August 15, 2002 - Moths, woodchucks incomingThe Suffolk Times • August 15, 2002
Moths
woodchucks incomin
SOME TIME AGO I wrote a ou a
luna moth, that beautiful pale green
moth with -the long flowing tails. This
week, I'd like to come back to moths
because I've just received two phone
calls about these
mysterious night
lovers. This time Focus
it was about one ON
of the big silk
moths, the NATURE
Polyphemus. The by Paul
first call was Stoutenburgh
from a neighbor
who saw it flying
around in the daytime, which is most
unusual, for these big moths become
the prey of birds if seen during the
day. He first thought it was a bat.
It finally landed on the branch of a
cedar tree where it was hard to see —
a master of camouflage. It stayed
there with its wings up, and I thought
it was a cecropia, another one of our
big common moths. But no, it was a
little different, so I went over and
picked it up because I wanted to take
it home and check it out more closely.
But that would never be, for it
slipped out of my fingers and flew
away to the top of a nearby tree
where it was safe from strangers. I
had a good idea of what it looked
like, and so I went back to my old
faithful moth book by Holland and
found it to be one of the silk moths
that are quite common in the east
and whose caterpillars feed on oak
and hickory leaves.
The second call came from a man
in Southold whose wife found the
same kind of moth on their front
porch. We went down to see them
with our moth book in hand and
made a positive identification: the
same as the previous one, the
Polyphemus. It must be that all the
conditions were just right for these
big moths to emerge from their
cocoons, and so starts the miracle of
moths and butterflies.
Let's just briefly run through the
life history of these beautiful crea-
tures. The male moth has the ability
Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
Woodchucks, or ground hogs as some call them, are rather scarce here on
the East End but hopefully that's changing. More and more reports are com-
ing in that tell us they're slowly moving eastward.
to find the female by scent over vast
distances during the night. Once mat-
ing takes place and the eggs are laid,
both male and female die. It's those
precious eggs that their species
depends upon. From the eggs, tiny
caterpillars emerge and since the
female has laid them on the leaves of
choice, they are immediately ready to
start eating.
And eat they do until they literally
are "too big for their britches" and
do this, the casing splits and they
emerge just a little larger. This is
called a molt. Some caterpillars molt
five or six times, others only two and
still others 10 times or more. It all
depends on the kind of moth.
Caterpillars will grow to two or three
inches long or even larger. Some are
quite beautiful if you can think of a
caterpillar as being beautiful. Many
are also quite colorful, with tufts of
hair that stand out in little clusters.
Once the caterpillar is full size, it
starts to spin a cocoon of silk. When it
has completely entombed itself, it then
goes into a transition period where
nature completely changes the cater-
pillar into a new design, the moth.
After a period of time, it emerges
from the cocoon. It is long and wrin-
kled, weak and limp. To free itself
from the cocoon, nature has provided
the moth with a special saliva that dis-
solves the silk and lets the newly
emerging moth work its way out.
Now we see'one of the great mira-
cles of nature as this limp, almost life-
less shape pumps fluid into its body,
wings and legs. Before us a most
wondrous transformation has taken
place - a moth has evolved from a
caterpillar.
The word on woodchucks
I'm getting encouraging telephone
calls from people who have seen
woodchucks, or ground hogs, as some
people call them. The first I heard
was back in the '80s when I heard
about a man who had one under his
woodpile at Manor Hill between
Cutchogue and Mattituck. Then I
eard of one in Cutchogue, where it
an across a man's lawn. Then iust
recently my daughter saw two wood-
chucks on the North Road in
Peconic. The most recent call came
from a man in Mattituck who said
one had tunneled right alongside his
garage. He was excited when he
called as the woodchuck stood up on
its haunches and looked right at him.
So you see woodchucks are slowly
moving eastward. They've always
been up west. You can occasionally
see them along the side of the
expressway, sitting outside their bur-
rows. They are relatively easy to spot,
with their pile of dirt beside them. So
when you're driving along the
expressway, keep your eyes peeled
and you'll see them. Not a lot, but
some.
Woodchucks, or ground hogs, enjoy
a wooded area opening up into fields
where they can scout about and col-
lect their goodies in the form of veg-
etation. They are strictly vegetarians
and eat grasses of all kinds.
Woodchucks are true hibernators,
meaning they sleep through the cold
of winter, deep in their burrows. They
go into a sort of suspended animation
and I've read that you can literally
dig them up in the wintertime in this
dormant state and pick them right up
without them coming out of their
I'd love to have one in my pasture,
but they say they are the bane of cat-
tle and horses, for should they step
into a burrow they could break a leg.
Woodchucks have gotten a sort of
bad name by some and are the target
for many people — and by that I
mean a real target. Their abandoned
burrows are good in the sense that
they provide burrows for snakes, tur-
tles, rabbits and other animals that
need an underground shelter. The
burrow, once dug to a sufficient
depth, travels along a short way and
then rises, and there you'll find the
living quarters. Then if rainwater
comes in, it doesn't get into the living
quarters. It seeks the lower section of
the tunnel and seeps away.
Woodchucks fatten up on grasses
and greenery of various types all
summer long so that when fall come
they're well prepared with a thick
layer of stored energy that they live
off in their long winter hibernation.
They have few enemies now, perhaps
a stray dog or a shotgun blast from
some farmer
who resents Did you know?
sharing his
crops, but by Another name
and large for a young
they live a woodchuck is
peaceful life.
Hopefully a `chuckling.'
we should
be seeing more of them as they move
eastward. Let's hope so, for they
would be a welcome addition to our
hedgerows and open fields. Of
course, there is always that drawback
that one might take up housekeeping
in your garden and that's another
story. They do like veggies.
P.S. In looking up information on
the woodchuck or ground hog, there
was mention of the young and they
refer to them as "chucklings."
Thought you might get a kick out of