Caterpillars

Southern Maine Botanical Garden: Boothbay, Maine

On our way to search for trolls we also found caterpillars.  Specifically, the Caterpillar Lab, a New Hampshire non-profit that gets people really excited to learn about caterpillars.  They do this by having hundreds of live caterpillars on display.  It was so much fun, we could have spent all day – but we also had some trolls to find.  Just a few fun facts…

Did you know there are poisonous barbed caterpillars? That some are five inches long, bright green with orange spikes on top? That wasps lay their eggs inside some caterpillars to feed their young? That as part of the circle of life, caterpillars become fat juicy morsels for birds and other animals by munching on otherwise inedible leaves? 

We get to see in real time as a pupa transforms out of its caterpillar skin and then will soon become a moth.  It makes me rethink my distaste for tent caterpillars and maybe how I may have mistreated them all these years.

Check out the Caterpillar Lab online for more info.  Too bad it is mainly for New Englanders. I wonder if there is a similar group in the northwest.