Paula Nye Videos!

Is it a caterpillar, or is it a tube of poo?

Today's topic is what we do with all the caterpillars once we collect them. First of all, we take them out of the bags that we put them in in the field. We count them, to make sure we don't lose any in the bag. In the video above, the bag said there were 6 caterpillars, but we could only find 4. Then Katie found something she though might be a caterpillar......




Is it a Maple Looper, or is it a False Underwing?
Then we make sure to identify the caterpillars with their appropriate scientific name by looking them up in the field guide. I found a caterpillar that I thought was in the Geometrid (inchworm) family, but......

We think it's a Maple Looper.....kind of......
We decide to enter it in the database as a Maple Looper. We'll have to wait until it comes out as an adult and see what it is for sure!

Caterpillar Theme Song

Here is the caterpillar we were trying to identify, with our theme song in the background. The words are "Caterpillar, Caterpillar. Caterpillar, Caterpillar. Tickle, Tickle on my arm. Tickle, Tickle on my arm. Tickle, tickle on my arm, Tickle Tickle on my arm. Caterpillar, Caterpillar. Caterpillar, caterpillar."

Holy Data, Batman!
After we finalize all our information, we put it into the database so we can keep track of EVERYTHING!!! Later, Rebecca and Dr. Dyer will compile all the numbers to see how climate change is affecting the relationship between the caterpillars and the parasitoids.