Page 25 - The Book of Caterpillars: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred Species From Around the World

VORACIOUS EATERS

plants. Where hosts contain toxic chemicals, caterpillars have evolved to

neutralize them and even use them as a defense against predators.
Caterpillars can overcome a plant’s physical barriers, too, such as hairs or
sticky, toxic latex. Monarch larvae (Danaus plexippus), for instance, cut
milkweed leaf veins or the petiole to prevent the flow of latex into leaf parts.

Ants, aphids, or scale insects provide a diet for carnivorous caterpillars,
such as Moth Butterfly larvae (Liphyra brassolis), which enter the nests of
the Green Tree Ant (Oecophylla smaragdina) and devour the ant larvae.
Some caterpillars feed on dung and others feed on fungi, shells, feathers,
or fibers—the preferred host material of the insatiable Case-bearing

Clothes Moth larva (Tinea pellionella), a pest of worldwide renown.
Unpalatable or well-defended caterpillars feeding in groups do not hide 23
and are usually “messy” feeders, leaving large areas of damaged leaves.
Palatable caterpillars usually conceal evidence of feeding, consuming

entire leaves or severing half-eaten leaves and letting them drop from the
plant. Others feed within plants, such as the Subflexa Straw Moth caterpillar
below Gregarious
(Heliothis subflexus), which shelters inside the lantern-shaped husks that larvae like these
caterpillars of the
enclose the physalis fruits it consumes. Fire-rim Tortoiseshell
(Aglais milberti) on
Stinging Nettle (Urtica
dioica) consume
HUNGRY PESTS entire leaves and
small plants. The
Despite the large amount of plant material devoured by a typical caterpillar, caterpillars produce
copious amounts
its impact on a well-developed host plant is usually minimal and mostly of webbing that
escapes notice. However, a large hawkmoth (Sphingidae) caterpillar provides support
for the larvae
feeding on a small, herbaceous species can destroy many plants. An apple and protection
from predators.
orchard is easily damaged by
opportunistic species such as the
Codling moth (Cydia pomonella),
as is a field of cabbages by the
Cabbage Looper (Trichoplusia ni).

Population explosions of the Forest
Tent Caterpillar (Malacosoma
disstria) can defoliate thousands of
acres of trees. A number of moth

larvae but relatively few butterfly
caterpillars are economic pests; of
butterfly larvae, the Cabbage White
(Pieris rapae) is perhaps the most
widely distributed culprit.