Sam Jaffe could talk about caterpillars for hours. And he does.
“I’ve always focused on caterpillars because it was the group that people were overlooking, and it did seem like they’re one of the most substantial, ecologically speaking, groups on the planet,” Jaffe said.
Founder and director of The Caterpillar Lab, Jaffe was looking to move to a larger building as the staff and need for outside resources grew, so a few months ago the infamous lab moved to Main Street in Dublin on Route 101.
“We sort of were growing like crazy in every way, but physically,” Jaffe said.
‘We have all these ideas for it’
The Caterpillar Lab moves to Main Street in Dublin on Route 101. Credit: KIERA MCLAUGHLIN / Ledger-Transcript 
Guests look at the caterpillars displayed on their native plants. Credit: KIERA MCLAUGHLIN / Ledger-Transcript 
The counter at The Caterpillar Lab showcases different caterpillars on their native plant while staff works with the caterpillars behind the counter. Credit: KIERA MCLAUGHLIN / Ledger-Transcript 
The Caterpillar Lab uses the larger space to showcase caterpillars in the open and interactive microscopes for guests to use. Credit: KIERA MCLAUGHLIN / Ledger-Transcript
Well-known across New England and nationally, The Caterpillar Lab expanded to better serve its museum, programs, staff, and the caterpillars themselves.
“The biggest issue with the move is just, it’s a lot of new stuff and we have all these ideas for it, and I’m finding it hard to get them all done at once, so I’m trying to calm down,” Jaffe said.
Now, with five acres and room to create a larger museum, Jaffe hopes to generate local audiences as well as continuing their strong traveling program.
The Caterpillar Lab team spends most of their time outside of Dublin, traveling around New England and throughout the country to educate people on the lives of caterpillars.
“We like having a bigger footprint than a classic little caterpillar lab on the side of the street,” Jaffe said.
Their programs change depending on the attendees, but they have planned lessons for all types of audiences, including kids and families, entomologists (scientists who study insects), photographers, naturalists, gardeners and more.
“If we could see a thousand random people and talk to them about caterpillars, that suits me very well,” Jaffe said.
While The Caterpillar Lab does not own the building, they hope to someday, and have plans to create trails and outside programs to teach visitors in the caterpillar’s environment.
Currently, outside the building, Jaffe has set up a bright light pointed at a white sheet for interactive programs about moths for nighttime learning.
The additional outside space also allows for the lab to set up caterpillar nets on the trees and find different types of caterpillars right outside their doorstep.
‘Link between the outside and the scientists’
Since moving to this new location, Jaffe explores the property daily for new caterpillars to look at under microscopes.
During one of their explorations, the team found aquatic caterpillars in the cattails in a pond near the parking lot.
A group of the cattails had turned yellow down the stem, which caught their eye. Soon, they discovered aquatic caterpillars ate the inside of the cattails, leaving them empty and yellow.
After studying them a bit under the microscope, Jaffe explained the caterpillars have gas bladders all along their insides, which they fill with air at the top; then they travel down the stem to eat while continuously blowing bubbles to the top.
“That’s a new insect respiration mode that’s never been described before,” Jaffe said.
When the team attempted to Google this caterpillar, nothing came up.
Now, the caterpillars are receiving CT scans at Harvard to be studied.
“There’s sort of an assumption that you just Google everything these days … This kind of observation was classic in science 100 years ago,” Jaffe said.
Over the past 13 years, The Caterpillar Lab has been in business; the lab has discovered approximately 15 species and 60-70 new life histories, meaning they discovered the caterpillar connected to the adult moth or butterfly previously studied.
“We’re finding we have a great role; now it’s a link between the outside and the scientists,” Jaffe said.
Now, the lab uses the yet-to-be-named aquatic caterpillars as educational lessons in their programs by showing the audience the act of filling their gas bladders and eating the cattail.
“Being able to go and find these, being the boots on the ground, people who are out in nature, has led to a lot of discoveries,” Jaffe said.
To learn more about The Caterpillar Lab, visit thecaterpillarlab.org/ or go to the lab at 13 Main St, Dublin. The Caterpillar Lab was also featured in a film by Merit Motion Pictures, found at this link.