Our most bizarre(?) caterpillar gets more bizarre

Earlier this fall, I wrote (with some excitement) about finally finding one of our strangest caterpillars, the Harris's Three-spot, Harrisimemna trisignata. That post, with photos, is RIGHT HERE. It describes the odd behavior of the caterpillar, and the equally strange appearance of the moth that it morphs into.

On a recent expedition into the New River Gorge area of West Virginia, I had the great experience of seeing another H. 3-spot. Rachel Davis and I ventured into the Wolf Creek Park wetland after dark, and Rachel spotted the beast above. She called me over, and WOW! We had stumbled into a 3-spot in the act of excavating its pupatorium.

That's right, the life cycle of this weird caterpillar gets even weirder. When it nears the end of the line for the caterpillar stage,the caterpillar bores a chamber into solid wood. We probably found this one not too long after it began digging, and at this point its chamber is deep enough to fit half its body in. The hole is being drilled into the untreated pine of a boardwalk railing.

The caterpillar emerges, perhaps to take a breather and glare at the nosy paparazzi. But this allows us to fully appreciate its truly odd appearance.

After waiting and watching for a good while, we learned that 3-spots tunnel quite slowly. So, we got bored, so to speak, and left. But I could not stand it and had to return the following evening to see what kind of progress had been made. We found that the caterpillar had deepened the hole to the point that it could now fit its entire body inside. In this shot, the tail end of the cat is all that is visible.

Evidence of its labors littered the boardwalk decking under the excavation. These little pellets are wood shavings, masticated and packed into globules. Having never witnessed this behavior - few people probably have - I was naturally curious as to how the caterpillar went about ejecting the excavated wood debris. We decided to wait and watch, and hoped that it would not be hours between pellet ejections.

Here comes the caterpillar, lugging a pellet. It grasps the pellet in its mandibles and thoracic prolegs, and tugs it from the depths.

 Out a bit further...

Seconds after I made this image, the caterpillar dropped the pellet to the boards below. From the time that we could first see the pellet apear to the time the cat dumped it was probably less than a minute. In general, it took about 20-30 minutes for it to fully form a pellet and bring it back to the burrow entrance and dump it. As the excavation deepened, the time between pellets seemed to increase. Presumably the caterpillar digs a wider chamber at the tunnel's end. Remember, the adult moth must emerge from this pupatorium next year.

Here's a close-up of a pellet. Well chewed wood softened and loosely packed together. Harris's Three-spots must have very powerful mandibles.

The small red arrow points down to the tunnel entrance. The boardwalk handrail provides a size context. I'm assuming that the caterpillar does its boring under cover of darkness, but we did not visit during daylight hours to see if anything was happening.

Photo: Rachel Davis

Rachel, whose office is in nearby Fayetteville, went back two days later to see what the tunnel looked like. It was done, and expertly sealed. While the entrance looks to be solidly plugged with wood, the cap is actually a thin veneer of silk produced by the caterpillar. Remember, the moth must somehow escape the tunnel late next spring, and apparently it can punch its way through this silk operculum. The silken cover disguises the pupatorium entrance well, and few if any creatures would probably pay it any mind.

David Wagner, in his ground-breaking book Caterpillars of Eastern North America, notes that Harris's Three-spot caterpillars consume a great many species of common woody plants. Yet the caterpillars/moths seem rare. In spite of years of searching, it wasn't until this year that I finally found this species. Many caterpillar hunters that I know have never seen one. I think the creation of its pupal chamber may be the species' Achilles heel. Spending two nights making the chamber leaves the caterpillar quite vulnerable to predators, and it seems likely that many would be picked off at this stage. However, if the caterpillar successfully completes the burrow and seals itself in, it is probably as safe as a caterpillar can be.

Harris's Three-spot caterpillar, a weird animal indeed

An inquisitive group examines a sapling Blue Ash, Fraxinus quadrangulata, at the Fernald Preserve in Hamilton County, Ohio. A number of us were there to look for moths, singing insects, caterpillars and whatever after dark last Saturday night. We scored big in the caterpillar department.

The aforementioned ash played host to a very special species of caterpillar; one of the Holy Grails among the tubular crowd. In fact, three of the caterpillars were present! It was a species that I had sought - as much as one can knowingly seek such things - since I learned of its existence. As with many finds, there was a significant amount of luck and serendipity involved, but to our credit, we were out after dark and actively seeking caterpillars, so we did work for it. I saw some fresh leaf damage on the ash, went in for a closer look, and Voila! I think you'll see why we thought this find was so cool. Read on...

A Harris's Three-spot caterpillar, Harrisimemna trisignata! The caterpillar world is full of weird creatures, but perhaps none are weirder than this one. It resembles a combination of Yak, fresh bird droppings, and some spider eyes stenciled on for good measure. Oh, and those strange bits of debris caught up on the long white hairs on its head. That's not just random bad grooming - the trash is there for a reason, as we shall see.

David Wagner, in his excellent guide, the Caterpillars of Eastern North America, states this about his first encounter with a Harris's Three-spot: "When my son Ryan first pointed out a Harris's Three-spot caterpillar to me, I dismissed the animal as a spider, even after he urged a second look."

I can easily see how one might do that, in the field and in the gloom of night. Had I not already been familiar with the animal from studies, and aware of what to look for, I may well have dismissed it as something else as well.

Now, back to the trash bits adorning the caterpillar's hairs. Those are the head capsules that were shucked during previous molts (caterpillars molt and shed their skins multiple times before reaching maturity). Somehow, the hard head capsules adhere tightly to the hairs, and the caterpillar uses them as flails. If a potential enemy such as a parasitoid fly or wasp, or even a small songbird, investigates the caterpillar, it will lash out with the hair-born head capsules. Its strikes occur with incredible rapidity and amazing accuracy, and would surely repel many would-be predators.

To make these photos, we transported the caterpillar into the Fernald Visitor Center (amazing building!) where we could create better images. The caterpillar was later taken back to the same tree upon which we captured it. As we photographed it, a tiny fly or wasp alighted on the leaf stem the caterpillar was on. I'm not sure what it was, but it did seem interested in the caterpillar. As soon as the insect lit nearby, the caterpillar flailed it away. It was a quite remarkable performance and I still am mystified how the cat even knew the other insect was there.

We found that we could easily stimulate the caterpillar to work its flails with a light touch of a finger. This video shows the animal in action.

To top it all off, the bizarre caterpillar tunnels into wood and pupates there. If all goes well for the caterpillar, it will morph into an equally amazing moth. An adult Harris's Three-spot is sure to cause a stir when it is found, as it is one of the more beautiful species in our Lepidopteran fauna. As with the caterpillar, I had been on the hunt for one of the moths for many years, and it wasn't until last June that I finally saw one. The moth in the photo was photographed at the massive Edge of Appalachia Preserve in Adams County, a region that probably harbors one of the richest diversity and abundance of moths in eastern North America.

Seen down low and on its level, the Harris's Three-spot is truly odd-looking, but so is every phase of its life cycle. It looks to be wearing goggles, and has a very spiderish look to it.

Maybe, somewhere, Harris's Three-spot caterpillars and moths are commonplace and people in that magical land tire of them. But insofar as I know, it is a rarity and a thrill to encounter.

Thanks to Sue Walpole, Penny Borgman, and Brian Wulker of the Fernald Preserve for hosting our visit, and allowing our after-hours explorations of the grounds.