BIG Black Caterpillar

[Doug Yanega]

>Woolly bear. Going to be a long, hard winter.
>Folk lore says that the amount and placement of black and brown predicts
>the amount of cold weather. All-black wooly bears are reported common
>this year in Tennessee, too.
>
>Anne Kilmer
>South Florida

Ah, but those are two different species! The "forecasting" woollybear is
Isia isabella, a different genus entirely from the all-black Hypercompe.
They ALWAYS predict a long, hard winter, so don't trust 'em. ;-)

Doug Yanega    Depto. de Biologia Geral, Instituto de Ciencias Biologicas,
Univ. Fed. de Minas Gerais, Cx.P. 486, 30.161-970 Belo Horizonte, MG   BRAZIL
phone: 31-499-2579, fax: 31-499-2567  (from U.S., prefix 011-55)
                  http://www.icb.ufmg.br/~dyanega/
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82