The devil went down to Tampa...

Look. Look close. Closer still... can you see the tiny devils lurking here?

The pale and speckled pile of objects that you see are eggs of the Regal Moth (Citheronia regalis). The caterpillars are often known as Hickory Horned Devils because they a) eat hickory leaves b) possess giant horns and c) grow to nearly 6 inch lime green caterpillars with startling orange horns that look like they should be on some mythical devil in a medieval book.

Each tiny black dot is the head of a developing caterpillar that you can see through the eggshell. The pale 'U' shape behind the dot is the tiny body of the larva inside the egg.

Each egg started off a creamy speck and you can see a few that remain opaque in the photo. These undeveloped eggs were laid after the initial clutch of eggs and will take another day or two to develop. Soon the tiny larva will begin to chew their way out of their egg shells and will then transition over to a host plant. I have the eggs in our Insect Rearing Lab, inside a glass tank with plenty of fresh Sweet Gum leaves ready for them to chew.

These larva will host on a variety of trees including hickory, sweet gum, persimmon and sumac and will eventually reach a size of nearly six inches in length, each. As these caterpillars hatch and grow, we'll be sure to share many photos of their progress for our many readers, but especially for Kristen who brought us the female Regal Moth and a batch of eggs from the Forbes Road Produce stand.

The adult moth was gorgeous, brilliant orange with a nearly six inch wing span. She laid bunches of cream colored eggs for Kristen, and then laid more eggs for us inside the BioWorks enclosure. Here is a photo of the female Regal Moth, shortly after her arrival.

We look forward to sharing this experience with you!