Sam Jaffe (naturalist)

This article is about the naturalist. For the actor Sam Jaffe (1891–1984), see Sam Jaffe. For the producer, see Sam Jaffe (producer).
Sam Jaffe
Born1982/1983[1]
Education
Known for
  • The Caterpillar Lab
  • macro photography
  • science outreach
WebsiteSam Jaffe's photo galleries

Sam Jaffe (born 1982/83) is a naturalist, science educator, and "caterpillar wrangler,"[4][5] known for macro photography and for science-outreach work with caterpillars, including founding The Caterpillar Lab.[6]

Early life and education

Jaffe grew up in Newton, Massachusetts,[1] where his parents encouraged his early interest in bringing home caterpillars and other small wildlife.[7][8] Soon he was doing experiments such as seeing if black swallowtail caterpillars would make a different colored chrysalis depending on the color of their environment.[9]

After graduating from Brown University in 2007 with a degree in ecology and evolutionary biology, he worked for a year in Harvard University's Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, on a study of interactions between caterpillars and ants.[3][10]

Later, he attended Antioch University New England (AUNH), where he earned a master's degree in environmental science in 2014.[3]

Career

In 2008, Jaffe began exhibiting his macro photographs of caterpillars in local art galleries.[13] Because Jaffe enjoyed bringing "wine, cheese and live caterpillars" to his photo exhibits, he says, "the gallery openings turned into live caterpillar shows, and it just went crazy from there."[7]

In 2013, Jaffe used Kickstarter to support him in raising and showing live caterpillars. When the BBC offered to pay him to raise "special, rare, and charismatic" caterpillars for the New England segment of Earth's Greatest Spectacles,[14] he enlisted classmates to help him raise and feed caterpillars in his Keene, NH apartment.[7][15]

Caterpillar Lab

In 2013, Jaffe founded the Caterpillar Lab,[17] a non-profit organization that showcases the lives of caterpillars, their predators, and their parasites.[18][19] According to the Keene Sentinel, "The Caterpillar Lab is primarily a research facility that raises thousands of caterpillars and takes them to museums, schools and camps for awareness and outreach programs about native insects."[20] The Caterpillar Lab is located in Marlborough, NH, where it moved from downtown Keene in 2018.[20] Local scientific outreach includes "caterpillar workshops",[21] moth lighting events,[22] and nature walks.[23]

The Caterpillar Lab also hosts events beyond its local NH region, where visitors can meet with lab docents and wander among displays of living caterpillars from varied species.[24] At such events, according to the Discovery Museum in Acton, Massachusetts, "The Lab uses live, native New England caterpillars to educate and create an appreciation for the incredible natural value of their backyards, neighborhoods, and green spaces."[25] Their displays feature annually in Mothapalooza events hosted by Arc of Appalachia in Ohio.[15][26]

Jaffe and the lab also take part in scientific research,[27] for example the effect of emerald ash borer beetles.[28][29] On a nature walk in 2024, Caterpillar Lab intern Logan Dieck discovered the previously unknown caterpillar of Derrima stellata,[16] a species that entomologist David L. Wagner describes as "the Holy Grail for moth life histories in the East Coast."[30]

Recognition

In 2017, the third-annual Ruth and James Ewing Arts Awards event in Keene, NH honored Jaffe's photography, describing him as "a naturalist photographer and science educator whose true passion is more Charles Darwin than Ansel Adams." According to the Keene Sentinel, one of the event's co-sponsors, "The cecropia caterpillar he brought as his plus-one drew quite a crowd."[12]

In 2021, the Cheshire County Conservation District named Jaffe the county's Educator of the Year.[11][31][32] The annual award is given to "an outstanding educator in Cheshire County that has instilled a conservation ethic in their students and has a strong commitment to environmental stewardship." [33]

Jaffe and his macro cinematography of caterpillars feature in a 2025 one-hour documentary The Extraordinary Caterpillar — A Film Celebration of Nature’s Unsung Heroes.[34][35] As of 2025, Jaffe was under contract with Cornell University Press for "a scholarly book of caterpillar, butterfly, and moth histories."[15]

References

  1. ^ a b "Caterpillar exhibit crawling with fun". The Patriot Ledger. July 30, 2011. Retrieved January 31, 2026. Using a Canon 5D Mach II camera with a 100 mm macro lens, he's photographed hundreds of caterpillars
  2. ^ "Charismatic Crawlers: Sam Jaffe '07 and his Caterpillar Lab". Brown Alumni Magazine. April 9, 2020. Retrieved February 21, 2026. There are thousands of caterpillar species in New England and Sam Jaffe '07 wants people to appreciate them all.
  3. ^ a b c "Inside the World of Caterpillars with Sam Jaffe of The Caterpillar Lab". University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. April 21, 2023. Retrieved February 21, 2026. He served as a lab technician at Harvard Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Labs for a year
  4. ^ "A Catalog of Colorful Caterpillars". The Wall Street Journal. June 25, 2015. Retrieved February 24, 2026. To make the creatures more photogenic, Mr. Jaffe sometimes had to tickle them or provoke them into defensive postures. As a result, he jokes, some people now call him a "caterpillar wrangler."
  5. ^ "Backyard Naturalist: Spring is not canceled". Ledger Transcript. March 23, 2020. Retrieved February 24, 2026. Sam Jaffe – educator, photographer, and chief caterpillar wrangler for The Caterpillar Lab
  6. ^ "Arriving at the Whole Story" (PDF). Newton Conservators. 2020. Retrieved February 25, 2026. My name is Sam Jaffe, and I founded The Caterpillar Lab — an educational outreach, art, and science non-profit organization that uses native caterpillars and their stories to engage and inspire the public with their own, local, and ecologically important creatures.
  7. ^ a b c "Keene's Caterpillar Lab Offers A Look At Miniature Marvels". NH Magazine. NH Magazine. June 13, 2017. Retrieved February 21, 2025. He started his quest in 2008, when he began photographing the caterpillars that he been studying since he brought one home from day care.
  8. ^ "A conversation with Sam Jaffe of The Caterpillar Lab". Telegram and Gazette. August 6, 2014. Retrieved February 25, 2026. I can not say that I knew I would be "that caterpillar guy" one day, but as I was already known as "Sam, Sam, the bug man" in first grade, I guess I expected to be working with insects all my life.
  9. ^ "Making Butterflies: Preserving New England's Caterpillars". WBUR. August 19, 2011. Retrieved February 25, 2026. We had black swallowtail caterpillars on different colored surfaces and they'd match their chrysalises to the surfaces.
  10. ^ "Antioch student's aim is to educate -- about caterpillars". Keene Sentinel. August 6, 2013. Retrieved March 2, 2026. Jaffe, originally from Newton, Mass., earned a biology degree from Brown University before spending time working on a study at Harvard University that examined interactions between ants and caterpillars.
  11. ^ a b "CCCD honors Samuel Jaffe as 2021 Educator of the Year". Morning Ag Clips. November 11, 2021. Retrieved February 16, 2026. When asked his favorite species of caterpillar, Sam shared three: the monkey slug caterpillar, the abbott's sphinx, and the giant cecropia moth!
  12. ^ a b "Ewing Arts Awards honors local artists and organizations". Keene Sentinel. July 20, 2017. Retrieved March 11, 2026.
  13. ^ "Photographer Captures the Diverse Beauty of New England Caterpillars". My Modern Met. February 27, 2018. Retrieved February 1, 2026. 'Caterpillars are unmatched tricksters and I love capturing and describing these survival strategies in a single photograph.'
  14. ^ "New England explained..." BBC. Retrieved February 23, 2026. It was thanks to the passion of Sam Jaffe, of the caterpillar lab, that we were able to film so many of New England's wonderful species.
  15. ^ a b c "Antioch Classmates' Nonprofit Raises Over 600 Caterpillar Species Every Year—and Educates Thousands Across New England". Common Thread. Antioch University. August 14, 2025. Retrieved February 21, 2026. In the summer of 2013, Sam Jaffe was hired by the BBC to raise a crop of caterpillars...for a late summer filming date of a new show that would eventually be called Earth's Greatest Spectacles.
  16. ^ a b "Finding the Pink Star Caterpillar". Northern Woodlands. September 8, 2025. Retrieved March 11, 2026. Once naturalists and collaborators knew what to look for and where, they found an additional 40 to 50 caterpillars. To confirm Jaffe's suspicion about the identity of these unknown caterpillars, they kept them after they pupated in the fall of 2024 and overwintered them at The Caterpillar Lab. Sure enough, by late May of 2025, out came the first gorgeous adult pink star moths.
  17. ^ "How Are Caterpillars So Cute Yet So Creepy, I Mean Really". Wired. July 16, 2015. Retrieved March 2, 2026. ...Caterpillar Lab, an educational nonprofit he founded in 2013 to advance his goal of making New Englanders more aware of the astonishing, magical creatures that live right in their own backyards.
  18. ^ "Caterpillars: close-up of a very clever disguise". The Guardian. July 10, 2015. Retrieved March 2, 2026. ...the lab brings Jaffe's wards to the public through educational outreach events, displays and up-close videos offering not only insights into the spectacular biology of caterpillars, but a sneaky peek into how they are caught and raised.
  19. ^ "Caterpillars the Whole Story: Caterpillars, Connections, and Why Biodiversity Matters". North and South Rivers Watershed Association. 2021. Retrieved January 31, 2026. In 2013 he founded The Caterpillar Lab a non-profit educational outreach organization in Marlborough NH and he now travels across the country working with universities, museums, botanic gardens, nature centers, and schools, helping native insects find their place in our everyday and professional lives.
  20. ^ a b Staff, Sierra Hubbard Sentinel (Mar 28, 2018). "For The Caterpillar Lab, a migration to Marlborough". The Keene Sentinel. Retrieved 2026-03-05.
  21. ^ "Caterpillar workshop planned June 19". Keene Sentinel. June 12, 2016. Retrieved March 2, 2026. The workshop will start with a short indoor presentation followed by an exploration of the forests, fields and wetlands of Distant Hill Gardens in search of some of the ecologically important caterpillars found there.
  22. ^ "Shining the Light on Moths". Keene Sentinel. July 15, 2021. Retrieved March 2, 2026. Knowledgeable naturalists from The Caterpillar Lab will be on hand to set up sheets with special moth-attracting lights and to help identify the hundreds of species we expect to attract.
  23. ^ "Tracking caterpillars along Airport Road". Keene Sentinel. June 12, 2025. Retrieved March 2, 2026.
  24. ^ Ryan, Kennedy. "World of Work fellowships let students follow their passions". BrandeisNOW. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
  25. ^ "Live Caterpillar Exhibit Returns to Discovery Museum". www.discoveryacton.org. Discovery Museum (Acton, Massachusetts). 2021-06-01. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
  26. ^ "Celebrating moths and community connections". Record Herald. 2025-07-25. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
  27. ^ Hammer, Tobin J.; Janzen, Daniel H.; Hallwachs, Winnie; Jaffe, Samuel P.; Fierer, Noah (2017-09-05). "Caterpillars lack a resident gut microbiome". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 114 (36): 9641–9646. doi:10.1073/pnas.1707186114. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 5594680. PMID 28830993.
  28. ^ "Nature: Hot dog! The hickory horned devil is one giant caterpillar". Columbus Dispatch. September 16, 2022. Retrieved February 25, 2026. In addition to educational outreach, the lab does a variety of research, such as the effect of the loss of ash trees on the caterpillar species due to the emerald ash borer.
  29. ^ Horne, GM; Manderino, R; Jaffe, SP (February 17, 2023). "Specialist Herbivore Performance on Introduced Plants During Native Host Decline". Environ. Entomol. 52 (1): 88–97. doi:10.1093/ee/nvac107. PMID 36610403.
  30. ^ "Mysteries of the Moth: More Than Meets the Eye". Xerces Society. October 15, 2024. Retrieved March 11, 2026. the Holy Grail for moth life histories in the East Coast was the pink star moth
  31. ^ "Caterpillar Lab founder honored by Cheshire County Conservation District". Keene Sentinel. November 13, 2021. Retrieved February 25, 2026. The Cheshire County Conservation District — a Walpole-based organization that promotes the conservation and responsible use of agricultural resources — chooses an individual for its Educator of the Year award based on their personal or professional work on conservation ethics and awareness.
  32. ^ "About Us/CCCD". Cheshire County Conservation District. Retrieved February 25, 2026. The Cheshire County Conservation District (CCCD) was created in 1945 ... [and] represents the conservation interests and priorities of the county, for the county.
  33. ^ "Annual Awards". Cheshire County Conservation District. Retrieved February 25, 2026.
  34. ^ "Very hungry caterpillars very good for biodiversity". Winnipeg Free Press. September 13, 2025. Retrieved February 25, 2026. The filmmaker harnessed the talent and knowledge of a host of experts, including naturalist Sam Jaffe of the Caterpillar Lab.
  35. ^ "Special Film Screening of "The Extraordinary Caterpillar — A Film Celebration of Nature's Unsung Heroes"". Conserving Carolina. 2026. Retrieved February 25, 2026. The documentary ... features stunning macro cinematography by naturalist Sam Jaffe of The Caterpillar Lab.
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