The other day my friend found a caterpillar in my back yard that I had never seen before! It was a huge, bright green caterpillar that measured 3 1/2 inches long and a good 3/4 inch wide! We got out our butterfly and moth identifying book and found that it was a Polyphemus moth caterpillar, and that it eats oak leaves, of which we have plenty.
We learned that it would roll the leaves around itself and hold them together with silk threads forming it's cocoon. We brought ours inside and put it in a container with oak leaves, and that is exactly what it did! The book said that it will stay there till Spring and then come out as a beautiful moth with a wing span of about 5 inches wide with large eye-looking spots on it's wings. We can't wait!! We will put our container outside during the winter and Lord willing it will amaze us when it comes out in the Spring a changed creature!
Josiah T. Sauve
