If you ever come across a silken nest of everlasting or cudweed flowers...
...it may be a clue that there's an animal living inside:
I gently pulled aside a portion of this nest to expose the caterpillar within (but I closed it up again after I took these pictures).
This is the caterpillar of an American Lady butterfly (Vanessa virginiensis). It made a wonderful nest on an everlasting plant (Pseudognaphalium sp., formerly Gnaphalium sp.) in the Bodega Dunes. The caterpillar binds the flowers and other plant material together to form a shelter. It crawls away from the nest to feed on the plant's leaves. I posted about American Lady butterfly adults previously, but this is the first time I've photographed a caterpillar of this species locally.
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