Perhaps you’ve noticed you are not alone on Elon’s walkways. And unless you haven’t been to class this semester, you’ve seen the remnants of the collisions between student and caterpillar.

That black caterpillar competing for space on Elon’s bricks is an Orange-Striped Oakworm. Amazingly enough, Elon caters directly to their diet – oak trees.

Elon administrators probably never imagined that an infestation of Anisota senatoria, the larvae’s Latin name, would be eating away at the university’s Hebrew meaning – oak.

And though the caterpillars can’t strip Elon of its identity, they can ravage the school’s prize trees.

A late season—June through October—hardwood defoliator, the oakworm can have large enough populations to clear a forest.

In late June the adult moths emerge from the ground to begin the mating process.

The oakworm is a member of the Royal Moth family. These beauties include the Luna Moth, Buck Moth and Polyphemus Moth.

Our beauty, the Orange-Striped Oakworm Moth, is yellow-red in color; the forewings are orange-purple and tipped with an oblique band and white spot. Females can be twice as large as males and are poor fliers, which is why they can often be found climbing up the trunks of oak trees.

Females lay up to 500 eggs in a cluster on the underside of oak leaves, which hatch in one to two weeks. This hatching spawns an army of hungry oakworms that feasts from July through October.

This species is nearly anonymous at these early stages. The webbing currently seen in the trees is not manufactured by oakworms, but is the home of another species of caterpillars called Tent Caterpillars. Also veracious eaters, they can cause extensive damage to trees.

Once the adult oakworm larvae have had their fill, they venture out of the trees to pupate or spin a cocoon to make the transformation from caterpillar to moth. These adults often cross the path of people—clearly marked these last weeks by the number of casualties---as they journey to their winter resting grounds in the earth.

"Just yesterday while walking to class, I watched students – myself included – stepping over caterpillars and their remains, trying to avoid them," said sophomore Molly Rice.

The adult will dig three to four inches down into the soil, carve a small cavern, spin a cocoon and spend winter completing the metamorphosis to moth. Their emergence out of the ground the following June will spawn the cycle all over again.

The adult oakworm is 40 to 55 centimeters long with eight orange, longitudinal stripes marking their body. Small, hard spines protrude from the body, and, although, they are firm, they are not poisonous to people.

However, they can cause catastrophic damage to a population of oak trees. Pesticides are recommended to control large populations of oakworms in order to save prized trees. For smaller infestations, hand-picking the caterpillar works just fine.

Students said they noticed the scent of chemicals in the early morning air these past few days and have seen small yellow pellets at the edge of the pathways.

Landscaping was unavailable for comment on whether or not the treatment was for caterpillar control or simply lawn fertilizer.

So the next time you come across an oakworm making its way along the pathways on campus, you no longer have to deem it the mystery creature.