WILDLIFE OF THE WEEK
Monkey Slug
While I know jealousy isn’t a good look, sometimes I get wildlife pictures from friends, colleagues, and readers that really make green with envy. The latest “Who is this?” nature photo I’ve received put me in just that state of mind. A reader had come across a bizarre, alien-looking creature about an inch in length, trundling its way along a patch of bare earth under a tree on the UGA Health Sciences campus. It had hairy “tentacles” protruding from its body and didn’t have a clearly visible head or eyes. This bizarre little thing was a larva of the slug moth Phobetron pitchecium, very reasonably known as the “Monkey Slug”, a ridiculous caterpillar I’ve been dying to see since I saw one in a book years ago and found myself staring in disbelief.
Monkey slugs are among the Northern-most cousins of a mostly tropical group of moths, the Limacodidae or slug moths, so named because their weird caterpillars have tiny legs by which they seem to glide along rather than crawl. They are often blobby and sluglike in appearance and very well defended. The monkey slug’s hairy “tentacles” provide defense from predators, potentially having an irritating quality. Meanwhile, other caterpillars in this group like the notorious saddleback can give an extremely painful sting with their defensive spines. I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled to see my own monkeyslug these days, but maybe I’ll get more lucky next Fall.
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The monkey slug making its way through some bare earth under a tree. Not exactly a fast mover.
FEATURED BLOG POST
Why Do Trees Turn Colors in the Fall?
Some gorgeous fall colors in a deciduous forest in North Georgia, October 2025.
Many parts of the Northern Hemisphere are now seeing new flashes of color in outdoor environments thanks to the dramatic color changes of some trees, flowers, and shrubs. Although these are welcome and familiar changes for those of us accustomed to these seasonal climates, they may be a bit of a mystery in terms of how, or why, they happen. Obviously this change in color comes before trees lose their leaves in Winter, another mystery in its own right. But why the fancy hues? And what makes them so bright? This week’s featured blog post will dig into the science of Fall colors and how they help plants transition from Summer to Winter. Check it out and please share with fellow nature-lovers!
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NATURALIST WORD OF THE WEEK
Fascicle (n.) - A bundle of elongated structures held together. Among naturalists, often in reference to the grouping of pine, spruce or fir needles. For example, Eastern White pines (Pinus strobus) have 5 needles bunched together per fascicle, while Pitch pines (Pinus rigida) have fascicles of three.
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