September 19, 2011
I headed out to the garden early this morning to pick raspberries for breakfast, and found a furry looking caterpillar with big black ‘eyebrows’ eating the leaves of the raspberry bush. I looked it up online, and discovered that after it spins its cocoon, it will overwinter in dried leaves in our garden, and eventually emerge next spring as a hickory tussock moth (Lophocampa caryae).
This caterpillar has aposematic coloration, which means which means that the colors on its body serve as a warning to predators that it is dangerous to eat. And in this case, the warning includes YOU! If you see this caterpillar in your garden, don’t touch it. Those long, white-and-black hairs (called ‘setae’) have tiny barbs on them, like fishhooks. If you get the microscopic hairs on your hands and then rub your eye, a doctor will have to remove the uncomfortable hairs from your eyeballs. These are "look but don’t touch" creatures, for predators, and also for us!
Posted by: Seymour Simon
