Insect Meteorologist?
Old-time folklore and superstitions are usually laughed at
in today’s modern, scientific world. But
can your technology predict the severity of the coming winter? Undoubtedly, we think it can. Weather satellites, historic weather trend
analysis, computer modelling and the heavily degreed men and women of meteorology
would indicate that technology can do a decent job predicting the weather, I
think. But in simpler times, before the
advent of space travel and computers, our ancestors would use a number of naturally
occurring indicators to help them predict the weather. The times of bird migrations and insect
activity were among them. In the case of
winter weather one of the insects used to predict the severity of the coming
season was the coloring of the “Woolly Bear” or “Woolly Worm”, a common caterpillar
native to North America, so called because of its woolly appearance. It is the caterpillar of the Isabella Tiger Moth (Pyrrharctia Isabella), a rather
understated moth of yellow, orange or pink with small black spots. The moth lays her eggs during the warm summer
and they grow into brown and black fuzzy caterpillars that are evident in
October. Normally, the front and rear
sections of the caterpillar are black and the mid sections are rust brown.
Isabella Tiger Moth |
All brown Isabella caterpillar |
There
are even all white “Woolly Bears” caterpillars that are the larva of the Spotted
Tiger Moth. I didn’t see any the day I
was exploring but if I find one I will update this article. So, the brown and black segments of the Isabella caterpillar seem
to be a better indicator of how long it’s growing season was as opposed to how
severe the coming winter will be. As the weather cools the
caterpillars find a safe place to hide and hibernate through the winter,
emerging in spring and cocooning until emerging as the moth. Tiger Moths have two generations every year,
one in spring after emerging and one in summer, which will hibernate through
the winter.
Woolly Bears do not sting! |
The great thing about Woolly Bears is that they do not
sting! Many other woolly or hairy
caterpillars have stinging spines or hairs.
Not so with the Woolly Bear. All
of its color variations are safe to handle, making it an
excellent and fun little insect to introduce children to insects. When handled they tend to curl up in a
protective little ball, but they will soon crawl around on your
hand at surprising speed! Some people
keep Woolly Bears as pets and they seem to do well, of course you should expect
them to hibernate over winter, which is probably not very exciting for the
kids.
So unless a long, warm fall indicates a mild winter, which
it may or may not, it is hard to say that our Woolly Bear weather predictor is
any more accurate than a heavily degreed meteorologist, but they are probably
more entertaining.
In the Southern States the caterpillar is mostly referred to as the Woolly Worm. The tradition of observing the Woolly Worm is still strong in North Carolina, where every year there is a Woolly Worm Festival and a properly trained Woolly Worm is selected as the year's winner and winter weather forecaster. The 2016 festival is 15-16 October in Banner Elk, North Carolina. If you go to festival let us know how it was!