Classic illustration of a woolly bear, aka Furry
Hubert in County Durham (public area)
As you
all know, I like delving by way of previous books and periodicals in the hunt for odd
little titbits of obscure zoological trivia, and never so way back I discovered the
following attention-grabbing snippet of data in William Brockie’s guide Legends and Superstitions of the County of
Durham (1886), which was fully new to me and positively warrants a
point out on ShukerNature.
So
right here it’s:
HAIRY HUBERT
If you happen to 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 positive to
get one thing new earlier than lengthy.
The 1974 EP Publishing version of William
Brockie’s guide Legends and Superstitions
of the County of Durham, initially revealed in 1886 (public area/EP
Publishing – reproduced right here on a strictly non-commercial Truthful Use foundation for
academic/evaluation 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 title used there for some
type of bushy caterpillar.
And
positive sufficient, after I investigated it I found that the creature in query
was none aside 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 in all Britain’s
most tasty native moth species (public area)