FONTT and the UMD Insect Zoo teamed up for the fifth year at the TPSS Coop Earth Day Celebration. Two FONTT displays focused on Maryland native caterpillars as a way to explain why providing habitat in our yards matters. Meanwhile, the UMD zookeepers demystified insects and other creepy crawly things by letting people handle them.
“I turned to the teeming small creatures that can be held between the thumb and forefinger: the little things that compose the foundation of our ecosystems, the little things, as I like to say, who run the world.”
E.O. Wilson, American Biologist
Caterpillar Quiz
Click to see if you can answer a quiz question from Io, the Quiz Wiz Moth.
Get the Quiz Wiz Moth’s study guide. You too can be a winner in next year’s contest!
Many Maryland native caterpillars rely on Maryland native trees for food. The questions and answers in the FONTT display aim to help people understand why this matters by explaining about caterpillars and food webs.
Favorite Maryland Caterpillars Contest
Nineteen Maryland caterpillars who rely on Maryland native trees for their larval hosts were candidates in this year’s contest.
Don’t know what a larval host is? Get the Quiz Wiz Moth’s study guide in the previous section.
Ninety-five voters carefully considered the contestants.
And the winners are…
First Place
Pterourus glaucus
Adult Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
Second Place–Tie
Ceratomia amyntor
Second Place–Tie
Automeris io
Third Place
Acronicta americana
University of Maryland Insect Zoo
For the fifth year, Todd Waters brought the UMD Insect Zoo to the festivities at FONTT’s invitation. Always the most popular booth, the kids were lined up with their parents to hold Stella, the hissing cockroaches, and other many-legged friends.
FONTT Volunteers
Click to see photos from FONTT at the 2025 Earth Day Celebration
Friends of Native Trees in Takoma 