Florescent Caterpillars

It's a given that we go out to the field daily to collect caterpillars, but did you know it is possible to find them in the dark too? We actually found our biggest, plumpest caterpillars at night. Our group is fortunate to have Julie Elliott, a caterpillar enthusiast and previous Earthwatch teacher fellow, volunteer to help us out all week. Along with her caterpillar expertise and hard work, she also brought her UV light which we used on our night hunt.    
Julie (left) and yes she helps us with those containers of caterpillars!           
Handy dandy UV light

My initial thought about Arizona was that it was an arid desert state covered with cacti. I found out how wrong I was when we arrived in the Chiricahua Mountains. Our drive through the canyon was beautiful to say the least with beautiful rock formations and a plethora of trees including Douglas Firs (Christmas trees)! It was a comfortable 90 degree sunny day, perfect for a night hike with the UV light, right? Not quite. We were met with thunderstorms two nights in a row. On our second night, we braved the rain and went searching for florescent caterpillars and florescent caterpillars we found! 

 
  How many can you count?                                         Glowing eggs