First Day as a Caterpillar Hunter!

Expert Caterpillar Hunter here! (Well, not quite) In just one day, I can say with confidence that I am on my way to becoming a skilled scientist. Since it’s Sunday, we were going to sleep in, but of course I was up at 6am ready to go! It rained really hard last night and definitely made me appreciate the shelter of our bunkhouse! We spent this morning setting up our lab and unloading field equipment. Rebecca, our lead investigator, talked with all of us about the different types (or species) of caterpillars that we would probably encounter.

I made sure I took all of your advice when I got dressed this morning. I tucked my pants into my boots to keep unwanted pests out, covered my clothes in bug spray, and wore a hat to protect myself from the sun and falling critters! Candy, a teacher from Florida, lent me a bright orange shirt since we have to stand out during hunting season. How do I look? (a little silly I think!)

Today, we began collecting samples of plants and caterpillars. When we find a caterpillar, we have to put it in a plastic bag, along with the plant that we find it eating. We also write the date, location of the caterpillar, family and species of the caterpillar, plant name, and the Instar. Instar just means developmental stage (or how old the caterpillar is). This site has more information about the life cycle: Life Cycle of a Butterfly

For our first hunt, we drove about 5 minutes down the road into the Honey Island Swamp. When I saw the high water warning, I was a little worried, but we were assured that this was a safe area to begin our search.

Right away, I noticed a bunch of leaves with holes that made the leaf look like swiss cheese. It looked like something was hungry!

Challenge #1: I also saw the leaf in the picture below. What do you think is on it?
Here is the first caterpillar of the day…guess who found it? (Yep, me!) The caterpillar in this picture is in the family of Papilionidae. The common name is Giant Swallowtail or Orange Dog and the species is cresphontes. We found it on a citrus plant as soon as we arrived in the swamp. What does this caterpillar look like to you? (I’ll give you a hint…when a predator approaches this caterpillar, what might scare it off?)

In some of my blog entries, I may ask you to identify caterpillars found in the field. Here are some sites to help you:

Dr. Lee Dyer’s Caterpillars of Louisiana
What’s This Caterpillar?


Challenge #2: Here is a picture of a caterpillar that another teacher and I found. Your challenge is to try and identify it! I included the sites above to help. Try to include the scientific and common name. What else can you tell me about this caterpillar? You may have to search other websites.


Challenge #3: Clustered together on a tree trunk, this “colony” of caterpillars in the video below was moving around in a strange way. I thought they were doing a choreographed dance? Why do you think they were moving like that?

Please try to respond to as many of the challenge questions as possible. Make sure you write which challenge question you are answering and include your name. Each day, I will post the answers to the previous day’s challenge. Who will prove they have what it takes to answer all the challenge questions??

I miss everyone and look forward to talking soon!