Close Encounter with Malacosoma

It was one of the nicest days of the year so far, and campus was blooming with people. Students were studying, playing games, and having conversation all across the Old Main Lawn. I found a nice shady spot under a tree to roll out my yoga mat for a bit of practice. About 30 minutes in, I looked down and ALAS! A new friend had joined me!

He had crawled right onto my yoga mat without me even noticing.

This was a close encounter with Malacosoma, also known as the tent caterpillar.  I remembered seeing these creatures all over campus in the previous spring. They can be found in the trees near the Rec Center and the health center, and remnants can be found squished on the sidewalks throughout campus.

Tent caterpillars are medium-sized caterpillars that will metamorphose into the Lackey moth. The caterpillars can be found all over campus in the spring, as this is their hatching season. They will only spend about two weeks in a cocoon before taking the form of the Lackey moth. Soon after, the moths will mate. 

photo: Steve Jurveston (Flickr)

Lackey moths create tent-like nests in trees and produce a very large amount of offspring. Many of these offspring die, but before they do they can have detrimental effects on trees and can sometimes destroy portions of forests. Tent caterpillars eat leaves, which can harm the trees when there are vast amounts of these caterpillars feasting on them.

I watched this little guy for a long while, hoping to discover where he was headed or where he came from. He did not move for over an hour, and I came to the conclusion that he liked me and wanted to continue to hang out with me for as long as possible.

The time came that I had to move on from my place in the grass and stop watching the intriguing caterpillar. Since he had not moved for the entire time I was there, I decided to pose him for a better angle for a picture.

Here his is perched on a blade of grass. You can closely see the black and yellow color of the body with it’s long, golden hairs protruding.

I never did find out where that little caterpillar came from or where he was going. However, I can assume he was probably on a slow search for food and a good place to set up camp and build his cocoon. Maybe he was looking to do a little stretching with me before committing to two weeks in a small cocoon.