Caterpillar Congregation by Leeco

Photography • Creatures • posted on May 05, 2007

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Description

Nikon 7900 image. I normally take most of my pics on my way to and from my mailbox. I own about 25 acres of woodland and my driveway is about 1/4 of a mile long. I can easily spend an hour or just moseying along and photographing what-ever catches my eye. However, on the day this pic was taken, I was specifically looking for some Muscedine vines to photograph because they form such interesting shapes and I had a good idea where there were some nice examples. Imagine my surprise when I found this congregation of very colorful caterpillars. They appear to have gathered in a group for a mass molting. If you view the full size image, you can see some of the discarded skins that are attached to the vine they are clustered on and if you look very closely at the middle of the photo, you can see a difference in the head colors of one of the newly molted ones. The heads of freshly molted ones are sort of greyish for awhile and will eventually turn black. I have never noticed this species before and it took investigation at "Whatsthatbug" to discover what species they belong to. They eat the foliage of Greenbriar vines and will turn into a small mottled grey and white moth. BTW - While researching the identification of this caterpillar, I learned that in North America, there are lessthan 500 species of butterflies but there are over 5000 species of moths so (by a ratio of 11 to 1) most of the caterpillars we see, become moths and not butterflies. Tomorrow I will post a close-up image of just one of these caterpillars on one of the Muscedine vines I was originally wanting to shoot, lol. Thanks to all who took the time to comment on my postings. Lee

Comments (12)

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lizzibell

12:36AM | Sat, 05 May 2007

Very nice...

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sharky_

12:49AM | Sat, 05 May 2007

I never seen them bundle like this. Impressive capture and find. Aloha

MrsLubner

1:12AM | Sat, 05 May 2007

An incredible find and a great capture. Excellent.

thevolunteer

1:38AM | Sat, 05 May 2007

Do you think they were going "postal"? Great find here. Aloha and have a great weekend.

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Matt_The_Samurai

2:20AM | Sat, 05 May 2007

WOW !

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LouLouBell

3:30AM | Sat, 05 May 2007

Kewl shot!!

BibbyBear

6:00AM | Sat, 05 May 2007

This is so amazing and a definite to view full size to appreciate the details. Wonderful composition and a worthy subject to shoot. Very well spotted and captured. xx

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tizjezzme

9:00AM | Sat, 05 May 2007

What a find indeed, Lee! :) Your place sounds like mine -- only here 20 acres and about 1/8 mi long driveway. :) Mostly woods .. anyway!! What a great find -- this is awesome! I found some 'Tent Caterpillars' the other day; may upload in the next few days. I look forward to your closeup! :))

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