I let her crawl onto my finger so that I could move her out of harm's way. The view from the side was impressive! Look at those colors and overall fuzziness!
Here's a different angle, highlighting the orange-red color at the base of the front legs:
Do you recognize this moth? It's an Isabella Tiger Moth (Pyrrharctia isabella), photographed in Bodega Bay on 1 June 2014.
If you don't know the moth, I'm guessing you might be familiar with the caterpillar. As a caterpillar, it's often known as a Woolly Bear or Banded Woolly Bear. I couldn't locate a picture of my own tonight, but you can see a few here. The Banded Woolly Bear caterpillar undergoes metamorphosis and becomes this beautiful Isabella Tiger Moth.
[I'll pause here just to say that on the West Coast the common name of the caterpillar is a little confusing in that there is another caterpillar that's also called a Woolly Bear. I wrote about this briefly in an earlier post on 28 March 2012 which includes a picture of the "other" Woolly Bear.]
I can't resist showing one more image. Here's looking at you, Izzy!
P.S. It sounds like "isabella" refers to the moth's color — a pale cream-brown or parchment color, according to Wikipedia.
1 comment:
lovely
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