#oakworms

[atmosphinx]

Three moths I found on a pinetree by my work.

Two of them seem to be…..entangled.

[that-crazy-scorpio-man]

Was walking one of the beginner’s trails at Black Bayou with a friend her daughter when I happened across this caterpillar being attacked by ants.  I had never seen one like it before and it had antennae like monarch caterpillars.  My friend’s little girl wanted to rescue it and put it in the grass but we told her that “it couldn’t be saved”, which it couldn’t but I understand where she was coming from.

Realistically, the caterpillar had two reasons why it had to be left alone.  One was it was obviously food for the ants.  If it wasn’t left there, they would have missed a good-sized meal.  On the other hand with the less obvious reason to most, there could have been something wrong with the caterpillar.  It could have been diseased and, if it was, it was better to let the ants take care of the problem.  One person one Facebook said I should have stepped on it to put it out of its misery.  Uh, I wasn’t going to step on it and we can’t step on every animal that’s suffering from an ant attack.  Anyway, I hope the next time I see one it’s not dying or dead.