Malacosoma disstria

Owen loves watching the world around him and learning about it, so when I found three little caterpillars on our front porch last week we prepared a suitable home for them and now he has three pet caterpillars. Also, as part of my goal to keep Owen happy and busy this summer, we've decided to have daily "school time."  So combining his pet caterpillars and school time, we learned about his caterpillars last Monday.

First we took one of the caterpillars out of his home and observed him as he crawled around.  We also documented our observations by taking pictures.  Then we did some research on the internet to find out what type of caterpillars he was.  Then, being true scientists, we documented our observations.  Here's what we discovered.

1) Our caterpillars are Forest Tent Caterpillars, or Malacosoma disstria.  
2) They will grow into fuzzy brown moths (that we will photographs of after they've reached that stage of their life cycle).
3) The caterpillars are covered with furry hair-like setae.
4) Owen observed that they are grey with blue, black, brown, and yellow stripes with pink spots.
5) They have 16 legs.
6) They eat leaves and prefer leaves from the oak, sweet gum, and sugar maple trees.

Owen copied some notes into his "science notebook" and drew a picture of his caterpillar.  We will continue to observe the caterpillars and take more notes as they continue to develop.