The devil went down to Georgia....

and he got caught! Adam was on the playground at school Friday, and he found this monster trundling through the leaves. We've caught one before, so he knew it was a Hickory Horned Devil, the "mack-daddy" of all caterpillars. He also knew that there was no way that the substitute teacher would let him bring something that big, scary, and disruptive back into the classroom. So, he did what any self-respecting, Dennis the Menace channeling, Steve Irwin wannabee would do; he put it in his pocket. When he got back into the classroom, he quietly transferred it to his backpack. And he didn't tell a soul, which is VERY unlike Adam. How he managed to not breathe a peep about it to Ali, his best bug-buddy, is beyond me, but he didn't tell her or anyone else until he got into the Berry's car to carpool home. Leesa said he couldn't find it at first and thought he'd lost it, and he started to cry. But then, it appeared at the bottom of the backpack, and I can imagine that she nearly ran off the road when she saw it.

On Saturday, we noticed that Hickory Nut, as Adam calls him, seemed to be shorter and fatter. But, he still moved around and seemed to get longer as he warmed up and was in our hands. This morning, he was noticeably shorter, and the lightbulb finally came on. He is getting ready to pupate; that's why he was on the ground in the first place. HHD's normally spend their lives up in the leaves of hickory, sweetgum, and walnut trees. They fall to the ground when it's time to pupate and bury themselves in the dirt. It can take up to TWO years before the regal moth that they are becoming finally emerges. Having finally figured out what was happening, we've now installed Hickory Nut in a container full of dirt; hopefully he isn't too far along the pupa trail to be able to dig himself a comfy cave. We'll keep researching to see if we can find information from someone who has successfully kept a pupa until it hatches, to make sure that we aren't doing anything wrong. And Lord willing, when Adam is 9, or maybe even 10, we can welcome Hickory Nut the regal moth into the world!