A Banded Woolly Bear

Pyrrharctia Isabella, more commonly known as a banded woolly bear, is the caterpillar stage of the Isabella Tiger Moth. The caterpillars emerge from eggs in late summer and early fall in temperate climates. They remain active and feed on broadleaf plants until cold weather sets in. When the weather begins to cool, the woolly bears—sometimes in a migrating mass of caterpillars—seek out protected places in the understory: under deadfall, under leaves, or in root tangles. The woolly bears overwinter by curling into a coil and more or less freezing solid. Even the heart of the caterpillar stops beating. In the spring, the caterpillar emerges and pupates before becoming a moth.

Interestingly, in the Arctic, due to the short growing season for vegetation, the woolly bear must feed for several summers and freeze again each winter before becoming a moth.

Folklore holds that the thickness of the dark middle color band is a predictor of winter. If the dark band is thin, the winter will be severe; if the band is thick, the winter will be mild. The middle band, as a certain fact, grows wider as the caterpillar ages.

On a trip to the mountains with Desiree, I found a handsome woolly bear marching across the leaves of a berry bush. I am sharing a photograph of the woolly bear. The leaves on the bush are already blushing with fall colors.

—Mitchell Hegman

NOTE: The body of this blog is a repeat from a blog I posted in 2013