Saturday, September 17, 2022

Unexpected visitor

I almost stepped on this little caterpillar. He was walking across my kitchen floor; I don't know how he found his way in, or where he came from.

When I picked him up on a plastic lid, he rolled up tightly and played dead.

I happened to be looking at something under the microscope at the time, so before I returned him to the great outdoors, I put him under the 'scope.

Starting to unroll. I think the greenish-grey stuff is caterpillar poop. He left it behind when he unrolled himself.

Zooming in to see his markings: 

And then he decided it was time to go.

I put him outside on a group of flower pots. I hope he found a plant that was on his diet.

As usual, I'll send photos in to BugGuide for an id.

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Casi pisé este gusanito. Cruzaba mi cocina; no sé de donde vino, ni como llegó hasta allí.

Fotos:

  1. En cuanto lo levanté sobre una tapa de plástico, se enrolló y fingió estar muerto.
  2. En el momento, yo estaba mirando algo bajo el microscopio, así que aproveché para mirar el gusanito más de cerca. La masa gris, creo que es excremento de gusano. Lo dejó atrás cuando se desenrolló.
  3. Con más aumento, para ver sus diseños. Y luego decidió que era hora de irse.
Lo llevé afuera y lo deposité en un grupo de macetas con plantas. Ojalá alguna esté de su gusto.

Como siempre, enviaré fotos a BugGuide para que me den una identificación.

2 comments:

  1. It looks like it could be a type of cutworm.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's what I think, too. I found a match on BugGuide, in Oregon, but the only id they gave it was "some kind of cutworm."

      Delete

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