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Caterpillars Count!

@caterpillarscount.bsky.social
725 followers 285 following 190 posts

Citizen science project on the abundance and phenology of 🐛🐞🦗🐝🦋🕷. Seeking new participating sites! Learn how to participate on our website! caterpillarscount.unc.edu

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Caterpillars Count! @caterpillarscount.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
When looking down causes one to look up ⬆️ 👀 Anisota oakworm sign 🐛🐛🐛
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John Walters @johnwalterswildife.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Pine Hawk Sphinx pinastri caterpillars on Scots Pine. When they reach their final instar the green and white camouflage amongst the pine needles isn't so effective so they gain a brown central line to blend in. Thanks Barry Henwood #teammoth
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Kristin Wyatt @kristinwyatt.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Look out for that yellowjacket..... wait that's not a yellowjacket, it's actually a Riley's Clearwing Moth! They are amazing mimics that host on the Horse-nettle plant. It's National Moth Week July 18 - July 26. #MothWeek #NationalMothWeek #moths #nature #photography
A black and yellow striped moth with lovely red markings on its clear wings.
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Digital Naturalism Laboratories @dinalab.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
The museum had to end a bit early for the Moths, so we took the party, and the Mothboxes to Central Park!
Team dinalab on front steps of amnhWeird dude showing his glowing robot in the park
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Cri 🕊🐝🐜📝🎭⚽😷 @crawlieswithcri.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Periodical reminder that Many-plume Moths exist. And they always seem to end up on the inside of my bathroom window. And they pack a LOT of "amazeballs" into a teeny package - 1cm wingspan (just under 1/2") Montana six-plume moth (Alucita montana) #inverts #becurious 1/2
macro photo of a small moth with 24 spines covered in bristle-like scales forming their wings. they have a rusty brown, brown and white chevron pattern on the plumes.
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Maddie @maddiejayy.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Went to a midnight mothing event for #MothWeek over the event. My first experience with a live Luna Moth was one deciding to immediately land on me! 🤩
Myself holding a tulip-tree silk moth on my hand.Myself with a green Luna moth on my shoulder.Myself smiling with a Luna moth on my hand.A photo of a Luna moth on a hand with a second Luna moth on a white sheet in the background.
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Esme Ashe-Jepson @esme-ashe.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Last night we hosted Moth Night; we showcased different moth trapping methods, looked at moths beneath the microscope, and played some moth themed games! We highlighted their diversity, ecological importance, and conservation. 🌙 Thank you to everyone who took part!
Two panel image: left people standing around a skinner moth trap. Right a person standing in front of a tower moth trap.
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Cyntada @cyntada.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Let me share with you this absolute unit that came to see us today. A Black Witch moth, sometimes called a bat moth. Someone in the house saw it land on the window and thought it was exactly that! With a 7" wingspan and this pretty cryptic pattern, this one got my attention! So happy to see it.
A Black Witch moth, also known as a Bat Moth. With a 7” wingspan, it’s one of the largest moths in North America. Legend says if it lands above your door, you’ll win the lottery.This one is on a window screen with wings spread wide. It is brown in color and very well patterned to look like tree bark. There is a pretty white stripe through the brown, which tells us this is a female.
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Caterpillars Count! @caterpillarscount.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
What are you doing for National Moth Week? Here are some moths from our @dinalab.bsky.social Mothbox programmed to take photos every 10 minutes at the NC Botanical Garden. Find a moth event near you! nationalmothweek.org
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Evelyndroid's Aperture Science and Bugge-Finding 🏳️‍⚧️🕷️ @apsciencebylyn.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
I have claimed this spurge-nettle for all of Crabdom 🦀
Lovely solid yellow crab spider facing you, long 1st & 2nd leg pairs spread wide in characteristic crab spider threat display, perched on a white 5-petal flower
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Digital Naturalism Laboratories @dinalab.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
First Moths from our first Mothbox deployment at Mothapalooza 2026!
Auto identified moths in classify
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Royal Entomological Society @royentsoc.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
#InsectWeek is back and bigger than ever 🪰 Whether you're fascinated by butterflies, curious about beetles or simply want to spend more time connecting with nature, there's something for everyone! Join us in celebrating the little things that run the world 🔽 buff.ly/gCVYfHw #StandTallForTheSmall
buff.ly
Insect Week 2026 Expands Across Five City Hubs to Inspire a New Generation of Nature Champions
The Royal Entomological Society announces ambitious nationwide programme for Insect Week 2026 On the leadup to a big week in the insect science community, the Royal Entomological Society has unveiled…
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Caterpillars Count! @caterpillarscount.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Active small necklace moth caterpillar (Hypsoropha hormos) on sweetgum 🐛🐛🍃🍃
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Caterpillars Count! @caterpillarscount.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Copperhead biting off more than it can chew (but perhaps not more than it can swallow) RIP pickerel frog!
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Moths in a human suit (they/them) @lycomorpha.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
And now a message from the Moth Promotional Board: Want to see cute moths like this? Grow 'weeds'. That's right. Do less gardening, be less tidy, make less effort! & get ecologically super-important, pollinating, beautiful, fluffy flying kittens!!
A beautiful pink and olive green elephant hawkmoth shaped like a tiny adorable jet plane. It's sitting on a grey cardboard egg tray from my moth trap. A+ good moth friend.A wildflower patch in my garden, filled with sorrels, bedstraws, burnets, long grasses, and various other small plants that moths like to eat. A tiny furious grass veneer moth, a wedge shaped micromoth with lightly striped wings, round blue eyes, and worry black antennas that look like angry eyebrows. It's livid because it's being photobombed by a fuzzy brown heart and club moth in the background. They're both delightful moths though.
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Caterpillars Count! @caterpillarscount.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
Early instar luna moth caterpillar at Prairie Ridge Ecostation in Raleigh. Cool as adults, but cool as larvae too!
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Caterpillars Count! @caterpillarscount.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
It’s butternut woollyworm sawfly larvae all the way up! #PrairieRidgeEcostation #insect #phenology #CitizenScience
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Caterpillars Count! @caterpillarscount.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Check out our June newsletter where we discuss the most common beetle families found on branch surveys...1/n
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Caterpillars Count! @caterpillarscount.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Cute little (3 mm) slug caterpillar today on a buckeye leaf. Gotta look closely to appreciate all the tiny ornate spines!
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Caterpillars Count! @caterpillarscount.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
Some terrific moths coming to our automated Mothbox at the NC Botanical Garden last week including the large yellow Io Moth at the bottom! #MothMonitoring2.0
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Caterpillars Count! @caterpillarscount.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Amazing the sheer feeling of insect abundance from a few loud cicadas!
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Caterpillars Count! @caterpillarscount.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Amidst all the tiny 🐛🐛 inside leaf rolls and leaf ties, two nice big ones stood out today at #PrairieRidgeEcostation Hypsoropha hormos, small necklace moth and Parallelia bistriaris, maple looper #CitizenScience #phenology #insectmonitoring
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
I just put together a wish list of North American Phyllocnistis leaf mines. I'm hoping for larvae from each of them for DNA barcoding, and eventually I'll need reared adult specimens to describe the ones that are new species (which is probably most of them): www.inaturalist.org/projects/lea...
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Caterpillars Count! @caterpillarscount.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Eastern dobsonfly remains at Eno River State Park. Someone got a good meal here!
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Caterpillars Count! @caterpillarscount.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
What is tucked under this leafhopper nymph’s wingbud? Is that a mite or tick? Seems like this guy’s hop will be pulling to the right for a while…
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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
I love looking for bugs on rainy days. Here are four of the many species of small creatures I found this morning, all taking refuge in flowers during the wet weather. 🌿🐙📷 #Bugsky
A macro photo of a black and orange lady beetle/ladybug clinging to a thin green leaves on a rainy day. One raindrop touching the beetle's side is as big as the beetle. The ladybug looks to be a transverse lady beetle, Coccinella transversoguttata.A macro photo of a fuzzy but rain-soaked bee tucked face-first into yellow flower petals, with out of focus green in the background. The bee is a male longhorn bee, so-called for the very long antennae.A macro photo of a rain-dappled beetle clinging to the orange center of a yellow flower, riding out a rainstorm. The beetle, called a checkered beetle (Trichodes sp.), is metallic aqua-blue with bright yellow blotches, and is spattered with several raindrops.A macro photo, vertical orientation, of a long, slender, straw-colored spider (a slender crab spider, Tibellus sp.) hanging head-down on the underside of a petal on a yellow flower. There is a raindrop clinging to the top of the petal's downward-facing tip, and another droplet, almost microscopically small, clinging to the upside-down spider's abdomen.
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Caterpillars Count! @caterpillarscount.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
Two damselflies in the same patch of dappled sun, ebony jewel wing and variable dancer (purple subspecies!) @ncbg.bsky.social #NCBotanicalGarden
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Caterpillars Count! @caterpillarscount.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
Two different carrion beetle species on a squirrel (?) carcass, American and Margined. Everything has its role!
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Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
She is made of but cardboard, so her time on this mortal coil will be brief, but I hope she entertains and educates many during her stay. Wish her luck, everyone. 🫡
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Arthropod Abbey (Abigail Hayes) @arthropodabbey.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Aaah!!!! 🥳 I have always wanted to find a warty leaf beetle in person!!!! Checking another off my bugket list! #bugsky
A brown warty leaf beetle on a fuzzy leafA brown warty leaf beetle on a green leaf
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Aussie Moths @wa-moths.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
The power of citizen science in helping to document our local #invert biodiversity. Every observation adds to our knowledge! 🦋🐞🪲🐛🦟🐜🕷️🦂 #ausinverts #wildoz #inaturalist #bugsky #citizenscience #communityscience www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05...
abc.net.au
Bushwalker takes photo of rare bug in the wild
There were no known photographs taken in the wild of the Myrmeleon houstoni until a regional Victorian woman snapped a photo of one while on a bushwalk.
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Caterpillars Count! @caterpillarscount.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Our new paper summarizing 68,741 Caterpillars Count! branch surveys to compare bugs on native vs non-native plants! 🐛🦋🐞🕷️🐝 esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Arthropods on native versus alien woody plants: Understanding variation across host plant taxonomy and geography
Alien plants have generally been shown to support reduced arthropod abundance, biomass, and diversity compared to native plant species, but inferences have typically come from studies limited in taxo....
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Caterpillars Count! @caterpillarscount.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Sometimes there are more than bugs on your bug survey branch. Cope’s gray treefrog
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Evelyndroid's Aperture Science and Bugge-Finding 🏳️‍⚧️🕷️ @apsciencebylyn.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
Beetle who wants you to think it's another kind of beetle, for Reasons Bassareus croceipennis perhaps? Excellent lady beetle mimicry.
Bright red lady beetle-like beetle, with a black head/thorax with white markings which very closely mimics a common lady beetle species here Top view of the creature on a leaf, showing off the bright shiny red elytra
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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
If have have a professor of rare moths in your life, give them some time to go looking for moths because today is mother's day.
Photo of a yellow geometrid moth with red and silver speckles resting on a mossy bamboo shoot.Macro photograph of a red and white Pterophorid moth in a T shape resting on a plant stem.Photo of an almost clownlike brown, orange, and metallic blue moth with brown wings standing, proboscis inserted, into a cluster of white mistflower.If Piet Mondrian designed moths they would look like this one. Small cream-colored moth on a white sheet, some of its wing veins geometrically blocked off in black, with a red dot in an open area of the wing.
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Caterpillars Count! @caterpillarscount.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
Some terrific bugs on branches at Eno River State Park today! #insectmonitoring #phenology
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Caterpillars Count! @caterpillarscount.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
White-marked tussock moth caterpillar (Orgyia leucostigma). Those hairs make it more difficult for parasitoid wasps to lay eggs, and the large tufts may be mimicking wasp cocoons to suggest the caterpillar has already been parasitized.
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Caterpillars Count! @caterpillarscount.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
iNaturalist webinar on how to identify arthropods! A great introduction to a fascinating group. us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
us06web.zoom.us
Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Identifying on iNaturalist: Get Started with Arthropods!. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.
Arthropods! Insects, crustaceans, arachnids, millipedes, centipedes, and more are part of this diverse group. The basic body design of an exoskeleton with paired jointed appendages has proven wildly s...
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Ainsley S @americanbeetles.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Another moth eclosed, so we took graduation pictures
Freshly emerged polyphemus moth with a teeny tiny mortarboard being lowered onto his fuzzy head/thoraxDorsal view of the new graduateAnterolateral view of large moth in tiny hat, with his filthy college apartment visible in the background Freshly graduated moth prepares to enter the job market, looking for a position in Eaten by Bird
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Caterpillars Count! @caterpillarscount.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
What else have you got to do today besides learn how to monitor foliage arthropods? 🐛🐞🕷️🐜 Still a few slots available for our webinar today @ 12 pm ET Register here using the link here: caterpillarscount.unc.edu/getStarted #insects #citizenscience #phenology #bugsky
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Jen Cross @jencross.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
A treehopper mom guards her eggs from predators and parasites. Many treehoppers have an enlarged pronotum (the segment behind the head), in this case resembling thorns. (Alchisme sp.) El Refugio de Intag, Ecuador #Invertefest
A greenish yellow insect with three large horns protruding from above her head. She sits above a cluster of eggs that have been deposited in the stem of a leaf.
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Communications Biology @commsbio.nature.com · 22/04/2026
🦋 Long-term citizen science observations can help us understand climate impacts 👉 Using 44 years of #Lepidoptera observations, models suggest that diurnal vs nocturnal species respond differently to warming, highlighting diel activity as a key factor shaping phenology. www.nature.com/articles/s42...
nature.com
Contrasting phenological shifts in diurnal and nocturnal Lepidoptera under climate change - Communications Biology
A novel model of how light requirement, temperature, and photoperiod jointly define phenological time-spaces for diurnal and nocturnal ectotherms, combined with long-term data for Lepidopterans demons...
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Birder K @birderk.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
The forecasts are always low; I think we easily see another over 300millon flight night this evening. #birds #spring #migration #LightsOutForBirds #EarthDay
BirdCast forecast of 277 million birds for the night of April 22, with Texas through the upper Midwest being the main river of birds, but also strong along the Gulf Coast, FL, and into Georgia. A giant light bulb is over the west part of the map and the text next to it reads: “Lights Off Tonight!”
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Alan Yoshioka, PhD @thesheepcat.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
It's amazing what you can find along a little stretch of forest trail! Whether you're a curious newbie or a seasoned bug enthusiast, sign up at the link for an enjoyable community-building walk led by yours truly as part of #CityNatureChallenge2026. Saturday, April 25, 1:00–4:30pm. #iNaturalist
eventbrite.com
Pacific Spirit Bug Walk
Encounter awesome little critters in the wild
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Caterpillars Count! @caterpillarscount.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Still space in our Caterpillars Count! webinar tomorrow, April 21 @ 11 am ET Learn how to survey foliage arthropods 🐛🐜🦋🐞🕷️🪲 and contribute to a continental (and beyond!) scale monitoring project! #insects #phenology #CitizenScience caterpillarscount.unc.edu/getStarted
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Caterpillars Count! @caterpillarscount.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Happy Hatch Day to these Carolina Chickadee chicks! 🐣 🐣 2 out and 3 to go! #birds #phenology #CaterpillarEaters
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Caterpillars Count! @caterpillarscount.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Next week!!! Please share widely with your bug-loving friends! #insect #phenology #citizenscience
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Caterpillars Count! @caterpillarscount.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
These chickadee eggs are set to hatch any day now. Parents will need 6,000-9,000 🐛🐛 in the next 2 weeks in order to raise them! #CaterpillarsCount
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🌻OK MR. SUNSHINE!🌻 @entobiologist.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
lol apparently those cute little japanese emperor butterfly (sasakia) caterpillars that have antlers and a :3 face have such bad breath that they scare away predatory wasps. look they're making them take breathalyzer tests. the results are in: stinky!! link.springer.com/article/10.1...
photo of a green caterpillar with antlers with its mouth against a metal tube
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