Page 287 - The Book of Caterpillars: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred Species From Around the World

MOTH

CATERPILLARS

285

Most Lepidoptera are moth species, with larvae that
are highly diverse in size, appearance, and habitat. This

chapter includes caterpillars from 31 moth families,
many of which evolved long before the butterfly
superfamily, Papilionoidea.
The earliest family featured here is Psychidae, whose
caterpillars are extraordinary “bagworms,” spending
their entire lives in protective cases constructed from

materials within their habitat. Almost as ancient is the
Tineidae family, of which only a small number feed
on plants; most consume fungi, lichens, and dead
organic material. Among its members is the Case-

bearing Clothes Moth (Tinea pellionella), which feeds
on household fabrics. Larvae of the Cossidae family
are tree and root borers, and some are notoriously bad
smelling. Limacodidae caterpillars are distinguished by
their sluglike gait; they have suckers instead of prolegs

and secrete a lubricant to facilitate movement.
Later in the evolutionary order come the stout
caterpillars of the giant silkmoths, royal moths, and
emperor moths of Saturniidae, the hawkmoth larvae of

Sphingidae, and the inchworms of Geometridae. The

chapter ends with larvae from ve of six families in the
superfamily Noctuoidea—Notodontidae, Erebidae,
Euteliidae, Nolidae, and Noctuidae—including
cutworms, and owlet, puss, and tiger moth caterpillars.