Oops! Note to self: remember to read the text. I happily coloured my drawing of a Regal Walnut Moth and was starting to type its text for my Insect Alphabet:
Nearly all caterpillars, however formidable they may look, are in fact harmless. The fiercest one I have ever seen, that of the regal walnut moth (Ceratocampa regalis) is very large, and with horny spines stretched over the head...I had collected the text weeks earlier, and I'd forgotten that the picture was supposed to show the caterpillar; not the moth. For about two seconds, I told myself it didn't matter. Then I looked at photos of these bizarre caterpillars and could hardly wait to draw one.
It took some tweaking and fiddling-around, though. I wanted to place the caterpillar below the moth, but there wasn't enough room on the paper to extend the drawing in that direction, so I drew the caterpillar in a separate panel, and "stitched" them together on the computer. (If you look at Monday's Alphadello post, you can see the line.)
In real life, the caterpillar and moth would not appear in the same place at the same time, so I put the caterpillar in a circle. It's supposed to remind you of a magnifying glass, but believe me, you would not need a magnifying glass to see a real one. Check this out. Eeeewwww! And yet...wow. Magnificent!
