2024 March 11

   Kirsten Mills sends a picture of a Banded Woolly Bear caterpillar from Swan Lake, March 9.  We are accustomed to seeing many of these in October, after which they hide away somewhere over the winter.  Overwintering caterpillars are not at all easy to rear.  Occasionally Banded Woolly Bears are to be found early in spring, after they have woken up from wherever they have spent the winter.  When they are found in spring, they have usually finished feeding, and are looking for somewhere to spin a cocoon and pupate.  They are then easy to rear to adulthood.  The adult moths are called Isabella Tiger Moths.

Banded Woolly Bear  Pyrrharctia isabella  (Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiinae)  Kirsten Mills

Kirsten also found at Swan Lake this early European Paper Wasp:

 European Paper Wasp  Polistes dominula  (Hym.: Vespidae)  Kirsten Mills