(Photo and story by Anita Fernandez)

Milkweed plants seem synonymous with Monarch Butterflies, but they also support other, often similarly colored, insect species like this one pictured – the Milkweed Tussock Moth caterpillar. Like the Monarch caterpillar, this individual is also black, yellow, and white, but is a lot “fuzzier” than the Monarch. The colors they display, also called aposematic coloration, signal to predators that just like other milkweed-eating insects they too are unpalatable. Species that feed on milkweeds become toxic due to the chemicals within the milkweed leaves called cardenolides. Like the Monarch, the Milkweed Tussock Moth has evolved to have the capability to feed on this plant and survive. Unlike the Monarch, the Milkweed Tussock Moth does not have brightly colored wings in its adult form, but instead is mostly a soft gray. These caterpillars will hide themselves in leaf litter or mulch and form a cocoon around themselves to overwinter. They will emerge as adult moths in the spring.