I was talking to a moth the other evening he was trying to break into an electric lightbulb. – Kevin Dutton, British psychologist & writer (1967-)
I’ve always preferred moths to butterflies. They aren’t flashy or cocky: they mind their own business and just try to blend in…and live their lives. – Kayla Krantz, Fantasy author
Another beautiful morning on the porch. I settled into the brown framed porch chair, the one with the matching brown woven seat and back. As soon as I sat down, I saw a furry brown thing moving along the armrest. Fortunately, I had encountered one of these little furry things before though not this particular species. The creeping fellow was the tussock moth caterpillar. They have a body full of thick feathery “hair.” Both front and back they have longer hairs that look like antennas but they’re not. From past experiences fuzzy caterpillars are stingers. That is, they will sting and cause a rash. Children seem to be most susceptible to the rashes though any sting, child or adult will sting.
There’s a blogger, Mike Dunn, on roadsendnaturalist.com, who saw a caterpillar in late October. He mentioned the tussock moth caterpillar is easily spotted as they don’t seem to hide very much or very well. You may find them sitting on the leaves of plants and trees particularly oak, hickory, ash and other plants. He mentioned finding the tussock on his porch rail, inside the screened in porch, on top of the garbage can lid, or moving along on the ground.
So it’s no surprise my tussock turned up on the porch furniture. Also, it seems the tussock likes to hang around light at night so while I leave the lantern on beside the chair at night to attract bugs so the tree frogs can feed, possibly the tussock enjoys the light as well and sits on the arm of my chair. Caterpillars are not known to be aggressive which seems likely as the caterpillar moved along beside me until I encouraged him to crawl onto the flyswatter I keep beside the chair and eased him over to another leafy plant. I have not seen him since.
I’ve seen the moth that comes from the tussock moth caterpillar. It is a soft brown and quite nondescript. Moths do not necessarily attract me like the butterflies do. The yellow Sulphur butterflies are still zipping around here and there on the petunias.
However, walking back from the greenhouse there in the grass was an astonishing creature I thought to be a wounded butterfly. The colors were so vivid. I gently picked him up and found Sam. “It’s a moth,” he said. I placed the moth on the porch floor steps. Wilhelmina suddenly appeared looking at the moth. I said several times, “Do not touch the moth,” in my strongest voice. A couple of times she reached her foot out only to hear the strong warning again. She backed up. I slipped in to get the camera, Wilhelmina had not moved, I eased the moth onto the flyswatter and into the petunias. Within minutes the Parthenius tiger moth flew away. Unlike most moths it has the coloring of a tiger, bright orange and black stripes. Another wonderful day amid the critters.
Shannon Bardwell is a writer living quietly in the Prairie. Email reaches her at [email protected].
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