Prajwal J Ullal
18-01-2021, 09:47 PM
ID: Commander butterfly caterpillar
One of the devilish beauties of nature, these have a very close resemblance to the Star Wars’ Sith Lord’s appearance, especially that reddish protrusions and the spikes on the back of its head. But what’s so special of this caterpillar? Well they are the master of camouflage, blending well in to the dried up and chomped up leaves of its host plants. But what makes that camouflage work superbly well, on the green leaves, are the excreta that this caterpillar leaves behind, a ton of them, when its busy feasting on the leaves for its growth, and these excreta, along with the silk produced by it, exactly resembles the overall shape of the caterpillar, confusing an untrained eye or the unsuspecting predator to be the caterpillar itself, probably a way to wade off getting noticed easily. A masterful use of excreta to keep itself away from getting noticed on first sight, usually the whole host plant will be filled with such decoys, and the caterpillar itself shapes itself to awkward shape, making it even more difficult to identify, while it senses any form of motion around it.
EXIF:
Canon 80D
Canon 100mm macro + Raynox
F/13
Shutterspeed 1/160
ISO640
Handheld, External flash fired
Location: Outskirts of Mumbai suburbs
One of the devilish beauties of nature, these have a very close resemblance to the Star Wars’ Sith Lord’s appearance, especially that reddish protrusions and the spikes on the back of its head. But what’s so special of this caterpillar? Well they are the master of camouflage, blending well in to the dried up and chomped up leaves of its host plants. But what makes that camouflage work superbly well, on the green leaves, are the excreta that this caterpillar leaves behind, a ton of them, when its busy feasting on the leaves for its growth, and these excreta, along with the silk produced by it, exactly resembles the overall shape of the caterpillar, confusing an untrained eye or the unsuspecting predator to be the caterpillar itself, probably a way to wade off getting noticed easily. A masterful use of excreta to keep itself away from getting noticed on first sight, usually the whole host plant will be filled with such decoys, and the caterpillar itself shapes itself to awkward shape, making it even more difficult to identify, while it senses any form of motion around it.
EXIF:
Canon 80D
Canon 100mm macro + Raynox
F/13
Shutterspeed 1/160
ISO640
Handheld, External flash fired
Location: Outskirts of Mumbai suburbs