The Wooly Worm

A few days ago, I was looking for crickets by the woods, and I wasn't having much luck. However, during my searching I did find a rather hairy-looking caterpillar under some foliage. It was curled up and the brownish-red stripe in the middle of the insect made it look dangerously poisonous, so I ended up carrying it home on a leaf. I did try to pick it up earlier, but the hairs kept on slipping away.

Only recently did I read about the "Wooly Worm", and found out over 50 species in the US were considered toxic and quite harmful to health, causing "headaches, painful convulsions and major swelling". Luckily, I wasn't diagnosed with any of these symptoms.

At first we didn't know where to keep it. I told my mom to keep and eye on it, and because of some slip-ups, it escaped in our computer room and we had to find it again. Twice, actually.
Later, I put the worm in a small plastic container containing only the leaf I carried it home with. I kept it in a cold, dark place to keep it alive for the night.

The wooly worm had eaten a small potion of the leaf, and there were a few droppings in the container. After tracking up the worm online, we learned it was a wooly worm, and it's adult form- the tiger moth.

Wooly worms actually have an interesting life cycle. They hatch in early summer, and feed on grasses and weeds until late autumn. Then they search for a rock or a pile of leaves to spend the winter in. The coat of the wooly worm is so effective, they have been said to, "survive an entire winter frozen in an ice cube." In spring, they emerge and feed a bit more before they become moths, which are about 2-3 cm long. They emerge as moths around 2 weeks after the cocoon is formed.
Hopefully, we can keep the wooly worm alive through the winter and see the adult form.