Woolly worm photo by Charity DCall them Woolly worms, call them Banded Woolly Bears, call them winter forecasters, but these guys are actually the caterpillar form of Pyrrharctia isabella, or the Isabella Tiger Moth.
Classic folklore holds that the more brown the bands on the woolly worms are the worse the winter will be. Reality is the brown band on a woolly worms grow wider as the caterpillar matures, they are not "born" with wide bands pending a bad winter.
The Isabella Tiger Moth is a small to medium size moth that transforms from the Banded Woolly Bear to the adult moth in late spring, and the cycle begins again with the eggs of the Isabella Tiger Moth hatching in the late summer early fall.
Isabella Tiger Moth Adult
Photo by Linden G.
No comments:
Post a Comment