I Found A Bunch Of These Little Cocoons On The Juniper Trees Near My Dorm Building! Any Idea What They

I found a bunch of these little cocoons on the juniper trees near my dorm building! Any idea what they could be? Some of them are hatched, but most are still intact. I live in Maryland, if that helps

Looks like some sort of bagworm, probably an evergreen bagworm :) Bagworms build a protective bag around themselves as caterpillars, eventually pupating in it. The females of evergreen bagworms, like most bagworm species, are wingless and never leave their "bags", pupating, mating and dying there. The males can fly, but can't eat. Interesting find!

When I found this huge moth, I thought it was a broken tree branch!

I migrated them to where no artifical light is visible :-)

Grote's Buff-Tip (Phalera grotei)

It's a geometrid caterpillar!!

Can anyone on here tell me what this is?? I thought maybe a caterpillar larvae? Or a baby worm from Tremors 🤷🏻‍♀️

Before I talk about this, it's important to understand that the distinction between butterflies and moths is inconsistent. They're both in the order lepidoptera. The difference between them is generally based on whether they evolved earlier, then they're a moth, or later, then they're a butterfly. But some moths evolved after butterflies, which doesnt fit. The only thing that's consistent is that each family in the order lepidoptera is either a "moth family" or a "butterfly family".

Moths have certain similar features, these are: wings held apart at rest, fluffy antennae, night-flying, dull coloured, hairy and thick bodies.

Similar features of butterflies are: wings held together at rest, thin antennae, day-flying, brightly coloured, not so hairy and thin bodies.

Most moths or butterflies have at least one of these common features, though not necessarily all of them. The hummingbird hawkmoth is day-flying, for example, yet still a moth.

Like so:

You don't really have to know the exact species of a caterpillar, you just have to know the family to tell what it will grow up to be. Then you can call it a moth caterpillar or butterfly caterpillar.

Also, extremely hairy caterpillars are undoubtedly moth caterpillars, bc butterfly caterpillars can have hair, but not that much.

And the thing about cocoons vs chrysalises

pupa: the stage between caterpillar and adult, for moths and butterflies.

cocoon: a structure built around the pupa by some moths, but not all. Made from silk or debris.

chrysalis: just a pupa, but specifically for butterflies. And some people will refer to a naked moth pupa without a cocoon as a chrysalis for some reason... but most people don't do that.

So for examples on the left there's a cocoon that's been cut through to reveal the pupa inside, on the right is the pupa of a hawkmoth (hawkmoths don't make cocoons)

Hope this helps!! It's confusing I know 😔

Oh also credit to @strangergraphics for the cool dividers :)

Okay so we call the young ones "Caterpillars" either way, because we can't tell them apart unless we know the specific species on sight right?

Yes

And we call the adult ones with folding wings "Moths", and the unfolding wings "Butterflies"

Correct

So it's really hard to tell the intermediate stages apart, they're both just pods full of bug goo hanging from trees, so they should obviously share the same name right?

Nope the foldy wing ones get "Caccoon", the unfoldy one's get "Chrysalis"

Can you tell the two apart?

Shut up.

(I'm actually hoping for help understanding this, because this is my current understanding)

Mating of The Largest Moth species of India - Atlas Moth. Also one of the largest moths in the world, a beautiful lepidopteran species.

Those who love nature and wildlife often remain disappointed about the creatures and life they haven't been able to witness so far, and so was I. One such species, which I didn't come across (until yesterday) in a living state (I have seen its specimen previously) was this moth.

But, what a sight to behold it was. I got to see not one but two individuals of it, and their mating.

We were heading towards Kalu waterfall (Malshej Ghat). It was raining continuously. And just beside the pathway, from which some 250-300 tourists must have passed (to and fro) on that day, I was able to spot these two (and I indeed take a pride in it). They must have been in this state for more than one and half hour, at least, I saw them at the same spot while returning, too. 

- Dhairyasheel Dayal

Saved a moth today :3 was walking outside to take care of the chickens, but I thought I saw something on the floor in my entryway- and I did see something, it was a poor little moth flat on the ground

The wings weren't damaged so I carefully tried to pick it up so I could keep it, but then it climbed onto my fingers and I realized it was alive! So I opened the door and it immediately perked up. I stepped out and closed the door, and it flew off my hand, fluttering around me and landing on me a couple times. Then it flew off to the big bushy tree next to my door, where I assume it's taking a nice ol nap

Here she is!! Just an lil thang...