Up From the Grave He Arose...!

When Miss Hope asked me if we had a name for our school, I told her that yes, we did and that we named everything, even captured bugs destined to die. When I wrote that, I had a specific bug in mind. A moth caterpillar, actually. After about two days of his imprisonment, we found him curled in a ball with some kind of whitish stuff around him and mulch stuck to that. We assumed he had made a cocoon.

So, we searched the WWW(Google: the homeschooler's best friend) and found out that he was a Virginian Tiger Moth and had, in fact, made a cocoon. We read about the care and keeping of moths and cocoons, eagerly anticipating his emerging. We had read that it would take a few weeks and Nathaniel was surprisingly patient. After about a month, however, I was sure the thing had died. Nathaniel was, too. But since he had another bug in the cage and didn't want to risk his escape, we didn't take it out. Besides, it did not smell or anything like that.

Yesterday, we came inside after a morning of outdoor play for lunch, and found a entirely unknown moth resting lightly on the side of the little cage. And no cocoon! Needless to say we were ecstatic. This was the first caterpillar we had ever had that had lived to adulthood! We were however a little disappointed that our attempt at insect identification had been a flop.

When I pulled out my computer and tried to find what kind of moth it was-BINGO! That was right, too, if not specific.

AHEM, HOMESCHOOL LESSON IN SCIENCE AND INSECT IDENTIFICATION TO FOLLOW. IF YOU DO NOT WANT A MINI LECTURE, STOP READING NOW!;)

This specific moth's Latin name is spilsoma congrua. (don't ask about pronunciation, this is not English class!) It looks like this:

If you want a name to call it that you can actually pronounce, call it the Agreeable Tiger Moth, or just Tiger Moth. They are Quite common throughout the USA. For a good map of where they are, click here.

The caterpillars are nothing much to look at. Brown and black, roly-poly, prickly-looking. Here is a pic of the young tiger moth.

I recommend trying to raise a young caterpillar next summer. It's really great fun to learn and watch.