I'm into caterpillars this week. *With Pics!* *Update: This is cool:)*

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Wallydraigle

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I've been especially looking for larvae of the Spicebush swallowtail. The larvae feed on members of the Laurel family. I found this one on sassafras. They hide in a curled leaf during the day to make themselves less obvious. They mimic a snake rather well. Here's another view.

I've been watching this one for a couple weeks. I even got to see it molt. Right now it is over five inches long. It will grow up to be an imperial moth. Soon it will burrow into the ground to pupate.

This is the larva of an eight-spotted forester. It's actually a moth but it flies around in the daytime and shares a lot of characteristics with butterflies. I've never actually seen an adult.

I found several caterpillars like this eating elm leaves. It will grow up to be a question mark butterfly.

I haven't identified this beetle. Looks like some kind of cucumber bug to me, probably not mature yet. If you know how big a goldenrod floret is you can get an idea of the size of the beetle. Tiny.

I do other things besides bugs too. The scrambled egg looking stuff is actually what I was going for. The mushrooms were just gravy;) It's a slime mold, Fuligo septica. Slime molds are cool because they have several characteristics in common with protozoans. Their mass of cells actually crawl over surfaces to find the best place to spore. They only stay in the crawling phase for a day or two and then they turn to powder. The mushrooms are probably in the genus Collybia, but that's just a guess. They were maybe 3 cm tall.


Sorry everthing is so small and compressed, I'm on dial-up, really bad dial-up:( Let me know what you think!
 
E

Eli

Super Moderator | Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Originally posted by: hollowman
Originally posted by: lirion
Originally posted by: hollowman
wow.. great pictures. some are really discusting.
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Luckily for you I didn't post any bugs eating or sucking each other's juices this time;)
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:Q
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I fed a regular garden spider to some kind of funnel web weaver spider the other day... It was cool. lol

 
W

Wallydraigle

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Nov 27, 2000
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Originally posted by: The Dancing Peacock
nice shots. what type of camera?
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Doh! I knew that would come up:eek: It's a Canon D60, with a 100-400mm IS lens, and a 500D diopter in front of it, all handheld, no flash.
 
W

Wallydraigle

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Nov 27, 2000
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Originally posted by: Eli
Originally posted by: hollowman
Originally posted by: lirion
Originally posted by: hollowman
wow.. great pictures. some are really discusting.
Click to expand...

Luckily for you I didn't post any bugs eating or sucking each other's juices this time;)
Click to expand...

:Q
Click to expand...

I fed a regular garden spider to some kind of funnel web weaver spider the other day... It was cool. lol
Click to expand...

Hmmm, I never really got into playing American Gladiators with bugs, and at this point in life if someone saw me at it I would get dirty looks at best, and possibly locked up:eek:
 
W

Wallydraigle

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Nov 27, 2000
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Originally posted by: NightFlyerGTI
Good Lord, did you take these pictures?? What kind of
camera is that and settings?!?
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Yep, that's what I do in my spare time. I listed equipment above. Depth of field is critical for closeups and macro so I almost always shoot f/8-f/16. With magnification like that, and handheld to boot, I try to use a shutter of at least 125/s, and that can get really soft unless I can brace myself on something. The smaller things were shot at 400mm, the larger caterpillars somewhere around 300mm.
 
W

Wallydraigle

Banned
Nov 27, 2000
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Originally posted by: Hayabusarider
Man you suck :D


Great pics!
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Thanks man! Next week I'm expecting Canon's 65mm 1x-5x macro lens. I've been looking at lichens and mosses lately and thinking it would be cool to photograph the little critters in there that you can barely see. This lens can fill a 35mm film frame with a grain of rice. And that's without any extension tubes or diopters or anything else. I can hardly wait!:D Of course this gives me an excuse to get a new tripod and that macro flash I've been eyeing. And I'll probably need an eyepiece extender too. I really am a junky:( But there's no twelve step program for me yet so I might as well go with it:D I've been fighting off the urge to get into astrophotography too, but I don't know how long I can hold out.

 
Hayabusa Rider

Hayabusa Rider

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Jan 26, 2000
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Really cool!




Look for some "British Soldiers" when lichen hunting. Jellies are cool too.

PS I still hate you ;)

j/k
 
W

Wallydraigle

Banned
Nov 27, 2000
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Well, I got my new lens, but I don't have anything spectacular to share from it yet because I've been too busy, and also because it is very particular to work with. At 5x magnification, the "O" and part of the "N" in "One Cent" on a penny totally fills the frame. It is impossible to hand hold and get a sharp photo at this magnification. It also yields something like an effective minimum aperture of f/16, so without flash all you'll get is a very dark, blurry frame. The end of the lens is about an inch from the subject to achieve focus at this magnification, and depth of field is only a fraction of a millimeter. When I buy a macro flash and a decent tripod I should have some incredible shots to show.

I've been looking high and low for a fifth instar larva of a Eumorpha pandorus moth. These are non native sphinx moths that have naturalized and feed on Virginia creeper vine, and wild grapes. They are in the family Sphingidae, along with more familiar hornworms, and they look like a five inch long orange-brown tomato worm with a bumpy eye spot instead of a horn. I really want to photograph these guys, but I've been unable to find any. You can see some pics that someone else took here.
 
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Wallydraigle

Banned
Nov 27, 2000
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Well, this is interesting. There are two species of imported Eumorpha that feed on Virginia creeper, the one I'm looking for, and E. achemon. I actually found a specimen of E. achemon this evening. It is an early instar, probably second, and it was covered with the pupal stages of the Braconid wasp. These wasps lay eggs on various caterpillars, and when the larvae hatch they eat the caterpillar's tissues while it is still alive. I posted a photo of a caterpillar with some Braconid eggs a while back. Usually the host does not survive this. Most people regard these wasps as beneficial, since they prey on tomato hornworms, but I just can't have them going around eating all my subjects;) I was going to kill the caterpillar and its parasites, but the little guy still looked to be in good health, so I brought it inside and picked them off with forceps. I guess I just have a soft spot in my heart for a hornworm in distress:p It caused obvious pain when the pupae were being removed. When it was all done I released the little guy onto the Virginia creeper outside my bedroom window so I can keep an eye on him whenever I want. Hopefully it will survive and I can get some shots of it as it grows. You know I got some pictures of it, sorry to keep you hanging;)

This is what it looked like with the parasites all over it. This was taken under my desk lamp, and it has little asthetic value I'm affraid, but it serves as a record for myself. Hopefully I'll have better shots as it progresses toward adulthood. In later instars it will lose the horn on its posterior and gain an eye spot in its place. I'll still have an eye out for E. pandorus, and hopfully I'll have some shots of it to share soon. Later.

P.S. Is there anyone else on this board who would have picked parasites off of a caterpillar? I guess that must sound like a really weird thing to do on a Sunday evening. I really am obsessed:eek:
 
E

Eli

Super Moderator | Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
50,419
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Originally posted by: lirion
Well, this is interesting. There are two species of imported Eumorpha that feed on Virginia creeper, the one I'm looking for, and E. achemon. I actually found a species of E. achemon this evening. It is an early instar, probably second, and it was covered with the pupal stages of the Braconid wasp. These wasps lay eggs on various caterpillars, and when the larvae hatch they eat the caterpillar's tissues while it is still alive. I posted a photo of a caterpillar with some Braconid eggs a while back. Usually the host does not survive this. Most people regard these wasps as beneficial, since they prey on tomato hornworms, but I just can't have them going around eating all my subjects;) I was going to kill the caterpillar and its parasites, but the little guy still looked to be in good health, so I brought it inside and picked them off with forceps. I guess I just have a soft spot in my heart for a hornworm in distress:p It caused obvious pain when the pupae were being removed. When it was all done I released the little guy onto the Virginia creeper outside my bedroom window so I can keep an eye on him whenever I want. Hopefully it will survive and I can get some shots of it as it grows. You know I got some pictures of it, sorry to keep you hanging;)

This is what it looked like with the parasites all over it. This was taken under my desk lamp, and it has little asthetic value I'm affraid, but it serves as a record for myself. Hopefully I'll have better shots as it progresses toward adulthood. In later instars it will lose the horn on its posterior and gain an eye spot in its place. I'll still have an eye out for E. pandorus, and hopfully I'll have some shots of it to share soon. Later.

P.S. Is there anyone else on this board who would have picked parasites off of a caterpillar? I guess that must sound like a really weird thing to do on a Sunday evening. I really am obsessed:eek:
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Cool. ;)

Can't say I've ever picked any parasites off of a caterpillar. I've seen a caterpillar with parasites on it though. :)
 
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