So A Few Months Ago I Took A Class At A Craft Studio Her In My Local Town And It Was For Learning To

So a few months ago I took a class at a Craft studio her in my local town and it was for learning to how to spread and pin Butterflies. It's something I have wanted to do for... Well since I found it was a thing so.. This one here was my first one and turns out I absolute loved it and I'm hoping I can do something more with it.. I will post my other one from my intermediate class right after this.

This one I believe is a Common Jay which is the common name.. If I'm wrong let me know.

I found a bunch of these little cocoons on the juniper trees near my dorm building! Any idea what they could be? Some of them are hatched, but most are still intact. I live in Maryland, if that helps

Looks like some sort of bagworm, probably an evergreen bagworm :) Bagworms build a protective bag around themselves as caterpillars, eventually pupating in it. The females of evergreen bagworms, like most bagworm species, are wingless and never leave their "bags", pupating, mating and dying there. The males can fly, but can't eat. Interesting find!

Wiggle waggle, wiggle waggle.

'Tis the season of Theretra oldenlandiae caterpillar! Taro hornworm or imatiens hawkmoth or whatever you feel like calling it.

My daughter and I picked up this one and moved it off the path in front of our apartment so it wouldn't get squished. The little wiggly tail-horn is SO FUNNY. Even if it's meant to have a practical purpose, it is hilarious.

hi!! we had this pretty little thing in our living room and would love to know what it is! (in germany if that helps)

Thanks for the ask! Looks like a box tree moth (Cydalima perspectalis), which is actually not native to Germany, but it is native in Eastern Asia. It's called a box tree moth because the caterpillars eat boxwoods, plants in the genus Buxus. There are two morphs: the lighter, common one and a rarer melanistic one.

Aww what a cutie! If u were needing ID it looks like a large tolype moth :)

I've sometimes complained about my ADHD. Commented negatively on the ways that it makes me struggle in life. About the different aspects that are bumped up to hard mode because my brain is functioning on a slightly different OS.

But yesterday. Yesterday was one of the little shimmers. Yesterday while leaving the counseling office that I was attending for the first time trying to get set up with a better counselor to help me manage my life, and noticed spot on the wall outside. Just a little discoloration. Until I took the time to look more closely at the barely there shift of coloring the wall.

It was an adorable moth!

Please enjoy these photos~

Before I talk about this, it's important to understand that the distinction between butterflies and moths is inconsistent. They're both in the order lepidoptera. The difference between them is generally based on whether they evolved earlier, then they're a moth, or later, then they're a butterfly. But some moths evolved after butterflies, which doesnt fit. The only thing that's consistent is that each family in the order lepidoptera is either a "moth family" or a "butterfly family".

Moths have certain similar features, these are: wings held apart at rest, fluffy antennae, night-flying, dull coloured, hairy and thick bodies.

Similar features of butterflies are: wings held together at rest, thin antennae, day-flying, brightly coloured, not so hairy and thin bodies.

Most moths or butterflies have at least one of these common features, though not necessarily all of them. The hummingbird hawkmoth is day-flying, for example, yet still a moth.

Like so:

You don't really have to know the exact species of a caterpillar, you just have to know the family to tell what it will grow up to be. Then you can call it a moth caterpillar or butterfly caterpillar.

Also, extremely hairy caterpillars are undoubtedly moth caterpillars, bc butterfly caterpillars can have hair, but not that much.

And the thing about cocoons vs chrysalises

pupa: the stage between caterpillar and adult, for moths and butterflies.

cocoon: a structure built around the pupa by some moths, but not all. Made from silk or debris.

chrysalis: just a pupa, but specifically for butterflies. And some people will refer to a naked moth pupa without a cocoon as a chrysalis for some reason... but most people don't do that.

So for examples on the left there's a cocoon that's been cut through to reveal the pupa inside, on the right is the pupa of a hawkmoth (hawkmoths don't make cocoons)

Hope this helps!! It's confusing I know 😔

Oh also credit to @strangergraphics for the cool dividers :)

Okay so we call the young ones "Caterpillars" either way, because we can't tell them apart unless we know the specific species on sight right?

Yes

And we call the adult ones with folding wings "Moths", and the unfolding wings "Butterflies"

Correct

So it's really hard to tell the intermediate stages apart, they're both just pods full of bug goo hanging from trees, so they should obviously share the same name right?

Nope the foldy wing ones get "Caccoon", the unfoldy one's get "Chrysalis"

Can you tell the two apart?

Shut up.

(I'm actually hoping for help understanding this, because this is my current understanding)