This means that the total brown band took up more than 1/3 of the woolly bear.Īccording to this study, the corresponding winters were milder than average, as Dr. Curran’s average brown segment counts ranged from 5.3 to 5.6 out of the total 13 segments. This resulted in the publicity of the woolly worms which were the most recognized caterpillars in North America – alongside the monarch caterpillar and tomato hornworm.Ĭheck Price on Amazon Do Woolly Bear Caterpillars Foretell The Weather?ĭr. Curran’s continued with his experiment for the next 8 years attempting to prove that woolly worms could be used to foretell the winter weather. He collected as many caterpillars as he could in a day and used them to forecast the coming winter weather through his reporter friend at The New York Herald Tribune.ĭr. So he took his wife 40 miles North of the city to Bear Mountain State Park to look for woolly bear caterpillars. Curran, a curator of insects at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, wanted to prove scientifically that the woolly worm could foretell the weather. Get to know What Do White Flies Look Like? How Did The Black Woolly Worms Become Famous?ĭr. During spring, the woolly worm bears the spin fuzzy cocoons and transforms while inside them into full-grown moths.This is why many are trying to crossroads and sidewalks in the fall just before winter begins.Mature woolly bears look for overwintering sites under bark or inside rocks or logs.Just like caterpillars, woolly bears hatch during summer from eggs laid by a female moth.The same case happens for all-white woolly caterpillars. An all-black woolly caterpillar does not mean the weather forecast will be a severe endless winter, just that it’s a different species not used in forecasting.Just because it is named Woolly bear doesn’t mean it feels like wool rather, it has short, stiff bristles of hair.

Download black wooly caterpillar winter