Since I am on the subject of our trip to the falls, I came across a pink caterpillar during our walks through the trails. Of course, once more I had to stop and take a picture of the flora and fauna in the area we were exploring. The pink caterpillar was rather immense compared to other caterpillars I have seen, about two and a half inches long and three eighths of an inch wide. I almost stepped on it but, in the midst of the grey stones the caterpillars vibrant pink color attracted my attention. Like the mushrooms in a previous post, if you do not pay close attention to the little things in life, you just might pass them by. After some research and looking through many pictures of different caterpillars, I finally found the pink caterpillar, a Prominent Moth in the genus Heterocampa is a genus of moths of the Notodontidae family.
This caterpillar is normally green and changes color just prior to pupation. How exciting I thought, when I photographed this caterpillar it was looking for a spot to start its 'pupal stage. I also wondered what it was going to eventually look like, so I included a picture of the moth after it finished pupating, not as colorful as the pupal stage. While searching for information I thought it may have been a brightly colored butterfly and the pink caterpillar actually turned out to be an interesting looking brown moth.
Till next time...
Image of moth found @
http://bugguide.net/node/view/250/bgimage
