Day 11: It's terribly unfair of you to expect the humble Woolly Bear caterpillar to predict the weather. Pyrrharctia isabella knows no more about the coming winter than the rest of us. Even so, this is a pretty amazing little creature. Did you know, for example, that Woolly Bears enter a type of cryogenic stasis every winter, during which time all bodily functions cease, including the beating of its heart? In the Arctic, Woolly Bears have been known to "return to life" after having been frozen for more than a decade. But as for telling us the weather by the width of the orange band around his middle, the larval form of the Isabella Tiger Moth's coloration is simply a function of age. Just like the hair on a human head turns color as we advance in years, W.B. "goes orange" as it ages, the black bristles replaced by rusty ones.
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