Woolly What?

I started wondering why there were only 2 animals that had once evolved into wooly renditions. Times were cold during the ice age. Surely there were other animals that made adaptations, too, in order to survive? And then I remembered, way back in my childhood, of hearing about another animal that was called 'woolly'.

The woolly caterpillar!

Quickly, I set out to find what information I could on this remaining ice age creature.

It is known by many names; woolly bear caterpillar, fuzzy bear caterpillar, woolly worm, and hedgehog caterpillar. But apparently, nobody calls it a woolly caterpillar! I can only guess that one of my childhood playmates shortened 'woolly bear caterpillar' into 'woolly caterpillar', or I did it myself, possibly without even realizing I had done it.

The woolly bear caterpillar is the larval form of the Isabella tiger moth. It has black fur at the front and back, with a band of reddish brown around the middle.

They can usually be found in the autumn, after they have stuffed themselves on a variety of grasses and weeds, including dandelion, nettles and plantain, and are then in search of a dark and sheltered spot where they can hibernate for the winter.

There are those who believe that the amount of black on the woolly bear in the autumn predicts how severe the coming winter will be. But the truth is that its coloring is dependent on how well it stuffed itself, its age, and the species (there are about 260 species of tiger moth).

The isabella tiger moth's larval form occurs in the United States, Greenland and Canada. It can be found in many cold regions, including the Arctic. The Arctic woolly bear caterpillar emerges from the egg in the fall. It spends the winter in its larval form, frozen solid. First, its heart stops beating, then its gut freezes, its blood, and finally the rest of the body. It survives by producing a cryoprotectant in its tissues. In the spring, it thaws, and resumes eating. It will go through 7 winters in the frozen state before it finally becomes a moth. As an adult moth, it has about 1 week to mate, lay eggs, and die.

It is not recommended to handle the woolly bear caterpillar because their sharp hairs may cause dermatitis in some people.

The larval form of the isabella tiger moth should not be confused with the larval forms of the Grammia incorrupta or the garden tiger moth, both of whom are also called woolly bear caterpillars.

Woollybear Caterpillar festivals are held in several locations in the fall: Vermillion, OH; Banner Elk, NC; Beattyville, KY; Oil City, PA; and Little Valley, NY.

Well, that was not what I expected. I was thinking an ice age megafauna, maybe 4 or 5 feet tall at the shoulder, able to provide a feast for dozens of humans at a time. Or maybe they would trample right over humans. Something that when it finally hatched, would produce an adult about the size of Mothra!

Still, that freezing in order to get through the winter, that's kind of neat. I'll have to remember that and work it into some story or other.

 

https://ccswoollybearcaterpillarbaum1.weebly.com/information.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrrharctia_isabella

https://www.weather.gov/arx/woollybear