It's Fall. The season where the weather gets comfortable and invites us all to go out and get busy out of doors before the heavy Winter Season begins. Yesterday I saw a Wooly Bear caterpillar, while out walking with my spouse. Wooly Bears normally look like this:
I am fond of this type of caterpillar, since I kept one for a pet when I was younger. I had it in a jar with holes in the lid for air, a twig, and leaves. It wove itself a chrysalis and changed over the course of the winter, and in the Spring it hatched out as this rather plain looking moth:
What was interesting about the Wooly Bear that I saw yesterday is that it was one long brown creature, no black in sight. I've seen them almost all black, and all manner of variations in between, but I don't remember seeing one of them all brown before. Tradition tells us that Wooly Bears foretell the weather for the Winter. Having one that is all a single color either tells us that the Winter will be severe, or very easy. Problem is that you will hear either of those possibilities for both all brown and all black. So... not a very good prognosticator.
If you do get the chance to see one of these caterpillars, please be gentle. They won't bite you, or hurt you. Let them go on their way, and enjoy the fact that you've gotten a chance to see something that very Pennsylvanian!
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