r/caterpillars

In the far future, a new clade of caterpillars that occupies the ambush predator niche appears:

They transformed their anal limbs on a kind of hooks that latch on a branch and their jaws adapted to retain and crush their prey.

They also developed bony rings that developed from minerals obtained from prey, serving to support that monumental mass.

For breathing, they developed a breathing system using many small lungs spread inside each ring of its body.

- The accordion movement: The caterpillar has no nose. It squeezes and stretches like an accordion, using its bony rings to pump air in and out of the lungs.

- Red blood: The air goes into a special blood (red like ours) that quickly carries oxygen to the muscles.

The largest species (on the illustration) can reach 3 meters of lenght and and impressive 450 or 650 damn kilograms of mass!!!

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT IT?😉🐛

This Is massive!!! I found it this afternoon, it's called cossus cossus and it's typical on Europe!🐛✨🔥

Spread your wings, fly high, and make your way to Mexico. Have a safe and beautiful winter, little one~

Daytona Beach, Florida

I found two of my three under developed hornworms deflated wrinkly, Wet, and dead :( I don’t understand what could have happened they weren’t eating as much as they normally do the past few days

I’m wondering if the food was mixed wrong or something? I used rapashy hornworm mix and followed the directions on the label,, I’m a little heart broken I was really hoping these little guys would make it

I have my one underdeveloped hornworm left he’s my baby and he’s been my favorite for a while now I really really hope whatever happened to them doesn’t happen to him

Western North Carolina, United States

When i get time i love to sit and look through some of my plants to see if anyone is nibbling! This particular vine is fairly young and is just getting established so this is my first time checking it :)

Pics 1-5: 2nd instar Olene mendosa.
There were 3 individuals in total and were pretty active. They are potentially the offspring of my moth Olivia! I released around 10 of her babies into my own garden, kept some to raise and the rest into a forest. Though I didn’t actually put any on this vine, their species loves to balloon across to new plants, and these three must’ve decided the sweet potato was the best plant to go to lol.

Pic 6: Unknown First Instar
I couldn’t get any good close up pics of him as he was absolutely tiny and I also didn’t want to knock him off by accident lol. Too small for me to even attempt to ID.

Pic 7: Spodoptera sp.
Didn’t get many pics of him either, he was nibbling in a bit of an awkward spot. Very cool markings though, looking forward to coming back and seeing his growth and hopefully get a proper ID!

This guy was the width of my thumb and wouldn’t crawl on me so i left him be.

This bad boy looks like a gummy worm. My original thought was a catalpa worm but I doubt it’s that.

Description: Three black stripes run down his back. One in the middle and one on each side. Between each his flesh is a sort of tan-ish colour with spots near symetrically and regularly until his "neck" which is a black band. His mouth-parts are orange. Closer to the head of his body, the colours become greener. Length is slightly longer than the diameter of a plastic bottle-cap.

Location: Southern Ontario (in the middle of the carpet)

Date: October 9 (Fall season)

Time: near midnight

He moves very slowly across the carpet, but he's given no signs of slowing down. I've tried putting objects in his path to trick him onto higher ground, but he just inches backwards or turns around.

Usually I'd call for someone to escort him outside, but the temperature is in the single digits (C) at night, so I'm worried he won't make it.

I looked into it and he may be a cutworm or an armyworm, but I think I've fed my insectophobia enough for one lifetime... I cannot handle looking at another picture of a creepy-crawly tonight, at least.

Little man even managed to jump-scare me. I'm gonna call him Shai-Guy because he opened his mouth and reared up right as I was zooming in.

Just want to know if he's prepared for the season. If he's invasive or more native to NA than me, etc

Sorry if I'm an idiot and completely missed something in my brief research. I have never looked this closely at any arthropod in my life.

I found this little dude this morning and I am pumped!

Hey everyone. I’ve been raising monarch caterpillars for a little over a month. I’ve successfully released 20+ monarch butterflies so far.

I’ve been buying tropical milkweed from Home Depot for my caterpillars. Everything was going great. I went back about 3 days ago to get more milkweed and transplanted some caterpillars on it.

Yesterday I noticed green sludge/slime all over the caterpillars that I transplanted on the new milkweed. I’m pretty sure it was caterpillar vomit. And they were lethargic. I took the healthiest looking one and put it on another plant. The other ones were…I could tell they weren’t going to make it. This morning one was dead, one was missing, and one was recovering and eating.

I haven’t had trouble with the plants until I bought the new milkweed a few days ago. There’s a sign on the milkweed stand that says it’s organic, so that rules out pesticides. I examined the milkweed that made my caterpillars sick and found these yellowish, tiny orbs on the undersides of a bunch of the leaves.

They don’t look anything like monarch eggs nor do they resemble any pests I’ve looked up. And I’m thinking whatever it is could have contributed to what happened to them. Or not.

What are these things on the underside of this leaf? Help!

Thanks

So i took in these (supposedly) sharp-stigma looper caterpillars that were on my neighbor's tomato plant as they werent wanted on them. 2 of them seem to have failed to fully pupate (first 2 pics) in comparison to what they should look like (last pic), and i was wondering if it was smthn i mightve done?

I took these 3 in as caterpillars before they went to pupate and wasnt sure if i made an error to cause the 2 to pass before pupating (lack of humidity, heat, etc) or if its just smthn that unfortunately happened outside of my control.

I have 2 more of these kind, one currently spinning and one still eating so id just like some insight in case it was smthn i accidentally did and how to better aid them to be successful in their pupations

Kinda click baity title because I’m pretty sure it’s actually dirt clogging up my hornworms booty but my pupating hornworm is the SECOND I’ve found with dirt up their booty and in a bit worried because the only hornworm fatality I’ve experienced so far was from a little guy who was pupating and had the same situation.. if this is normal please inform me I’m very concerned

P.S. I know that I’m not supposed to handle them but I genuinly couldent get a good picture and I’m a paranoid freak 😢

My bf and I (both 19) had a white blotched heterocampa caterpillar that we were trying to raise. I have pictures of it alive but none of when it sadly passed. We named it bob but don't really know the gender.

We put it in a clean half gallon pitcher, with potting soul, oak leaves from the tree it fell off of, and plenty of dry leaves and sticks to crawl on/hide under.

After about a week or two of eating and getting fat, it layed down under some leaves and turned yellow. We thought it was changing color to pupate like the species usually does but it eventually just shriveled and died.

Our original thought was the potting soil, but it thrived before, so we don't understand. I don't know if our little dude got dehydrated or what happened but I would like to see if anybody knows if this is common or what to do different for next time we try to raise a caterpillar.

Edit: Southern IL

(Sorry about the blurry photos)