Caterpillars

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Caterpillars

***** Location: Japan, worldwide
***** Season: All Summer
***** Category: Animals

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Explanation

There are quite a few varieties of caterpillars on our earth.
In Japan too, we have our share of them. Basically they are divided into the hairy versions and the non-hairy ones.

hairy caterpillar, woolybear, wooly bears, kemushi　毛虫
woolybears creeping around, kemushi hau 毛虫這う（けむしはう）



kemushi can be used for any type of hairy caterpillar of any size. Woolybear refers to the tiger moth species (Arctiide).
Woolybears are also seen in autumn, when they walk along the roads. In that case, as kigo, you have to mention the season, they are "autumn woolybears".

Some of them have poison on their hairs that can lead to severe inflammation of the human skin.

Some multiply in great numbers and crawl along fields and trees, they can clear a whole chestnut tree over night, as I have seen them many times in our area. They come down our small road like an army of small tanks.
The local farmers call them "Mountain guys" (yama taroo 山太郎).
When they become too much of a plague, farmers light torches and burn them off (kemushi yaku 毛虫焼く).
What is left will be food for the crows, which descend in large numbers to feed on the hairy caterpillars.

pine caterpillar, matsu kemushi 松毛虫

ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo

Another group are the loopers, which move by drawing the rear part of the body to the front part, forming a loop, and then moving the front part onwards.

looper, inchworm, shakutori　尺蠖
..... shakutorimushi 尺取虫 (measuring in shaku)
..... suntori mushi 寸取虫 (measuring in sun)
..... tsuetsuki mushi 杖突虫 (walking with a stick)
..... kusshin mushi 屈伸虫 （くっしんむし）(streching-arching-insect)
..... dobin wari 土壜割（どびんわり）
..... ogimushi 招虫（おぎむし）



The body movement looks like the animal is measuring the lenght of a SHAKU or a SUN to the Japanese.
(A shaku is about one foot or 30 cm, a sun is ten shaku, 3 cm.)

Measure converter for Shaku, Sun and Bu

The caterpillar also stands for transformation and rebirth, especially in a Buddhist context. It may become a moth, a butterfly or else ...

Gabi Greve

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If it's a hairy caterpillar, say "hairy caterpillar" or "woolybear". This is what the Japanese call kemushi.

If it's a non-hairy caterpillar, and is green or brownish in color, say "looper" or "inch-worm" or some such. Japanese shakutori .

In my own reading, I automatically classify the word "caterpillar" by itself as the latter type unless context suggests otherwise, but I'm sure others may think first of a woolybear. Then, there are also horned caterpillars, tent caterpillars, and other types.

In some poems, for example one involving a bird eating a caterpillar, it may not make much difference which type is mentioned. But if the caterpillar is the main star, rather than a supporting actor, it might be a good idea to say which kind, within reason.

A "green caterpillar" may be enough in some haiku (suggesting either the caterpillar of a cabbage white or an inch-worm), while in others one might need to specify "gypsy moth caterpillar".

Bill Higginson

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quote
The woolly bear caterpillar — with its 13 distinct segments of black and reddish-brown — has the reputation of being able to forecast the coming winter weather.
source : www.almanac.com


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There are many tens and thousands of types of caterpillars.

certainly, as poets, we can evoke a familiar moment in our fellow haijin by saying 'caterpillar'. and maybe, unless the precise species is needed to capture the moment, caterpillar is all we need say.

bending
to rescue the woolybear
the bald man

summer solstice
under the tent caterpillars
autumn leaves

susan delphine delaney
plano texas

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..................... Some Biology

Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Superclass Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Subclass Pterygota (Winged Insects)
Order Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)
No Taxon Moths

Other Common Names
larvae commonly called caterpillars (as are larvae of butterflies)
pupal case commonly called a cocoon (vs. chrysalis in butterflies)

Numbers
about 13,000 described species in about 70 families in North America (plus many more undescribed species of mostly micromoths)
about 165,000 described species in the world

Larvae (caterpillars)
have a hardened head capsule and a fleshy body composed of a thorax bearing three pairs of legs, and an elongated cylindrical abdomen bearing from zero to five pairs of prolegs (short fleshy ventral projections used for clinging or walking). The body may be either uniformly colored or patterned with stripes, bands, or spots; the surface may be smooth, or may be sparsely or densely covered with short or long hairs, tufts of hair, spines, knobs, or other features.

Food
depending on species, larvae may feed on all parts of herbaceous plants, roots/twigs/stems/leaves of trees and shrubs, fungi, lichens, dead or decaying plant material, stored food products, fabrics made of cotton or wool, or generally any organic material; many species are very host-specific, and can be identified by the plant they are feeding on; larvae of a few species are known to eat other caterpillars, and a few other species eat soft-bodied insects such as aphids

Read more and look at samples
http://bugguide.net/node/view/82

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Worldwide use

Canada

Spotted Tussock Moth (Lophocampa maculata)
The caterpillar of the Spotted Tussock Moth is often called the Yellow Woolly Bear.
Spotted Tussock Moth Caterpillar / PHOTO !
Royal Alberta Museum, Canada


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Things found on the way

The Caterpillar Hunter



Photo by: John Serrao/Photo Researchers, Inc.

Caterpillar Hunter, common name for any of several closely related species of large, nocturnal, predatory beetles. Caterpillar hunters prey on caterpillars and earthworms. Some, such as the fiery searcher, are brilliantly colored. This species, which can grow up to 3.4 cm (1.3 in) long, is metallic blue and green. The European caterpillar hunter was imported into the United States in large numbers to combat the browntail moth.

Scientific classification:
Caterpillar hunters belong to the family Carabidae. The fiery searcher is classified as Calosoma scrutator, and the European caterpillar hunter as Calosoma sycophanta.

http://www.google.co.jp/search?hl=ja&q=caterpillar+classification&btnG=Google+%E6%A4%9C%E7%B4%A2&lr=


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HAIKU

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- - - - - Japanese still missing

Deep into autumn
and this caterpillar
still not a butterfly
http://www.haiku.insouthsea.co.uk/teachbasho_self3.htm



秋を経て蝶もなめるや菊の露
aki o hete / chō mo nameru ya / kiku no tsuyu


MORE - poems about butterflies by
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .


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大毛虫蟻の地獄におちにけり
ô kemushi ari no jigoku ni ochi ni keri

big caterpillar--
into the ants' hell
it has fallen


大菊のてっぺんに寝る毛虫哉
ôgiku no teppen ni neru kemushi kana

on the big mum's
peak, asleep...
caterpillar

Issa (Tr. David Lanoue)
http://haikuguy.com/queryallcodetest3.php?keywords=caterpillar&year=

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みじか夜や毛むしの上に露の玉
mijikayo ya kemushi no ue ni tsuyu no tama

short night!
all over the wooly bear
are dew beads
Tr. Dennis Chibi - fb


. WKD : Yosa Buson 与謝蕪村 and his "short night" poems .


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In the girl's day light hand
the caterpillar is dreaming too
to become a butterfly

Vasile Moldovan

Look at more haiku and a photo
http://home.alc.co.jp/db/owa/PH_detail?photo_sn_in=1112

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Caterpillars crawl
Caterpillars are hairy
Caterpillars die

Emily Millar
http://www.edu.pe.ca/bloomfield/grassroots/Poetry/Haiku.htm

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in the weeds
one hundred and one
striped caterpillars

paul conneally
http://tinywords.com/haiku/2002/06/05/

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Related words


kigo for all autumn

namushi 菜虫 (なむし) "leaf worm"
leaf-eating caterpiller
na no aomushi 菜の青虫　
namushi toru 菜虫とる picking leaf worms
This is the caterpillar stage of the cabbage butterfly (monchirochoo もんしろちょう 紋白蝶 .


胡蝶にもならで秋経る菜虫哉
kochoo ni mo narade aki furu namushi kana


Never becoming a butterfly
Into autumn lives
A caterpillar.
Tr. Nelson/Saito
Oku no Hosomichi - - - - Station 43 - Ogaki 大垣 - - -
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .


Various translations:

still not a butterfly
as autumn deepens:
a rape-worm
trans. Barnhill


not yet a butterfly
even as autumn passes
the caterpillar
trans. Reichhold

Reichhold's comment:
Starting verse for a renga party at Jokoo's house in Oogaki.


not grown to a butterfly
this late in autumn
a caterpillar
trans. Ueda

Ueda's comment:
Written shortly after arrival in Oogaki on or around October 4.


A caterpillar,
this deep in fall--
still not a butterfly
trans. Hass

Barnhill translates namushi literally as 'rape-worm'; Ueda translates it as 'vegetable-worm'. Rehichhold translates it as 'caterpillar'
Compiled by Larry Bole


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***** Butterfly

***** Crow, Raven

***** Moths



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