Welcome to the 36th edition of the Windows on Wildlife Blog Carnival! If you have a recent post or photo about wildlife you’d like to share (it can be anything: birds, insects, mammals…) scroll down to the end of the post and add your site. I will compile and post a summary of all additions the following week. Please don’t forget to link back here and visit other blogs in the carnival. Thanks for stopping by!
Michelle at Rambling Woods helped me with this one – I mentioned a particular caterpillar that I’ve been seeing in my pollinator garden, and she suggested that it might be a Milkweed Tussock Moth. And she was right! (thanks, Michelle!) Reminiscent of a Monarch butterfly’s coloration, this hairy caterpillar will overwinter in its cocoon and emerge as a small, mousy-grey moth with yellow and black abdomen:
In order to confirm Michelle’s guess, I turned to my field guide collection which was sadly lacking in caterpillar and moth identification. I used this excuse to get two new guides: Peterson’s First Guide to Caterpillars, and the newest addition to the Peterson’s Field Guide library – Field Guide to Moths of Northeastern North America (note: book links take you to Powell’s Books, of which I’m an affiliate seller).
Unfortunately, the Field Guide to Moths doesn’t deal with identification of caterpillars which is why I ended up with two. Despite its hefty size and price (relatively speaking) I opted to get the moth guide in aspirations of eventually mothing. Hasn’t happened yet, though. But I will say that I already love this comprehensive guide. One of the tricks I use in getting a leg up on identification (regardless of topic) is to go through a field guide in advance. This one is quite large and will take time to assimilate, but it’s a good strategy to employ before first using any field guide in the field. I can’t say that I follow this strategy religiously, but I do try and scan my new guides as much as possible before using them, when I can (or remember to).
Linking up this week with Nature Notes:
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Gary and Boom of Vermilon River Wildlife shared a post last week with stunning photos (as usual!), among which were some of a Northern Harrier and a Black-billed Cuckoo. Share your wildlife posts and photos from the week in the link-up below!
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So it was….cute cat, plain moth… I was just dusting an organizing my nature library and I do have a moth and a cat guide that I need to take a look at. I will see which ones I have…. Michelle
There aren’t many moth guides out there, I’d be curious to know which one you have!
Great post. I’m really light on the insects. Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.
I like how you do research together with Michelle. Good detective work.
Mothing? I’ve never heard of mothing. The caterpillar is kind of cute!
such a beautiful caterpillar and moth. there are such a very large amount of them I imagine it being very difficult to identify them.