Sunday: 30 April 2006
Today is May Eve, sometimes called Walpurgis Night. It’s one of the few seasonal Celtic celebration days that hasn’t been given a good ol' aggressive Christian shellacking so that we don’t think about those nasty nature pagan rites and instead give over to a humanocentric, materialistic, navel-gazing culture that ignores the seasons, the earth, and the other ten million or so of our fellow species and their ways.
(Although apparently the Puritans did try to ban it, fortunately without success since we still have April 30 and May 1 every year. And it hasn’t yet been linked to the massive greeting card industry but let’s keep quiet about that.)
It’s a day of mysteries, the day before Beltane. It’s a celebration of Spring, the marking of the season of flowers and the day of the Maypole. It celebrates greenwood, and class, how many of you know what greenwood is? Let’s not see the same hands, please.
So perhaps it’s appropriate that I’ve been watching these guys and pose them as a little quiz:
They’re all over this plant. They stay on the underside of the leaves.
Last week, on 22 April, they were much smaller. They like to stay together. I couldn’t tell what they were then, but I had my suspicions and was I excited? I suppose I was! Give them the food they want, and they will come.
Now, they’re much bigger, but they still like to be together. Some have flat backs and others have rounded ones. Or maybe they periodically flatten and round their backs.
I messed with the one on the left until he sported his osmetrium.
My little book of the creatures of the dark says that they like to eat snakeroot as well. So has anyone identified this caterpillar and the plant they’re on?
UPDATE: Bev got it (and by the way, read her great post on fireflies that do and don’t) - Pipevine Swallowtails, Battus philenor. I planted the pipevine two years ago. Last year there was nothing; this year it’s covered by the caterpillars. I plan to plant white snakeroot all around this area. I’ve never seen a pipevine swallowtail butterfly - I’m really excited about it.
BTW, the caterpillars are perfectly harmless, despite all the wonderful tentacles and ornamentations. They feel a bit rubbery. Of course I let Glenn check this out first.
Bev’s right about greenwood too - something we’ve gone through already and she might just be experiencing. This disjunction might lead to another post - do we celebrate spring together at a single date, e.g., Beltane, or do we do it as it happens, wherever we are?
(Although apparently the Puritans did try to ban it, fortunately without success since we still have April 30 and May 1 every year. And it hasn’t yet been linked to the massive greeting card industry but let’s keep quiet about that.)
It’s a day of mysteries, the day before Beltane. It’s a celebration of Spring, the marking of the season of flowers and the day of the Maypole. It celebrates greenwood, and class, how many of you know what greenwood is? Let’s not see the same hands, please.
So perhaps it’s appropriate that I’ve been watching these guys and pose them as a little quiz:
They’re all over this plant. They stay on the underside of the leaves.
Last week, on 22 April, they were much smaller. They like to stay together. I couldn’t tell what they were then, but I had my suspicions and was I excited? I suppose I was! Give them the food they want, and they will come.
Now, they’re much bigger, but they still like to be together. Some have flat backs and others have rounded ones. Or maybe they periodically flatten and round their backs.
I messed with the one on the left until he sported his osmetrium.
My little book of the creatures of the dark says that they like to eat snakeroot as well. So has anyone identified this caterpillar and the plant they’re on?
UPDATE: Bev got it (and by the way, read her great post on fireflies that do and don’t) - Pipevine Swallowtails, Battus philenor. I planted the pipevine two years ago. Last year there was nothing; this year it’s covered by the caterpillars. I plan to plant white snakeroot all around this area. I’ve never seen a pipevine swallowtail butterfly - I’m really excited about it.
BTW, the caterpillars are perfectly harmless, despite all the wonderful tentacles and ornamentations. They feel a bit rubbery. Of course I let Glenn check this out first.
Bev’s right about greenwood too - something we’ve gone through already and she might just be experiencing. This disjunction might lead to another post - do we celebrate spring together at a single date, e.g., Beltane, or do we do it as it happens, wherever we are?
