Professional Caterpillar Hunts

Today we got right to work blogging, web camming, and identifying our newly captured caterpillars. It was neat for we found a few new caterpillars we haven’t seen before. I feel we are becoming professional caterpillar hunters. We have also found some caterpillars that have parasitoids. These are insects like wasps and flies that lay their eggs on or in the caterpillar. Then when the eggs hatch, they eat the caterpillar. While this sounds

gross, it is an important part of keeping the food web balanced. Check out these pictures.

Then after lunch we trudged back to the swamp. Sometimes even tracking across a swampy area can be an adventure. Click the play button to see a short video of tracking across a creek.

I cannot believe that in a few days, my adventures will be coming to an end. But back to work we go.