The Five of Us, Spring 2014
Look What We Found
Eww. I wouldn't make a very good entomologist. A was mowing the lawn yesterday afternoon and noticed one of our new-this-spring trees wasn't looking so hot. He got a little closer and saw that many of the leaves seemed to have been eaten away. That's when he noticed this guy.
A ran in to get me and the camera. Then he began to detach the branch onto which our new enemy was clinging. It was too high to reach, so he was smacking at the branch with another stick of scrap wood. With each blow, the little branch shook tremendously and the ginormous green caterpillar spit or peed or somehow excreted some kind of fluid. While horrifying, it wasn't stinky, which is what I had expected as soon as I saw the ejection of slime.
As if you can't tell from the photo above, this was one HUGE caterpillar. He was all scrunched up by the time we took this photo. He was about 50% longer and skinnier before we started messing with him.
As if you can't tell from the photo above, this was one HUGE caterpillar. He was all scrunched up by the time we took this photo. He was about 50% longer and skinnier before we started messing with him.Now, if I would have been a better entomologist, I would have saved this terribly interesting specimen, fed him lettuce, and found out what kind of bird-sized butterfly just such a brute becomes. I would have done that instead of letting A stone him to death while I absented myself. Thankfully, the kids were napping and missed out on all the fun.
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My Man and Me
married 7/7/2001
Punk
ours through biology, born 7/25/2004, home 8/1/2004
Pea
ours through adoption from Liberia, West Africa, born 7/15/2005, home 10/25/2007
Pup
ours through domestic adoption, born 1/15/2011, home 2/10/2011, final 8/3/2011
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2 comments:
Was this a tomato worm? We have something similar on our tomato plants. They eat and eat and eat until all the leaves are gone. But they get huge. My boys are always on the lookout for them. They pull them off and wack them with shovels! I think they are gross.
HRTH--We found out it is a Luna Moth pupa. Next time instead of stoning it, we'll just rehabitatize it in the woods behind our house. Luna moths deserve to live. Just not on our new trees!
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