Page 1 of 3

Caterpillar Hunt

Sunday, May 18, 2008
More than thirty adults and children braved intermittent rain to look for caterpillars near Hillwood Manor Park in lower Sligo on May 18, 2008. Our expert guide was John Lill, a specialist in insect-plant ecology at George Washington University and a native, and current resident, of the Sligo watershed. He was joined by his wife, an educator with the Audubon Naturalist Society, and their three young children.
After his introduction, John provided enough plastic containers for everyone and said we'd gather back at the table after venturing into the woods to collect.

We all walked downstream across the bridge and into the upland on the left, where evidence of insect activity was easy to find. We found this egg-case for tent caterpillars; each case contains 200-300 eggs. This spring, we had the most caterpillars in our area in the last ten years.

One of the kids noticed this impressive insect cocoon attached to a leafless sapling. Inside is probably a developing Polyphemus Moth, one of the giant silkworm moths. Polyphemus caterpillars are particularly fond of oak, hickory, elm, maple, and birch.

Photos by Michael Wilpers
Text by Michael Wilpers from Laura Mol's notes