Camp Songs

Tent caterpillars make a pretty dramatic sight. Except these are not part of that specialized group.

They are instead fall webworm, Hyphantria cunea, classified instead in the gigantic Noctuoidea superfamily of moths. Convergent evolution is a wonderful thing.

Opinions seems to differ as to just how damaging the species is. I've certainly seen them kill off entire trees... but small ones, and isolated. Mostly, some people just seem to think they look creepy. Unlike tent caterpillars which build a single tent at a branch node, webworms' modus operandi is to net entire smaller branches at a time and polish off every leaf. And if you've seen them anywhere other than North America, they're invasive. (According to my mother, her grandmother used to take a literal torch to their webs.)

As an aside, notice in the next shot the six true legs (the spinier ones toward its head, toward the right part of its body) with the distinction very clear between those (which will become the insect's legs in adulthood) and the jelly-like pseudopods along the rest of its body, which will be lost during metamorphosis.

But the funny part (as with tent caterpillars) is that you can make these little jokers dance. When spooked, like, say, at certain sound frequencies (well within the range of human vocal chords) they will all start shaking their upper bodies, to prevent predators or their numerous parasites from landing on them.

Sadly for me, I visited these particular campers at dawn on a clammy, cloudy, breezy early autumn day, and they were so chilled they could barely even move. A couple of them tried shaking their groove thing, but even then it was more of a macarena than a Charleston.

 

I guess that would have been a good chance for me to lay my eggs on them. If I were so inclined. Ah, well. Opportunities lost.