It is an old superstition that the severity of the coming winter can be predicted by the width of the brown bands or stripes around the wooly-bear caterpillar in the autumn. If the brown bands are wide, says the superstition, the winter will be mild, but if the brown bands are narrow, a rough winter is foretold. Studies at the American Museum of Natural History in New York failed to show any connection between the weather and the caterpillar’s stripes. This belief is only a superstition; it has no basis in scientific fact.