Posts Tagged: Arctia virginalis

Gotta Love Those Woolly Bear Caterpillars

You gotta love those woolly bear caterpillars. Richard "Rick" Karban, UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology, studies them. The rest of us admire them. We usually see them in the spring along the cliffs of Bodega Head on the Sonoma coast....

A wooly bear caterpillar investigating an ice plant on Bodega Head, Sonoma County, in April 2022.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A wooly bear caterpillar investigating an ice plant on Bodega Head, Sonoma County, in April 2022.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The wooly bear caterpillar becomes a tiger moth, Arctia virginalis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The wooly bear caterpillar becomes a tiger moth, Arctia virginalis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A Wooly Bear of a Caterpillar

If you enjoy climbing the cliffs of Bodega Head on the Sonoma coast, keep your eyes out for bears--wooly bear caterpillars, that is. The so-called "wooly bear caterpillar" is reddish, black and woolly and has a voracious appetite much like that of Joey...

A wooly bear caterpillar munching on foliage at the Bodega Head. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A wooly bear caterpillar munching on foliage at the Bodega Head. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A wooly bear caterpillar munching on fiddleneck. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A wooly bear caterpillar munching on fiddleneck. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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