#I wanna be a woolly bear caterpillar

[satanicsanity]

Ykw guys, I Really... Really... REALLY like woolly bear caterpillars

Look at these fuckin little guys

Look at em go!

(If there's anyone who has funfacts on woolly bears, please... Gimme)

#woolly bear caterpillar #look at em go #Look at that little guy #making his way #not a care in the world #I wanna be a woolly bear caterpillar

[angelnumber27]

Pyrrharctia isabella (woolly bear caterpillar)

Photo by J.R. Baker, NC State University

#caterpillar #bugs #insects #fluff #I wanna pet it but poisonous.. I might risk it anyway if I saw one #nature #isabella tiger moth #moth larva #fuzzy #creatures #orange and black #woolly worm #orange #leaf #green #cute #J.R. baker #science #woolly bear #woolly bear caterpillar

[onenicebugperday]

Okay so: I may come back with another question bc I had one the other day and have since forgotten it, but rn I'm curious on account of Leave The Leaves. I want to tell my neighbors what sorts of bugs they're benefitting by leaving their leaf "litter" for pollinators, besides just "moths and bees." Do you have any specific leaf-nesters I can name? (Also, do you have anything I can tell my local library for reference in relation to "you HAD native plant plantings and now you REPLANTED a bunch in those same places and idk I think if you're letting them get to a certain size and then replacing them you may just not be grasping what native plants are there for." I don't wanna sound rude but I genuinely want to help people grasp that Other Creatures Need These Things.)

I’m afraid I do not have anything that may help you with the library and their native plants since I know very little about it! Plants definitely aren’t my area. But I think having them and replacing them with the same thing is better than not having them at all, although that seems like a weird way to do it. The only resource I could direct you to is the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, the same place the Leave the Leaves campaign comes from. They have a bunch of resources for planting native, but I’m not sure they’d address something like pulling them up and re-planting.

As for specific bugs that benefit from Leave the Leaves (and thank you for letting me know your specific location via IM, as obviously that makes a difference), some of the more charismatic ones that may interest people and use leaf litter either directly or indirectly (as camouflage, for example) would be bumblebees and other natives like mason and leafcutter bees, woolly bear caterpillars, stick insects, luna moths, cecropia moths, and swallowtail butterflies. And while most people don’t find them that very interesting, woodlice and millipedes rely on leaf litter for food and shelter, and they’re super important decomposers and nutrient recyclers that help keep soil healthy :)

#eternalstrigoii #the more you know