They eat a very wide variety of herbaceous plants and grasses, and the leaves of a few trees. The Myth of the Woolly Bear Legend holds that the length of a woolly bear caterpillar's color bands can be used to forecast how severe the winter weather will be. ▸ Woolly bear caterpillars are covered with warm and fuzzy bristles. In reality, hatchlings from the same clutch of eggs can display considerable variation in their color banding, and a larva's brown band tends to widen with age as it molts. Current Hazards. Its life cycle can last many years before it drops the fluffy caterpillar stage for some wings! First its heart stops beating, then its gut freezes, then its blood, followed by the rest of the body. © 2020 Scientific American, a Division of Nature America, Inc. Support our award-winning coverage of advances in science & technology. The larva to this moth is one we all recognize as the Woolly Bear ! Freezing Arctic winters extend the lifespan of woolly bear caterpillars. The red or brown band in the center is the main feature that separates it from its counterpart. List of Things That Woolly Caterpillars Eat. How to Tell the Gender of a Banded Woolly Bear Caterpillar… Selection of overwintering microhabitats used by the arctic woollybear caterpillar, Gynaephora groenlandica. After hatching from the egg the woolly bear caterpillar, like all caterpillars, must build up enough biomass through eating to turn into a moth. The Arctic Woolly Bear can live up to seven summers. This species remains in a larval state for the vast majority of its life. Woolly caterpillars are the larvae of tiger moths. If there is one charismatic Arctic invertebrate, it has to be the Arctic woolly bear moth, Gynaephora groenlandica (Wocke, 1874; Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Lymantriinae). The glycerol acts as an antifreeze to protect the cells from the freezing conditions. The woolly bear caterpillar lives in many cold areas, including the frozen Arctic region. This phenomenon is said to be "the first clear demonstration of self-medication among insects." From Wikipedia: "The Isabella Tiger Moth (Pyrrharctia isabella) can be found in many cold regions, including the Arctic. The banded woolly bear larva emerges from the egg in the fall and overwinters in its caterpillar form, when it literally freezes solid. Woolly bears do not actually feel much like wool—they are covered with short, stiff bristles of hair. Oct 21, 2017 - Explore Dawn Swanson's board "Woolly Bear" on Pinterest. If the band around the center of the caterpillar’s body was wide, we knew we … In such conditions, a caterpillar has to overwinter in its larval form. Woolly bear caterpillar grow an average of 2 inches long. Woolly Bear Moth Caterpillar. Woolly Bear Caterpillar on Gloved Hand I have spent a good part of the last 2 decades talking to people about what makes the Arctic great. Woolly bear caterpillars and a tussock moth caterpillar (Photo: Seabrooke Leckie, Flicker Sharing) Any way you shake it out the woolly bear caterpillar is pretty incredible. Rare among Lepidoptera, it undergoes an annual period of diapausethat lasts for much of the calendar year, as G. groenlandica is subject to some of the l… The Arctic woolly bear moth’s range extends to the Arctic Circle, in Canada and even Greenland. As the caterpillars don’t need to be fully functional during their frozen hibernation they can make more drastic internal changes compared to the ice worms. Wings have sparse black spotting.[3]. In contrast the ice worms altered their internal structure and metabolism to allow them to function at freezing temperatures, rendering them permanently incapable of living anywhere else. 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