21 March 2010

Caterpillar camouflage

Caterpillars are just as incredible as butterflies and moths.  I don't know the species* (it appears to be tropical), but the camo is incredible.

Photo credit, via Conservation Report.

A hat tip to caseoftornados and Tulamaru at the Neatorama comment thread, who identified this as Euthalia aconthea gurda, the larval form of the Green Baron butterfly in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

6 comments:

  1. Caterpillar? What caterpillar?

    That is amazing! Although, the little guy looks so small that not many would want to eat him.

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  2. Those fern like legs are beautiful. He looks fat and juicy to me.

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  3. I think this could be a larva of the Baron Butterfly, from india that feeds of Mango leaves, latin name: Euthalia aconthea. Good Luck, Ruud Heemstra

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  4. ...and a hat tip to Ruud, who was writing a comment here just as I was revising the post.

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  5. Doesn't work very well on Red Green colorblind people though...... I wonder if that means something about past "human selection" for color deficiency? Perhaps the color deficient found camoflauged food easier and so they survived........

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