Most of us needn't much effort to enjoy the beauty of butterflies and moths. They are often elaborately colored and patterned, and have interestingly shaped wings. We are fascinated at how the thin, delicate, powder covered wings can carry the proportionately large-bodied insects through the air. To watch a swallowtail butterfly (agehachyou in Japanese) as it erratically flutters over a field of flowers against a blue summer sky is a magical thing to behold. However, in contrast many people are not quite as enthralled at the sight of a butterfly or moth's larval form.
As we all know, before a butterfly or moth takes to it's respective place in the sky, it must first pass through the initiation of being for all intensive purposes, a worm! The larva, or caterpillars as they've come to be known, of certain varieties can be seen in biblical numbers and may cause severe damage to foliage on particular plant species. Other caterpillars, or inchworms, hang on silk thread dangling from trees over our heads. As they munch away on the tree leaves of their fancy, the young butterflies become fatter and bigger and digestion occurs, and well, we all can finish the scenario. Before long there are variably sized caterpillar turds in our hair and under our feet. Such lifestyles of the caterpillars haven't done much for their reputation among Homo sapiens (people!). In fact, certain residential areas often opt to have their tree canopies sprayed with insecticidal chemicals as a means of preventing the former from occurring at all. Such measures have severe ramifications not only on the intended victims, the caterpillars, but on many other creatures sharing the same environment. These other creatures may include birds, squirrels, and other harmless insects. Then there are people like my wife who are simply, irrationally repulsed by insects in general. Whether it be the way they move, their gaudy coloration, their often hairy anatomy, their many larval legs, or simply their shape, caterpillars aren't high on the adorable creatures list. Caterpillars aren't even on the lists of most.
For all their destructive habits, undesirable appearances and so on, caterpillars are also awesome critters. In Wakayama Japan like many other temperate to tropical areas, caterpillars can be found three seasons of the year. While there are flowers with blooming periods ranging from spring to fall, there too are caterpillars which feed on many of them.
While hiking through bamboo forests, along ponds, and just in my mother in law's gardens with Taro (family dog) or alone, I come across many wonderful plants and animals each and every day. Over the past month or so I have been noticing an abundance of caterpillars while on my jaunts. Many of them have been hairy. Some looked as though they had just inched their way over a Jackson Pollock or Vincent Van Gogh palate. One was wearing a cloak of eggs. They were the eggs of a wasp and upon hatching, the larva of the wasp will inevitably eat the poor, unknowing caterpillar alive! Another caterpillar didn't look like an animal at all, but rather a plant. Unless seen moving, anyone would have been fooled by the brown, mottled inchworm that mimicked a piece of twig. After being found out, the masquerade still continued. When I went to touch the little "twig worm", it remained perfectly rigid and dropped to the ground as if broken from it's branch. There was an army of caterpillars I came upon that didn't try to appear like twigs at all, but instead made their nest among branches. They reared themselves in a white silken tent between a fork in a tree. All of the caterpillars shared one common trait - each was unique and beautiful.
Let's celebrate it in all it's many shapes, sizes, colors, appendages, and behaviors!
The Caterpillar
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