Many strikingly beautiful butterflies and moths have earlier incarnations as boring, monochromatic caterpillars. The multi-hued larva pictured here, the Forest Tent Caterpillar, will morph into a heavy-bodied non-descript tan moth, smaller as an adult than it was in the caterpillar stage. Or, at least, that’s what would happen if it were not now hanging out in a Mason jar with some tasty leaves of cherry and maple trees, the kinds of trees it would devour in the U.S. Eastern Woodlands. (Once a second-grade teacher, always a second-grade teacher.) The caterpillar is described in the guidebook as having keyhole markings down the back, but I think the design looks like a parade of wasp-waisted insects. I’m trying to reason out what camouflage or protective role that design is playing; nothing in nature is an accident. Wasps and flies parasitize this caterpillar, and also the egg and pupa stage, laying their own eggs in or on the host and thus acting as a natural control of this population of deforestation engineers. Maybe the illusion of an insect parade on the back of the Forest Tent Caterpillar is intended to convey the message, “I’m taken; find another place to lay your eggs.”