Science Diary: Caterpillars - Secrets of Finding: The Pulse of the Planet daily radio program offers free legal online mp3 downloads, exploring the world of sound in nature, culture and science, with audio adventures, world music, extraordinary sound portraits, science diaries, and nature ring-tones; an amazing sonic experience.



Airdate: Sep 30, 2008
Scientist: Lee Dyer Grant Gentry

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 ANIMALS ,Insects ,Rainforest ,caterpillars


Science Diary: Caterpillars - Secrets of Finding

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Signs of caterpillars are easy to spot, but how do you locate the caterpillars themselves?
Transcript:

music; ambience rain

You look at enough caterpillars, you'll figure out the secrets of the universe, I promise you.

Theyre probably the largest consumers of vegetation in the world. So you think theyd be easy to spot, right? Well, no. Today well learn some of the secrets of finding caterpillars. Welcome to Pulse of the Planets Science Diaries, a glimpse of the world of science from the inside. Grant Gentry is a tropical ecologist based at Samford University. Hes working with a team of Earthwatch volunteers in Costa Rica, looking for caterpillars in the rain.

Youre gonna look for damage and then youre gonna look for the caterpillar. Or if you see, I usually like to look at young leaves, so if you see, like, half the leaf eaten away, another good thing to look for, its another good sign theres a sphingid a sphinx moth, horn worm, hawk moth, those are all synonyms, like tomato hornworm, its a big garden pest. The other thing you want to look for is how recent the damage is. So if you look at this, the veins here, theyve already turned brown on this leaf. And if the edges are brown also, thats old; that partys over. You missed it. Very often theyll eat and run. So when you see something, when you think something big is on the plant, you want to look under the leaf, of course, thats damaged. And then you want to look at some leaves around it. And then I would suggest looking along the stems, and along the trunk, and particularly, but carefully, down around the base of the tree or even on the stem of an adjacent plant. And very often, youll find them hiding down there, particularly during the day. And they like to come out at dusk, when predators just dont see so well, right about now.

Well hear more on caterpillars in future programs. Our latest project is a competition for third to sixth graders. Check out kidsciencechallenge.com.

Pulse of the Planets Science Diaries are made possible by the National Science Foundation. Im Jim Metzner.







 
Science Diary: Caterpillars - Secrets of Finding