Monday, July 18, 2016

Adventures of looper caterpillar

A caterpillar found in July 2016 in Boston.


Hanging out indoors for a few minutes with an e-reader and a print book

The e-reader cover has a texture that is easy to grip. Why would a caterpillar want to trade it for a slippery print book cover?

Caterpillar crawls around slippery print book with some prodding.

Sometimes we get lost in a book. Other times we get lost around the book.

The caterpillar stands.

The caterpillar stands some more.

The caterpillar stands and leans back

Looping around. "That's why they call me 'looper'!"


Set free in a tree

For no obvious reason, the caterpillar uses its six front feet to wipe its face for four minutes continuously.

In the first few seconds of video, the caterpillar produces a dropping.

The caterpillar crawls on the underside of the leaf. The camera goes upside down to follow it.

1 comment:

  1. I feel like a looper expert after spending this time with your extraordinary entomology observations.

    1. Looper caterpillars have the burden of a ridiculously long body with legs only in the very front and very back of their bodies.
    2. They look like branches .. leave it to you to spot one and even know what it is. I have only seen gyspy moth caterpillars (very short and furry) and other furry caterpillars that
    you can imagine turning into butterflies … what kind of butterfly is the eventual product of a looper?
    3. Your looper likes to learn about Richard Yates. He also is partial to audio books and reviews.
    4. I am very grateful that I am not a looper caterpillar.
    5. PS Your granite is beautiful.
    6. Consider creating a book showing all that a loopy looper caterpillar can do. Loopy Looper, the ‘balance beam’ caterpillar … and more!
    7. So the looper can scratch itself if its face is itchy, but not if his mid body is itchy. Pity the plight of the looper with poison ivy.
    8. They devote 4 minutes to facial exercises every day - probably in order to strengthen their jaw to be able to munch those leaves quickly enough to survive.
    9. re: defecating closeup - appears to be the fastest and most efficient looper skill of all.
    10. thanks for these and non-shaky closeups. quite remarkable videos

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