| One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries. A. A. Milne from Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach Ugly nest caterpillars (Archips cerasivoranus) spin dense webs, easily identified by the bits of black excrement clinging to the messy web. The larvae pupate in this clutter, emerging as orange moths between July and September. The caterpillars living in these messy arrangements are yellowish-green with shiny black heads - worthy of their common name ugly nest caterpillars. They are harmless to their host plants which are often rose bushes - a good balance that one of the most beautiful of all plants provides housing for one of the ugliest of all insects. Evolution, according to Francois Jacob, works "like a tinkerer who does not know exactly what he is going to produce but uses whatever he finds around him ... to produce some kind of workable object." The relationship between the bushes and this ugly nest caterpillar works - both benefit from the other and most importantly, both survive.
Respect the common things. They are common because they survived.John C. Gifford in Living by the Land |
