Banded woolly bear

Description:

Fuzzy and spiky orange and red caterpillar. This caterpillar was crawling fast on the pavement.

Habitat:

Urban.

Notes:

From Wikipedia: The woolly bear caterpillars don't inject venom and are not hazardous However, they will play dead if picked up or disturbed. Handling them is discouraged, however, as the bristles may cause irritation in people with sensitive skin. This species is a feeder, it feeds on many different species of plants, especially herbs and leaves. The banded woolly bear larva emerges from the egg in the fall and over winter it is in its caterpillar form. It survives winter freezes by producing a cryoprotectant in its tissues. It is the larvae of this species which are the subject of common folklore, which has it that the forthcoming severity of a winter can be predicted by the amount of black on the caterpillar; this is the most familiar woolly bear in North America. But in fact, larvae produced in the same clutch of eggs can vary from mostly red to mostly black, even when reared under the same conditions, and this variability invalidates any actual temperature-related trends that may otherwise be evident.