CATERPILLAR CAPER
(Mary Clark of the Dillon Nature Center in Hutchinson sent in the following note. – ed.)
During the later part of May and early June, we received many phone calls at Dillon Nature Center regarding "hordes" of huge caterpillars with horns in the Hutchinson area. The descriptions of the color and pattern varied greatly from one report to the next, almost as if there were several species involved.
One day a gentleman called saying there were thousands of them 1/2 mile south of US 50 Hwy. and Obee Road. Again, he described some as being black with yellow stripes, some green with black stripes and red dots, and some almost entirely black, but all had a horn. He further went on to say that there were smaller ones that were fuzzy. The thing that made me most curious was that he reported fifty or so Northern Harriers in the ditches eating the caterpillars.
Of course I figured he was seeing several species of caterpillars and questioned the Harriers. I soon realized he was an avid outdoorsman and bird watcher and had made great field observations. After work I drove to the site to check it out. The guy was not exaggerating! The ditches were literally crawling with caterpillars in all sizes and color variations. There were wooly bears as well, but also some tiny caterpillars with fine hairs. These appeared to be the same type of caterpillars as the large ones just in the first or second instar. The hawks were there too. I counted about 35 on the ground, flying, and in a hedgerow.
The first caterpillars I spotted were eating smartweed but after a bit I noticed they were not being plant specific, eating crabgrass, Black-eyed Susans and spurges. I gathered different sizes and colors and took them with me for identification.
The horn let me know they were some sort of sphinx moth but in browsing through field guides I couldn't find quite the right description or picture to match the caterpillars until I dug out my old trusty book, The Moth Book, by W. J. Holland. Sure enough there they were, the Whitelined Sphinx Moth Hyles lineata.
I called Chip Taylor at KU and he further verified the identification. He said it was unusual to find such numbers in this part of Kansas. He said in Arizona where this happens more frequently, the native Americans would skewer the caterpillars with a porcupine quill and dry it for winter eats. I asked Chip if he ever tried one and he said, "Yes, and it tastes like the bottom of a lawn mower". I'm not sure how Chip knows what the bottom of a lawn mower tastes like, but I'm not having dinner at his house!
2001 BUTTERFLY COUNT RESULTS
Eight people came out to assist us in our count this year. This was the earliest (June 30) we have ever held the count and our numbers were up! 321 individuals of 28 different species were seen.
Here are the results:
2-Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
6-Checkered White
2-Cabbage White
15-Clouded Sulphur
3-Cloudless Sulphur
6-Little Yellow
40-Sleepy Orange
16-Dainty Sulphur
1-Coral Hairstreak
9-Juniper Hairstreak
6-Gray Hairstreak
5-Eastern Tailed-Blue
4-Variegated Fritillary
1-Gorgone Checkerspot
3-Pearl Crescent
3-Question Mark
5-Painted Lady
23-Hackberry Emperor
1-Tawny Emperor
142-Common Wood-Nymph
1-Monarch
1-Silver-spotted Skipper
2-Juvenal’s Duskywing
2-Funereal Duskywing
3-Wild Indigo Duskywing
14-Common Checkered-Skipper
1-Common Sootywing
1-Arogos Skipper
3-unidentified skippers