Maja
Just Arrived
Joined: 27 Aug 2009
Location: Norway
Posts: 3
|
| Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 11:57 pm Post subject: I don't want the caterpillar to die! |
|
Hello! I registered to this forum just to ask this question, I am getting quite desperate. So hello, I'm a 18 year old girl who lives in northern Norway. I relly hope some of you can help me with this 
Three days ago we found something weird under a garden chair, and it turned out to be a caterpillar. It looked a bit helpless and almost dead, so we kept it in a little box (of course with no lid on) and fed him different kinds of grass. He is black and very hairy. He ate and seemed quite happy, just perhaps a little lazy, so I decided to let him go and hopefully turn into a pupa.
I laid the box on the grass so he could crawl out and either into the high grass or up a tree, but the next day he still laid inside the box. So now, he just lives in this plastic box, but I want to feed him right and also I want to let him go away and turn into something cool.
After searching a lot on the internet, I found he looks mostly like a moth caterpillar, because he is so hairy. He looks a lot like the Gynaephora Groenlandica, but they only live in the arctic, so I am totally clueless. Does anyone here know what species this is, or who I can contact to find out? I would be so happy to find out!
Sorry for the wall of text.
TL;DR: I have found a caterpillar, I think it might be a Gynaephora Groenlandica. Do any of you have any idea what species it might be?
Phew. Thanks in advance. Here's some pics, sorry for the bad angles etc:
Curled into a ball ( photo / image / picture from Maja's Garden )
( photo / image / picture from Maja's Garden )
|
|
| Back to top |
|
toni
Mistress of Garden Junque
 Forum Moderator
PlantStew Moderator
Regular Plantstew Contributor (over 1000 edits)
Joined: 07 Jan 2006
Location: North Texas (Map)
Posts: 7561
PlantStew: 14372 |
| Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 12:26 am Post subject: |
|
If it is the Arctic Woolybear caterpillar then it was probably either going into or was already into it's winter dormancy.
http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=14947958
This might give you a little info about their habits.
Try putting him back where you found him and let him do what nature intended for him to do....be dormant for 11 months of the year 
Many butterflies and moths show up in places outside their normal habitat after being caught in a wind storm and blown to a new location. That may have happened to his "mom" so she laid her eggs where she was.
_________________
Mortals must do what they are here to creatively do or they will become cranky.
If you can't stand the heat, don't tickle the Dragon
|
|
| Back to top |
|
Maja
Just Arrived
Joined: 27 Aug 2009
Location: Norway
Posts: 3
|
| Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 12:43 am Post subject: |
|
Thanks!
However I find it sort of unlikely that it might be an Arctic caterpillar, I mean the way from their natural habitat Greenland to here is very, very far with a lot of open water to cross. I find it hard to believe it could have gone that far, but then again I know nothing about insects.
Thank you for that article though, if it really is one of those caterpillars I should let him free by some rocks, as it says that's where they go dormant.
I've gained a new interest in insects. I had no idea they were this fascinating!
|
|
| Back to top |
|
petunia
Highly Skillful
Joined: 13 May 2006
Location: northern michigan
Posts: 2233
PlantStew: 311 |
| Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 12:48 am Post subject: |
|
You know this is very strange.
They say these wolly caterpillars tell how the weather is going to be by their color.
usually they been brown, black, brown. BUT now comes this post--A black caterpillar. My daughter and I have found a black caterpillar also.
black caterpillar ( photo / image / picture from petunia's Garden )
So whats this black wolly caterpillar suppose to tell us about our up coming weather for this year??
_________________
Petunia
|
|
| Back to top |
|
toni
Mistress of Garden Junque
Forum Moderator
PlantStew Moderator
Regular Plantstew Contributor (over 1000 edits)
Joined: 07 Jan 2006
Location: North Texas (Map)
Posts: 7561
PlantStew: 14372 |
| Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 12:49 am Post subject: |
|
http://www.funet.fi/pub/sci/bio/life/insecta/lepidoptera/ditrysia/noctuoidea/lymantriidae/gynaephora/index.html
This site mentions that it's normal habitat is Greenland and Arctic Canada. Across the north pole is a relatively short trip to northern Norway.
I couldn't find a photo of that particular caterpillar at all.
Find the website for a university in Norway where you could send the photo for them to ID it for you. That will probably be the best chance for a possitive answer.
There are several websites with loads of info on the butterflies/moths and caterpillars of your country. You are right, it is really fascinating to learn about them.
_________________
Mortals must do what they are here to creatively do or they will become cranky.
If you can't stand the heat, don't tickle the Dragon
|
|
| Back to top |
|
Maja
Just Arrived
Joined: 27 Aug 2009
Location: Norway
Posts: 3
|
| Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 12:51 pm Post subject: |
|
Wow, how cool that others also have found hairy, cute caterpillars! 
I'm still trying to find a norwegian habitat caterpillar that looks like mine, but until now I have failed to. None of them are all black and as hairy as mine is.
Thanks for the idea about asking a university, I'll make sure to do that today. If this really is the Arctic Moth, it's very exiting for me! I read they can freeze over and still survive, being the insect that lives furthest to the North and the most feeze-tolerant insect in the whole world!
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
7144 members, 153545 posts, 341 blogs
