Luna-see?

After days of unrelenting rain we finally have a nice sunny Saturday. The remnants of Nicole managed to dump about 18 inches of rain on us over the course of 3.5 days. I have pictures of the high water, but then again, everyone has pictures of the high water. So instead of flooded roads and swollen waterways, I choose to share some caterpillars with you. A walk around the yard this morning revealed three luna moth caterpillars - the first one a bit more mature than the other two...

Treebeard first spotted this fine fat fellow yesterday as we were coming up the driveway. It was a good ways off the driveway and I asked Treebeard how he spotted it. His answer, it was the wrong shade of green for the tree it was in...

 

When I looked up the host plants for this caterpillar I discovered it has a taste for many different types of trees "...but with decided local preferences..." according to Caterpillars of Eastern North America by David L. Wagner. We found the first caterpillar munching contentedly on an oak. The last two were on the same sweetgum.

 

This last one was way up high overhead. I like the way the green of the caterpillar stands out against the blue of the sky...