Monday, November 15, 2010

There's A Dog In My Garden!

It's a Yorkie! This super-fuzzy caterpillar was hanging out in August.......
 ....and when I discovered his ID it all made sense: this fella will turn into a Milkweed Tussock Moth! Looks like I discovered yet another amazing resident of Milkweed City! In this stage of development (the "third instar"), he has the same colors of the monarch butterfly...kind of a theme in their milkweedy habitat.
The adult is this nice silvery grey with black "stockings". The body under those wings still has the flashy coloring, but this one kept it well-hidden. I probably could have gotten a look if I'd jostled him, but I prefer to let them be....
....to come and go as they please. Hey, I can even tell the front from the back on this one.
See ya next year!

6 comments:

meemsnyc said...

Oooh, what a neat looking creature!!

lisa said...

RIGHT?! That's what I thought too, certainly different than the regular ol' wooly bear caterpillars for sure!

Anonymous said...

That's one cool dude. :)
I've seen more caterpillars this year than I have in years! I'm constantly dodging them on the road. Didn't the oldtimers always say that a LOT of caterpillars was a sign (bad winter or mild) can't remember which, can you?
Around here we're having a VERY mild winter. You too?
v.

lisa said...

So far our winter is just barely underway...the big stuff usually happens in late December and January. I did a lookup about the caterpillars and found that farmers used the wooly bear's stripe as a predictor: if the stripe is wide: winter will be mild. If the stripe is narrow: winter will be severe. I didn't see anything referring to caterpillar numbers, but I'm sure this "science" is regional :)

MRBROWNTHUMB said...

That caterpillar is beautiful. I hope to see one in person one of these days.

lisa said...

Plant it (milkweed) and they will come! :) (As long as you don't use pesticides, of course.)