Two Saturday's I dropped my younger daughter off at camp. Afterwards I took a drive up to Mt. Chocorua just to see if I could get anything good for pictures, plus it's just a beautiful area.
As I walked from one side of the dirt road to the other, at the small parking area and bridge at the base of the lake, I happened to notice this little worm hanging in the breeze over the road. It must have dropped down a good 6-8 feet from the tree above.
Clicking on any of the images to get a better look
The dirt road is very small that runs along the foot of the lake but I kept hoping the worst wouldn't happen. Sure enough within a few minutes a car came driving through. Did I dare look? It was still swinging in the breeze when I left : )
After doing a little research it appears this is a Looper Caterpillar. When frightened by a preditor, such as a bird, they will actually bungee jump from a thread connected to their body to escape. After hanging in mid air for a minute or so the Looper will slowly climb back up the thread.
22 comments:
How neat! I saw one similar to this over the weekend!
What a lovely fellow. Wouldn't that be a nice trick to be able to bungee jump out of sight when someone we didn't want to see came ambling by?
Oh gosh, Sharon... this guy has me laughing this morning. Just so dang cute!
Snappy Di
Well, you learn something new everyday!
Nothing like a good breeze Sharon!! Very fun post.
Bungee worms! cool beans! ; )
xxooo
He's pretty darned cute. And tenacious!
See, you learn something new every day!
Great post. I hope he/she made it back up to the tree. I ran into something like that the other day but it was brown. Happy Tuesday.
I think I did this at work once. ha
Too cute that you noticed this little catepillar in the first place!
Cute little caterpillar!!! You don't seem to miss anything!!! I wonder if I would have noticed him??? :)
xoxoxoxo
Donna Marie
WOW, I am amazed you even saw it let alone get such great photo's of it.....good for you Sharon.
Have a great day.....:-) Hugs
Learn something new everyday - thanks for the lesson. I have seen some similiar to that hanging down over my courtyard, but did not know anything about them.
Love learning all this stuff!
I love that you do the research on these incredible creatures you capture.
Wouldn't it be great to be able to bungee jump from all the problems of life? I ahve been working all day to move dad into assisted living as soon as possible back where he has been living as an independant. They said they LOVE him there and want him home! For the extra 700.00 more a month it is worth him feeling the love. It is over 4000.00 a month! ;-)
How cool is that? I've got to learn how to do that - just drop out of sight when the need arises.
Aw, so sweet you were concerned about the caterpillar's well being.
They really do adapt don't they?
How cool! Hope he made it back up into the trees!
great shots, love the fact they are bungee jumpers :)
dan
What a great capture and perfect timing! I have this urge to yell Geronimo!! :-)
hee hee..
as long as I dont run into those darn things..i dont mind them hanging there..
nice shots!
I finally have internet connection..nothing for quite a while..but now we are in Montana at my sisters..wifi..
yippee
so i am going now to catch up on your other posts
see ya
So that is what they are!! I have seen them before, but never done the research...
I doubt the car would hit the caterpillar, because it is so light weight that it would swing with the air going around the car.
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