Abigail and I were harvesting the potatoes the other day and I dug this up…at least I think I dug it up. Anyhow, it ended up in the pile of dirt from which we were picking potatoes. At the top it seemed like a cocoon but it was very much larva-like at the bottom. I guess it was a moth or butterfly larva weaving its cocoon but I do not know what type.
That crazy thing was wiggling around and really freaking the kids out ( I, of course, was quite brave and unmoved by its actions). It was several inches long and full of ugly. I decided to just put it back in the dirt and hope for the best.
We are pretty fond of butterflies but I have sort of mixed reactions to moths…due to a bad experience with wax moths and my stored honey supers…I still can hardly talk about it!
Anyhow, we had a pretty good haul of potatoes and the kids were absolutely fantastic at helping me harvest them. I have never seen them work so hard as they did then.
Ugh! Reminds me of a type of botfly larvae that we’d sometimes see around a carcass when I was a girl. *shudder*
Wow, that is a weird looking critter!
You got a lot of potatoes! I’m hoping to greatly expand our potato patch next year… I already ate all of mine.
Ron
Once when I was teaching 2nd grade we had them split open old logs with hammers to look at the insects, worms, etc. inside. We found the exact creature you are shown holding, plus another one that was completely white. Both were moving around a lot. I kept my cool, held it, etc, not wanting the kids to get that “girls don’t touch things like that” attitude! But it was plenty gross. Our guess was also that it was a moth.
I surely wish I had kept it so we could watch it progress and hatch. I was deep in potato harvest and it didn’t occur to me that we could do a little science on the side. I would love to know what it was. Next time…
It’s a larva/cocoon of some sort. I’ve found similar ones in my flower beds! We always have intentions of keeping them, but somehow never do.
And what a haul of potato’s! Those will come in handy, good eating