Our bug this week is a tiny caterpillar.
At first it looked like a bit of debris on the top of a Mexican hat flower.
Upon closer examination, it is a tiny looper caterpillar, Family Geometridae.
I was hoping to learn more, but it disappeared shortly afterwards.
The world can be a harsh place for a tiny caterpillar.
The news this week is from the East Coast.
It turns out that there has been an awesome migration of red admiral butterflies (Vanessa atalanta) this year, especially in the Northeast.
(Red Admiral Butterfly by Peter Häger at Public Domain Pictures)
We always hear about the celebrity of butterfly migrants, the monarch, but other butterflies migrate, too. This year the red admirals attracted attention because of the numbers that were flying. Take a look (Note: there is a pop-up ad).
In 2008, I wrote a post about another species of Vanessa, the painted lady, Vanessa cardui, that was migrating in large numbers here in Arizona.
If you are interested in participating in a citizen science project, the 2012 Vanessa Migration Project is in full swing. The project leaders want information on sightings of:
•   Red Admiral, Vanessa atalanta
•   Painted Lady, Vanessa cardui
•   American Lady, Vanessa virginiensis
•   West Coast Lady, Vanessa annabella
Vanessa Research Home page tells you more.
I’d love to hear from you if you decide to try it out.
It is easy to find photographs of butterfly life cycles because butterflies are bright, colorful and active during the day. People like them.
Moths, on the other hand, are commonly drab, secretive and fly mostly at night, so not as much is available.
This is what the typical adult moth looks like.
Some moths can be quite colorful, however, so color is not the only factor to consider. Another feature of moths is that their bodies are often thicker than that of butterflies, and the thorax area in particular may be covered with hair-like scales (illustration from Wikimedia). Therefore, moths look fuzzy.
The adult moths lay eggs. The size and shape will depend on the species of moth. These are silkworm eggs.
The yellow eggs on the leaf above were laid by an Io moth, Automeris io (Photograph by Gary Foster at Wikimedia).
The eggs hatch into larvae, commonly called caterpillars.
The caterpillar shown here is a type of cutworm. Moth larvae are essentially just like butterfly larvae.
Moth pupae, however, are quite different from butterfly pupae. Often moth larvae construct a bag made of silk, called a cocoon, and then pupate inside it. The pupa itself is plain reddish-brown.
Other moth larvae excavate underground chambers and pupate in the soil.
Butterfly pupae, in contrast, are called chrysalids and sometimes form colorful and elaborate shapes. They are often found attached to plants.
For another view of a moth life cycle, try this post about silkworms.
Although moths are often ignored, they are on the order of ten times more numerous than butterflies. That means that for every butterfly you see flitting about your yard, there may be ten species of moths hidden away. Something to think about…
For more information, see Roberta Gibson Writes.
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