Page 8 - The Book of Caterpillars: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred Species From Around the World

INTRODUCTION

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ABOVE The Box Tree Caterpillars—the immature stage of moths and butterflies—are diverse
Moth caterpillar
(Cydalima perspectalis) and remarkable, with an extraordinary range of survival techniques that
is one of many
species that has have helped make the Lepidoptera one of the most successful insect groups.
become widespread
outside its native After beetles, it is the second largest order on the planet; at least 160,000
range, having been
introduced to Europe species have been identified and described,with thousands more
from eastern Asia
with imports of its undescribed. Lepidoptera are also very widespread, occupying every
host plant, box (Buxus
spp.). In Asia, natural continent except Antarctica, in habitats ranging from rocky mountain
predators, including
the Asian Hornet slopes to tropical rain forests, and from waste ground to woollen clothes.
(Vespa velutina), help
control its numbers. Their ecological significance, too, is immense. As larvae, they are mostly
prodigious herbivores, hosts for parasitic flies and wasps, and potential
food for birds, reptiles, and mammals. As adults, they are vital pollinators.

The myriad colors, forms, patterns, and sizes of different caterpillars
are all part of their arsenal against predation as they grow, pupate, and
perform the magic trick of metamorphosis—transformation into a
butterfly or moth. Some caterpillars are cleverly disguised in the colors of
their habitat, and others are strikingly colored and patterned, announcing

to predators that they are unpalatable or even toxic. Certain species have
stinging spines, others can pull mammal-like faces, while many Papilionidae
butterflies can puff up their front end to look like a snake’s head, complete
with eyespots and an everted organ that mimics a forked tongue.

All caterpillars, however, share the same basic body plan of a large head,
small thorax with six true legs, a comparatively huge ten-segment
abdomen, and a large gut where all the material they consume is processed.
In most species, a pair of thick, fleshy prolegs is present on half of the
abdominal segments, enabling the caterpillar to move around, while