Sometimes nature seeks you out

[urbpan]

I was on my way to lunch one day last week when I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye. A distinctly caterpillary movement, across the thigh of my khakis. When I arrived at my destination I picked up my passenger and got this picture.

This is a moth caterpillar, known as a "filament bearer" (Nematocera). When they are disturbed they can inflate those doo-dads on their back in some kind of defensive behavior. This one seemed pretty calm, not that I would have been deterred by such a display.

Comments

[urb-banal.livejournal.com]

Please do not refer to his terror inducing accoutrements as "doo-dads".

[kryptyd.livejournal.com]

Haha! Best thing I've read today!

I suppose they haven't really evolved for scaring humans. I could certainly picture someone freaking out if the caterpillar did it, and they weren't expecting it though. Actually, I would probably drop the thing pretty quickly if it did it to me, because not ever having heard of this behaviour before, I would have thought it was the prelude to getting sprayed with noxious fluid.