What's new, skipper?

The caterpillar of a skipper butterfly.
If you have ever looked at a dog and wondered what type it was, you know the general sense of uncertainty associated with identifying caterpillars.  It's the same with many things really.  It's a rock, but what type?  Some may even generalize to the extreme, going as far as to exclaim that some organism belongs to the amorphous category of being a "creepy-crawly".  It is similar to examining a wooden structure closely and declaring it to be furniture instead of an armoire of some particular class.  I guess a lot of it has to do with how interesting you find something.

I personally can't tell the difference between an armoire and a cellarette, but I have gotten much better at identifying insects.  Caterpillars still allude me though, as they are all so similar in form and my books do not do them the justice they do adults.  There is a good resource for the Pacific-northwest for the US that I have recently discovered (click here to download the pdf).  Skipper caterpillars have heads that are larger than the cross-section of their bodies, which helps identify them.

I did a blog recently on skippers (click here), so I won't go into the details of the difference between butterflies, moths, and skippers.  Skipper larvae are the only group that have enlarged heads relative to their bodies and are more closely related to butterflies than moths.  The adults are relatively small, usually less than an inch (2.5 cm) across, and feed on flower nectar.  I often find them in the late summer and early fall enjoying the bounty of my lavender bushes.

I look for signs that small organisms are feeding on leaves; telltale evidence includes leaves with holes or stripped edges.  The interesting thing here though is that it tells that something was feeding here, but not when.  Many species have developed a behavioural adaptation involving feeding on an area then moving on so as not to alert predators or parasites as to their whereabouts.  It also happens to make it hard for a macro photographer to find subjects.  I guess if the caterpillar is the skipper, I am just a lowly swabby.

Thanks for reading.   www.ericspix.com  Eric Svendsen 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I found a black widow spider in a plant pot today

Image
The spider I found is a western black widow spider, one of three species of black widow that occur in North America.  The fact that this one has another red patch on the back of its abdomen above the spinnerettes tells us that it is an immature individual. The one thing that people know about black widow spiders is that they are extremely poisonous.  Their venom is something like 15x more toxic than that of a rattlesnake.  The saving grace is that there is very little venom injected from a black widow bite than what a rattlesnake can deliver.   The good news is that black widow bites seldom lead to death.  You are more likely to suffer nausea, muscle pain, and swelling around the bite.  Symptoms usually last only 12 hours or so.  Death may be a result in people with compromised immune systems or in the very young or the elderly.   In 2018, it was reported that there were 1015 cases of people bitten by black widows.  Of those, there ...
Read more

The passing of a generation

Image
Kathryn's mom and dad with our children, Josh and Leanne. A generation, for North America, tends to be between 20 and 30 years.  During that time a couple will give birth and raise children to see them repeat the pattern as they themselves have done.  Each generation has its own set of standards, values, and ideals based upon their experiences and culture, and some of that is passed down to their offspring.  What changes are the life experiences of the following generation and the new customs and ideals that are blended together as a couple becomes a family. Kathryn's mom passed away a few days ago, she was predeceased by her husband several years ago.  Both of them were the grandparents of my children, the mother and father of my wife, Kathryn.  It was my pleasure to know them and to love them as my own, for to me they were Mom and Dad.  And they were there to welcome my children into the world just as my children were with them in spirit when they left it...
Read more

Hang in there, things will get better.

Image
The Svendsen Family - Eric, Samuel, Leanne, Joshua (top row), Nora, Kathryn, Chanelle, Emma If I could go back, in my mind, to a day in my life when I was really down, it would be nice to be able to see into the future.  If could see things as they are today, with the many blessings that have been given to me, it would give me hope knowing that things wouldn't always be so discouraging.   The message here is we do not know what the future holds.  When things are bad, it is hard to raise your head out of the mire to see beyond the darkness.  There are no guarantees, of course, that things will be better, but I think it is true that fortunes ebb and flow as tides do.  The trick is to see beyond the low points and not be too haughty during the high ones.  I know that, at this moment, things are very good.  What the future holds is unknown, but low and high points are likely in the forecast.   This is why taking satisfaction from the moment ...
Read more