Every Marylander knows a cattail when they see one, and most of us could find a stand within a few miles of our homes. From roadside ditch to coastal wetland, cattails (genus Typha) are widespread in the Mid-Atlantic. To native Americans and early European settlers, stands of this emergent, semi-aquatic perennial were known as “supermarkets of the swamps,” and were utilized as sources of food, medicine, and construction material for a wide variety of everyday items. Native cattail stands also filter pollutants, stabilize shorelines, and provide critical food and habitat for many species of wildlife. Birds such as snow geese, mallards, marsh wrens, and blackbirds exploit cattail habitats extensively for cover and nesting, while small mammals (particularly muskrats) and several species of moths rely upon this plant as a preferential food source.
On this outing, we will pick and dissect cattail, looking through the seeds and fuzz. We invite you to look even closer and ultimately to discover for yourself what few know: Cattail-associated arthropod communities and tiny lepidopteran cattail specialists, known as microlep larvae, are secretive but abundant. Cattail caterpillars are almost certainly munching, growing, and hiding in plain sight.
The trip includes discussions of the life histories of these tiny caterpillars, field marks that augment species-level identification, the signs one uses to identify cattails containing larval occupants, and techniques used to successfully rear them to adulthood.