Back in the spring of 2021, I made a little foray into the woods and found a couple of cool caterpillars in the trees there. One was the fir tussock moth caterpillar (Orgyia sp.), known for it’s beauty and it’s venomous hairs that can cause a painful, red rash if touched. The other was the wooly grey moth caterpillar (Lycia ypsilon). It is an equally gorgeous little creature, but in a very different way. While the tussock moth caterpillar is covered in hair, the wooly grey caterpillar is hairless. The tussock moth, like most caterpillars, has legs along the length of it’s entire body, but the wooly grey has legs only at the front and back of the body. Because of this, the wooly grey caterpillar moves by reaching forward and the walking the rear legs up to meet the head. In other words, the wooly grey moth caterpillar is a type of inchworm. Interestingly, both of these cool, colorful caterpillars become rather ordinary looking grey to brown moths as adults. Caterpillars, especially small ones, are often pretty difficult to find because they either stay hidden or they blend into their environments, so I considered this a pretty good walk when I actually found two different species. And to top it off, both are beautiful and very interesting.