Thursday, May 14, 2009

05-09-09 Jackson Field

The Future Scientists also visited Jackson Field today, checking out newly placed coverboards as part of a Metroparks study for snakes. The Future Scientists did not discover any snakes under the boards this day, but they did discover a particular type of caterpillar that really seemed to like the boards. Interestingly, only one caterpillar was found under each wooden board.
This peculiar caterpillar is still unidentified! Please comment below if you have a suggestion. ID will be posted when a good guess is made.

While the above caterpillar remains a mystery lepidopteran, the Future Scientists were able to get a good shot of another one whose identity is less mysterious. This is a question mark butterfly? Or, maybe, it is, a comma, if you can tell the difference, please enlighten us! The punctuation mark underneath the wing was not observed.
While no snakes were found underneath the coverboards, the Future Scientists did find two garter snakes and one water snake along the trails. This garter snake has just eaten, and you can even see limbs popping out the sides.
Glamorous.

2 comments:

Eli Hanley said...

I'm liking that last picture

Anonymous said...

"I can identify that caterpillar. I call it 'Lunch'".
--Chippy