Caterpillar

File:Monarch caterpillar (2).jpg

Monarch caterpillar

File:Chenille de Grand porte queue (macaon) Fausses pattes.jpg

Proleg,Papilio machaon

A caterpillar is a young butterfly or moth that has just hatched out of its egg. A caterpillar is a kind of larva. When it is older, the caterpillar will turn into a pupa (also known as a chrysalis), and then later the pupa will turn into a butterfly.

Caterpillars usually have three pairs of small, but noticeable, true legs at the front and up to 5 pairs of fleshy false legs at the back.

Caterpillars are commonly found feeding on leaves, but they are also found inside living stems and branches or on the roots of plants and dead wood.

Most caterpillars are shades of green or brown and are relatively hairless, although in many families caterpillars are very hairy and often brightly coloured. Some species are pests of growing plants, carpets, woollens, organic fabrics and stored food products.

Caterpillars are an important source of food for birds and other invertebrates and many species help dead animals and plants decompose.

Gallery

Examples of different kinds of caterpillars.

• Caterpillar 2 (aka).jpg
• Macrothylacia rubi (xndr).JPG
• Sphinx ligustri01.jpg

  Sphinx ligustri

Caterpillar Media

• Euthalia aconthea caterpillar.jpg

  Euthalia aconthea (baron butterfly) caterpillar found in India

• Chenille de Grand porte queue (macaon).jpg

  Caterpillar of Papilio machaon

• Monarch Butterfly Danaus plexippus Vertical Caterpillar 2000px.jpg

  A monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) caterpillar feeding on an unopened seed pod of swamp milkweed

• Caterpillar cocoon.jpg

  Caterpillar nest of Thaumetopoea pityocampa on a Pinus halepensis branch.

• Geometridae.jpg

  A geometrid caterpillar or inchworm

• Crochets.jpg

  Crochets on a caterpillar's prolegs

• Craesus septentrionalis.jpg

  Larvae of Craesus septentrionalis, a sawfly showing six pairs of prolegs.

• Eogeometer valdens holotype 01.jpg

  Eogeometer vadens, the earliest known geometrid moth caterpillar found in Baltic amber

• Acharia stimulea 0795036.jpg

  The saddleback caterpillar has urticating hair and aposematic colouring.

• Anise swallowtail and European paper wasp.webm

  A European paper wasp interacts with an anise swallowtail caterpillar which uses its osmeterium in defense. Most scenes are repeated in closeup at one-fourth speed.

• Spotted towhee gets anise swallowtail caterpillar.webm

  A spotted towhee finds an anise swallowtail caterpillar to its nest and feed to its young.