Ms. Coleman, the Plant Identifier

I enjoyed reading your responses to my challenge questions again today. Here are your answers. You are doing a really super job. Make sure you are commenting on the correct entry, since many people seem to be commenting on the blog from March.
Challenge #1: The difference between a parasitoid and a parasite is that a parasitoid kills their host in one generation. For example, if a wasp were to lay its eggs in a caterpillar, the eggs would hatch, but the caterpillar would not survive. The wasp would be a parasitoid because only one life cycle of the wasp would come from killing the caterpillar. A parasite’s goal is to live in a host for many generations, so a parasite would not kill the caterpillar, but live at the expense of another host, which it does not usually kill.

Challenge #2: The mysterious creature (or Waldo) is actually a gray tree frog. Can you see it better in the picture to the right?

Challenge #3: The caterpillar (that looks kinda like a snake) is another swallowtail, similar to the one from the blog entry 2 days ago. This attractive green caterpillar is called the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Papilio glaucus. What appears to be eyes is actually just false eye dots, to make the caterpillar appear to have a large head, which would prevent predators from eating it for dinner. (Super job Ellie, Rebecca, and Lucas on answering this question! I shared your responses and research skills with my team and they were blown away. Milana was very close too!!)

This morning we went out on the kayaks again, but this time we collected caterpillars on land, rather than those found on plants growing in the water. Basically, when we collect caterpillars, it is either a random or “general” collection (meaning we can do it from anywhere at anytime) or we collect from plots. Setting up a plot is a long process and took hours, but can provide much more specific information about the interactions within an ecosystem. The basic rules for creating a plot are that we have to set up a quadrant and collect all the caterpillars in that particular 10-meter plot. (By criss-crossing 2 long orange pieces of tape, we were able to outline a large circle). We also used a GPS device to mark the specific location. In addition to finding caterpillars we had to count or estimate every single leaf and it’s herbivory in the plot. This was my main role today and let me tell you…it isn’t easy.

Can you imagine trying to estimate the number of leaves on every plant within a 10-meter circle? And, to top it off, the palm pilots we used to input the data both froze and lost everything we had collected. Ms. Coleman quickly realized that becoming a scientist is definitely hard work! Luckily, we did end up finding most of our data later. Whew!

Ms. Coleman, the caterpillar hunter, is back for a second day! Check out the video to learn more about what I did today!

Here are some pictures from our work today, both out in the field and here in our bunkhouse lab. The picture shows a caterpillar from the family called “psychidae,” commonly known as the bagworm. I wonder how it got its name?
Challenge #1: Can you tell me more about this type of caterpillar and why it looks like a bunch of branches?
After lunch, half of us spent time updating and cleaning the “Caterpillar Zoo.” We took out all the caterpillars we found yesterday and today and used a guide to identify them. We also identified the plants they were eating since sometimes while we are collecting, it is hard to figure out what is what. By identifying the plants they are eating, we are able to make connections and learn more about the interactions on all levels of the food web. We made sure the caterpillars were healthy by looking for herbivory (signs that something has had a bite to eat) and frass (caterpillar poop) in the bag.

Here is another caterpillar we found in the field in the geometridae family! They are also called "loopers" or "inchworms" since they make a distinctive loop shape when moving. (So inch worms aren't actually worms...) The one in the picture looks normal, but take a look at the video of a geometridae that probably won't live too much longer.

While we were going through all the samples collected in the morning, we had a hard time finding some of the caterpillars in the zip loc bags. When we took them out, sometimes we still could not find them!
Challenge #2: Find the caterpillar in this photo below. Explain where and how you found it.

I am pretty tired today since trying to identify caterpillars and plants can be really tough and frustrating at times. (Especially since Ms. Coleman never likes not being able to find the right answer.) There isn’t a whole lot of information about caterpillars out there and can you imagine trying to figure out what a plant is when there are so many to choose from!?

I am off to bed now, but please be sure to ask me lots of questions and let me know about things you would like to see or hear about when we Skype Thursday morning. Miss you lots! Thanks again for your great comments!

Someone asked this question in the comment section, so here is the answer (according to the scientists I am working with):
Q: How do you identify if a caterpillar is a girl or boy?
A: The best way to tell the difference is to rear or raise the caterpillar into a moth or butterfly. When it’s an adult, there are various indicators that would suggest one sex or the other. For instance, in humans males would grow facial hair easily and women usually do not. In certain adult caterpillars, some adult males have very feathery antennae to help them find females. The female excretes chemicals to tell the male where she is. The male’s antennae have become larger and more complicated over time to detect the female’s chemical communications easier. This is just one example of how scientists determine a caterpillar’s sex.