simply refused to open, you can see the rather attractive reddish-brown bands on its skin, between the rows of black bristles.  For those who like such technical things, these bands are the intersegmental rings.  Each patch of bristles arises from a raised bump on the caterpillar's skin, appropriately called a wart.  As it gets older, the warts sport bright red spots, making the animal even more attractive (or alarming, depending on one's viewpoint).

I waited quite a while last night for the animal to uncurl so I could photograph it next to a ruler, for it is a very large caterpillar.  I sat with the dog for a bit.  I refilled all the birdfeeders.  I discovered and photographed a carpenter bee who is nesting in the porch railing (that's another post).  Finally, we went indoors and I took a much-needed shower (how can people stand this kind of weather?).   I peeked outside to see if the animal had moved yet, and it was gone.  Grabbing the camera, I sallied forth and found it had jumped from the porch railing to the ground and was beating a less-than-hasty retreat away from the house.

After snapping a couple more images, I gathered it back up and stuck it in a glass vase for transport to work the following morning, since that is where my caterpillar ID book resides.

So, here it is, Wednesday morning, and I've identified the behemoth:  it is a giant leopard moth (Hypercompe scribonia).  The caterpillar can get up to 7.5 cm in length, which is three inches.  This fellow, while big, is not quite there yet.  The adult moth is a very, very striking white with black markings, much like a snow leopard. 

Well, how could I now let this animal go?  I simply must try to raise it to adulthood, for I want to see the finished product.  Fortunately, this caterpillar isn't too much of a specialist when it comes to food:  dandelions, plantains, cherry and oak leaves are all part of its regular diet.

Now here's what is interesting.  I thought that it would be perfectly fine to just let it sit in the vase for the night - since that's when I suspected it would be sleeping.  In fact, this particular species is active at night (hm...moth...guess that shouldn't be too much of a surprise), so when Toby and I encountered it last night, it was heading out to forage.  During the day it sleeps in leaf litter or under loose bark. 

I think I'm in for a long wait, however, if I want to keep it until it turns into an adult.  According to my book, these fellows overwinter as caterpillars.  Hm.  I may have to rethink the whole raising bit.  Well, a little more research will help with the final decision.  In the meantime, it has a nice safe home in a small critter box stuffed with dandelion and plantain leaves.

Large Yellow Underwing

I love it when people bring in mystery objects for us to identify.  Out come the books, the cameras, the internet links to appropriate pages.  The hunt is on!

This last week a woman brought in a mystery caterpillar.  Apparently she found several of them on her carpets.  Were they eating the rugs?  Would they threaten her dresses and wool coats?

Gary came and asked if I knew what it was.  No idea.  So out came Caterpillars of Eastern North America - my new favorite book.  I've ordered my own copy to add to my ever-growing library of field guides.  Some page flipping and photo scanning, and voila! he identified it as the larva of the Large Yellow Underwing (Noctua Pronuba).

 Once identified, Gary turned the caterpillar over to me.  I had brought my camera gear in to work just so I could photograph the beastie.  We have top views (above), and bottom views (below).

The large yellow underwing is a rather bland brownish moth, with dullish yellow underwings (hence the name).  And, surprise, surprise - it's not native!  It is thought that it entered our part of the world (Canada) sometime in the late 1970s.  It is found primarily in agricultural areas (and waste places, lawns, fields, grasslands), where it feeds on grasses and low-growing forbs.  In other words, it does quite well here in the mid-west, where agriculture is big.

It's a sparsely hairy worm, and was rather sluggish by the time its photo session began.  I guess that's what happens when you leave your specimen overnight in a 56 degree room!  

Since the animal refused to be more lively, photo ops were limited.  I got what I could, and the next stage of life began for this caterpillar:  food for our frog.

While the frog is always up for a snack, it doesn't exhibit the best of aim.  It's first strike missed, so we moved the caterpillar closer - into the water.  Apparently this was too close - the frog didn't even try.  So, Gary reached back in and place the caterpillar up on the "log".

 Of course, when the frog struck, it was fast as lightning, and I missed it.  Still, I did get a shot of its eyes partially closed.  Frogs use their eyeballs to push food further down their throats when they swallow.  If you watch a frog eating, you will see its eyes depress into the head as it swallows - pretty nifty.

Afterwards, he sang to us his thanks.

Meanwhile, in the tank next door, the garter snake came out to see what the commotion was all about.  Was it feeding time?  Where was his fish, cricket, or worm?

 
It's great to work in a nature center!

Views Along the Roadside

With all the time I've been off from work lately, one would think I'd be travelling all over the Park and doing all sorts of naturalist things. Sadly, no. Most of my time has been spent finishing up projects and filling out job applications. Catching up on sleep. Reading.

The days have been rather grey and drippy, too, so that doesn't really encourage field trips. Even so, the colors are coming right along, In fact, we must be pretty near peak here in the central Adirondacks. I drove down the Blue Ridge Road Saturday (my next post), and the colors were spectacular, although difficult to admire when one is at the wheel on a very windy road.

Still, a break in the clouds Sunday found me out with the camera locally.

I was really amazed (in fact, I did a double take) when I saw this monarch caterpillar on some milkweed. We've already had a frost, and I'm sure these cool days (although yesterday and today it was VERY warm and humid) are not good for insect development. Will it have enough time to finish its larval stage and pupate? I have my doubts.

The geese weren't hanging around. I have yet to see a large flock, but a few small ones have passed overhead.

I think I mentioned before about the rock cairns at the golf course. I built a small pile on one of these boulders a few weeks ago...it seems to have bred.

In the fall the grasses really come into their own. I've been playing around with the camera trying to get some good photos of them. They haven't always been successful, but this clump came out pretty well.

I saw a daddy-longlegs hunkered under a small ledge on a cedar post and took its photo, only to discover afterwards that there were two of them! A further examination of the post turned up several of these arthropods. I wonder if they were all seeking refuge from the cool drippy weather in the shelter provided by the fence posts.

Monarch Mayhem

As per my usual routine, when I got home from work yesterday, I let the dog out into the yard to romp and pee. I strolled along after him, taking a look at the flower gardens (sigh - they need a LOT of work), when I saw the weeniest little monarch caterpillar. Had to rush inside for the camera.


It may have been small, but its appetite was large, for it was tackling a whole butterflyweed pod all on its own.

Nearby, on another branch of the plant, was an older sibling. It was happily munching away on its own pod.

Its antennae were waving about as it chewed away. I tried to capture it on the video setting. Take your Dramamine before viewing.

As I continued my perusal of the beds, I found two more monarch caterpillars. This brings the month's total to about a half dozen...and that's just with casual glances at the butterflyweeds.

Butterflyweed (Asclepias turberosa), by the way, is a member of the milkweed clan, which is why monarchs lay their eggs on it and their larvae eat it. I only have one genuine milkweed plant in my yard - in my onion patch. It's not for lack of trying, though - I've been trying for years to establish milkweed, but with no success.

I did have some narrow leaf milkweed (A. fascicularis) in the gardens, but most of it has been pushed out by the aggressive lupines and beebalm. The first couple of years this milkweed was in the garden, though, the monarchs made use of it, too. I'll take a look for it tonight when I get home.

I also noticed a robust Indian Tobacco plant (Lobelia inflata) growing at the base of one of my dogwoods. Hurrah! The last time I saw this plant and photographed it, it disappeared before I could take a good long look at it. So, was delighted to find it here. As you can see, the flowers are quite small.

But look at those pouches. These are what develops after fertilization. My friend Jackie says they remind her of tobacco pouches. I just wrote about Indian Tobacco for the Adirondack Almanack, so you can read about it here if you are interested in learning more about this lovely little lobelia.

Caterpickles

The monarch butterflies have been few and far between this year. In fact, after seeing the first one(s) in early July, I can't recall seeing any more! So I was pleasantly surprised to actually find a monarch caterpillar on one of my butterflyweeds a couple evenings ago.



Yesterday evening I took another look and found a second caterpickle on the same plant!

I moved on to a second plant, peered at it, and discovered one more caterpickle, although this one was significantly smaller! It's amazing how something so strikingly colored can blend right in.

I've also been fascinated this year with the variety in butterflyweeds. Most are orange sherbet colored, but this one has almost reddish stripes on the petals, while the ones we found at the Ice Meadows tended towards yellow.

I also have a couple at home that instead of sporting nice rounded clusters of flowers, they have a Spartan clusters of two to six flowers, spread out sporadically along the stems. Hm.