In the caterpillar world, few are as well-known as the woolly bear (sometimes known as a wooly worm). While monarchs caterpillars surpass them in name recognition, they’d take an easy second place.

Woolly bears (or woolly worms in the South) have 13 segments and a reputation for forecasting winter weather based on the thickness of their black and brown bands. Wider brown bands on wooly bears are ...