This week in the woods, late season caterpillars are making their fuzzy way across the ground in search of the perfect cocoon site. To help them on their way, they use “prolegs,” which anchor parts of the caterpillar to a fixed point, from which body segments can stretch forward. We found this banded tussock moth caterpillar crawling on a stem in Thetford, Vermont (thanks to Tig Tillinghast for the image), and pretty much lost our minds over its flower-like pink prolegs.
There’s an informative post about caterpillar movement, written by Liz Kautz, on the Caterpillar Lab’s website. Some of the details Kautz shares are visible in this photo. The hairs on prolegs are called planta hairs, and Kautz notes, “Each of these hairs has its own sensory neuron which provides information to the caterpillar about the substrate.” You can also see translucent pads at the end of each of the caterpillar’s prolegs. These are called crochets, and the brown, comb-like things you can see at their ends are barbs.
“The tiny barbs work like Velcro to tightly attach the prolegs to all kinds of substrates, including leaves, twigs, and fingers,” Kautz explains. “If you’ve ever held a caterpillar, you’ve probably felt those sticky crochets on your skin!”
Also out there this week: an abundance of late-blooming common evening-primrose, red squirrels caching fungi (they will often stash mushrooms on a tree branch to dry, before stashing them), and a noticeable increase in turkey buzzards kettling, as the birds use afternoon thermals to power their southward movement.
What have you noticed in the woods this week? Submit a recent photo for possible inclusion in our monthly online Reader Photo Gallery.