You know fall has arrived when woolly worms begin inching across sidewalks, driveways, and backyards. With their fuzzy coats and unhurried crawl, these familiar little creatures are hard to miss—but what exactly is a woolly worm?

Despite its familiar name, the woolly worm is not a worm at all. It is the caterpillar—or larval stage—of the Isabella tiger moth (Pyrrharctia isabella). In much of the United States, it is known as a “woolly worm,” while people in New England and the Midwest often call it a “woolly bear.” Whatever you call it, this fuzzy caterpillar has become an unmistakable symbol of fall. The Farmer’s Almanac

The woolly worm also carries a bit of seasonal folklore on its back. Tradition holds that wide, rusty-brown bands predict a mild winter, while more black warns of bitter cold and harsh weather ahead. If that legend is true, the nearly all-black woolly worm I found offers little hope for a gentle winter.

Photographing this tiny weather prophet proved more challenging than I expected. Through a macro lens, its soft-looking “wool” became a forest of sharp bristles, making precise focus difficult. Fortunately, woolly worms are not known for speed. I stretched out flat on the concrete and waited for it to lift its head, taking several shots before finally capturing the caterpillar in motion.

I processed the raw images in DxO PhotoLab 10, carefully adjusting the blacks and shadows to reveal details hidden beneath the caterpillar’s dark “wool.” I also applied noise reduction and fine-tuned the DxO PRIME noise setting, balancing a cleaner image with the texture and character of those remarkable bristles.

That is the wonder of backyard photography: the extraordinary often hides in plain sight. The woolly worm does not come from some distant, exotic landscape. It lives among us in urban and suburban spaces, waiting to be noticed. At dusk, this one had crawled from the concrete onto a screen, and I decided to illuminate it with a flashlight to capture its spiky details. Up close, my familiar woolly friend looked less like a humble caterpillar and more like an alien visitor from another world. Not bad for an evening backyard discovery.

And with its bristly black coat, tiny marching legs, and alien-like appearance, perhaps we can imagine that our little woolly friend came from somewhere exotic after all—a distant planet where woolly worms rule the world!

Stuart F. James (sfj@stuartphoto.com)