WOOLLY BEARS AND HAIRY HUBERTS

 

Classic illustration of a woolly bear, aka Furry
Hubert in County Durham (public area)

As you
all know, I like delving via previous books and periodicals searching for odd
little titbits of obscure zoological trivia, and never so way back I discovered the
following fascinating snippet of knowledge in William Brockie’s e-book Legends and Superstitions of the County of
Durham (1886), which was fully new to me and definitely warrants a
point out on ShukerNature.

So
right here it’s:

HAIRY HUBERT

For those who throw a bushy worm, within the North known as Furry Hubert, over
your head, and take care to not look to see the place it alights, you’re certain to
get one thing new earlier than lengthy.

 

The 1974 EP Publishing version of William
Brockie’s e-book Legends and Superstitions
of the County of Durham, initially printed in 1886 (public area/EP
Publishing – reproduced right here on a strictly non-commercial Truthful Use foundation for
instructional/assessment functions solely)

County
Durham is within the northeast of England, and though I had by no means heard of Furry
Hubert earlier than, I suspected that it was in all probability a neighborhood identify used there for some
type of bushy caterpillar.

And
certain sufficient, once I investigated it I found that the creature in query
was none apart from the woolly bear, the famously furry caterpillar of the
backyard tiger moth Arctia caja, a
widespread species in Nice Britain. One other nomenclatural novelty duly deciphered!

 

Grownup backyard
tiger moth Arctia caja, one among Britain’s
most tasty native moth species (public area)

This ShukerNature weblog article is excerpted from my newest e-book, Secret Snakes and Serpent Surprises, printed earlier this 12 months by Coachwhip Publications and accessible from Amazon UK, Amazon USA, and all different good on-line and bodily bookstores.