Page 34 - The Book of Caterpillars: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred Species From Around the World

right As part of
caterpillar outreach
initiatives, project
leader Lee Dyer
shows a large,
stinging, flannel
moth caterpillar,
(Megalopyge sp.) to
an international group
of scientists gathered
in the Atlantic Forest,
a rain forest in Bahia
State, Brazil, rich in
biological diversity.

RESEARCH

AND CONSERVATION

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Caterpillars, reared quite easily and quickly, are rewarding study subjects,

helping scientists make important discoveries about biology, genetics, plant
chemistry, and even the effects of climate change. These insects are models
of adaptability, and their interactions with their habitat provide fascinating
insights into how organisms adjust to a changing environment.

CATERPILLARS AND CLIMATE CHANGE

A long-term research and outreach project launched in Costa Rica in 1995
by scientists funded by the Earthwatch Institute and extended to centers
in Ecuador, Brazil, Arizona, Louisiana, and Nevada monitors caterpillars
to investigate how climate change affects plant chemistry and interactions

between plants, herbivores, and parasitoids. Data from the project suggests
that a warming climate can put the life cycles of caterpillars and parasitoids
out of sync; for example, caterpillars pupate earlier, before the
parasitoids that attack them are fully developed. As a result, more
caterpillars survive, contributing to outbreaks and consuming more plant

matter, and parasitoid populations fall. Whether this is a permanent
situation, or if parasitoids will eventually “catch up” remains unclear.
Some United States butterfly species such as the Sachem skipper
(Atalopedes campestris) have increased their geographical range in response

to a warming climate. Once restricted to California and the southern states,
the Sachem is now common in Oregon and expanding northward through
Washington State. In contrast, alpine specialists such as the Astarte
Fritillary (Boloria astarte), with a range from northwestern North America
to northeastern Siberia, could run out of “cool space” and become extinct.