This is the Wooly Bear Caterpillar i'm raising. The caterpillar falls under " bristled" species, of which there are several different colors: all black, all brown, yellow and gray. The woolly bear, also known as the woolly worm and the black-ended bear, is the larva of the Isabella Tiger Moth. The several colored varieties of Wooly Bears correspond to different moth species.

Mine here will become a Giant Leopard Moth. The moth stage of this species is very beautiful. The wings of the moth are solid white, with irregularly shaped black circles all over them giving it the leopard-like appearance. The abdomen is mettalic blue with bright orange markings.

But back to the caterpillar - like the groundhog's shadow, the traditional woolly bear's 13 distinctive black and reddish-brown bands have become a rule of thumb in forecasting winter. According to the Old Farmer's Almanac, the longer the middle brown band, the milder and shorter the coming winter; the shorter the brown band, the longer and more severe winter will be.

Because this Wooly Bear is ENTIRELY coated with long black hairs, known as setae, it should indicate a particularly mean winter, but it's all folklore ... And the cherry red bands here only indicate growth and feeding.

When feeling threatened, the caterpillar will curl up in a ball revealing bright red markings between its many segments. A good field guide marker for indentification, and also - it makes it hard to tell the head from the bottom end.