Books of the Month
Well it butterfly time again and along with butterflies come their caterpillars. Now if you are in your garden and you find a caterpillar and you are unsure what it is, do not kill it! Just throw it into your neighbor's garden and let it eat all of their plants. Then when it finally becomes a butterfly it will fly back into your garden because your garden will still be in good shape!
Now on the other hand, if you want to know what type of caterpillar you found, or you don't have neighbors to harass, there are two books that you may want to consider for your butterfly book shelf.
The first is "Peterson First Guide to Caterpillars by Amy Bartlett Wright. ISBN 978-0-395-91184-6 @ $5.95 It is a concise field guide to 120 more common butterfly and moth caterpillars. What I like about it is that it is small enough to fit inside you back pocket. It is a great gift for that budding lepidopterist in your family.
The next is "Caterpillars in the Field and Garden" by Thomas Allen and Jim Brock. ISBN 0-19-514987-4 @ $29.95. It is a bit pricey for a 5 ½ inch by 8 inch paperback But it is filled with photos and does have quite a few more butterflies then the Peterson's Guide. It does only cover butterflies so if you find a moth cat you will still be up in the air over what you found.
So since caterpillar season is just around the corner you may want to consider eitherr of these identifying guides.
Rick Mikula