What the hell is this animal?

Norgoth

So my wife sent me this picture asking what it is. I thought a lizard but it apparently has dozens of small insect like legs. It is apparently about 4 inches long.

Enc

Demon Caterpillar. 100 legs, 100 ways to die.

@BugBoy

LoveIsUnity

Norgoth wrote: »

So my wife sent me this picture asking what it is. I thought a lizard but it apparently has dozens of small insect like legs. It is apparently about 4 inches long.

Where are you located?

Orogogus

Elephant hawk moth caterpillar?

Google Image Search

DarkPrimus

I'm guessing it's a caterpillar that evolution deigned to make look like a itty-bitty snake to scare would-be predators.

Arch

This is most likely the larvae of the Tersa Sphinx Moth (Xylophanes tersa).

Congrats! This insect's adaptive mimicry is designed to do exactly what it just did- make you confuse it for something much scarier (i.e. a snake or a lizard).

You can raise it on leaves in a big jar and it will either get you a nice, gigantic, fluffy moth....or it has already been attacked by parasitioid wasps or flies, which will burst out of the caterpillar's body after a week or so, much like the movie Alien.

Arch

Double post, might also be an Elephant hawk moth caterpill- *looks up, notices thread*

hm.

Anyway it's a a hawk moth caterpillar for sure.

Orogogus

Arch wrote: »

or it has already been attacked by parasitioid wasps or flies, which will burst out of the caterpillar's body after a week or so

Ugh. That's something I never want to image search ever again.

tinwhiskers

Arch wrote: »

This is most likely the larvae of the Tersa Sphinx Moth (Xylophanes tersa).

Congrats! This insect's adaptive mimicry is designed to do exactly what it just did- make you confuse it for something much scarier (i.e. a snake or a lizard).

You can raise it on leaves in a big jar and it will either get you a nice, gigantic, fluffy moth....or it has already been attacked by parasitioid wasps or flies, which will burst out of the caterpillar's body after a week or so, much like the movie Alien.

For someone who loves insects so much, You have a real gift for evoking the KILL IT WITH FIRE response to them.

Cantido

tinwhiskers wrote: »

Arch wrote: »

This is most likely the larvae of the Tersa Sphinx Moth (Xylophanes tersa).

Congrats! This insect's adaptive mimicry is designed to do exactly what it just did- make you confuse it for something much scarier (i.e. a snake or a lizard).

You can raise it on leaves in a big jar and it will either get you a nice, gigantic, fluffy moth....or it has already been attacked by parasitioid wasps or flies, which will burst out of the caterpillar's body after a week or so, much like the movie Alien.

For someone who loves insects so much, You have a real gift for evoking the KILL IT WITH FIRE response to them.

Its final form is slightly cuter.

Slightly.

Arch

Orogogus wrote: »

Arch wrote: »

or it has already been attacked by parasitioid wasps or flies, which will burst out of the caterpillar's body after a week or so

Ugh. That's something I never want to image search ever again.

I had a framed electron microscope image of an adult wasp bursting out of the body of an aphid hanging above my desk during my PhD

Can't believe I forgot it when I graduated....

DarkPrimus

Oh come on, it's like you people haven't even heard of Cordyceps before...

NotoriusBEN

if there is one thing fucking scary on this planet, its cordyceps

Orogogus

I found the wasp/caterpillar thing more visually horrifying than the fungus, personally. They look even more gross growing on the poor caterpillar, and the wikipedia article on parasitoid wasps has particularly gruesome images of a giant caterpillar-shaped bag of wasp larvae.

I grew up in New Hampshire where we had a severe gypsy moth problem every year, but I wouldn't wish this on them.

spool32

I'm pretty sure I needed like 5 great balls to catch one of those earlier this week. Good job using grass and tupperware instead!

McGibs

If she bumps it with her finger, it will inflate a little balloon tongue on its head to look even more like a snake/lizard.
Your wife caught a real life caterpie

Norgoth

Thanks for the info guys.

My wife didn't actually catch this. She was shown it by an excited 6 year old who released it back into the garden.

Tofystedeth

Arch wrote: »

Orogogus wrote: »

Arch wrote: »

or it has already been attacked by parasitioid wasps or flies, which will burst out of the caterpillar's body after a week or so

Ugh. That's something I never want to image search ever again.

I had a framed electron microscope image of an adult wasp bursting out of the body of an aphid hanging above my desk during my PhD

Can't believe I forgot it when I graduated....

wait, aren't aphids teensy weensy and wasps significantly less so?

Shivahn

Arch wrote: »

Orogogus wrote: »

Arch wrote: »

or it has already been attacked by parasitioid wasps or flies, which will burst out of the caterpillar's body after a week or so

Ugh. That's something I never want to image search ever again.

I had a framed electron microscope image of an adult wasp bursting out of the body of an aphid hanging above my desk during my PhD

Can't believe I forgot it when I graduated....

1) do you have pictures of this? This sounds awesome. Way cooler than the parasites I run into, which are dumb.

2) Wait, adults? I thought they generally ate the way through in a larval state, am I wrong with that? Or is it only certain clades of things?

Arch

Shivahn wrote: »

Arch wrote: »

Orogogus wrote: »

Arch wrote: »

or it has already been attacked by parasitioid wasps or flies, which will burst out of the caterpillar's body after a week or so

Ugh. That's something I never want to image search ever again.

I had a framed electron microscope image of an adult wasp bursting out of the body of an aphid hanging above my desk during my PhD

Can't believe I forgot it when I graduated....

1) do you have pictures of this? This sounds awesome. Way cooler than the parasites I run into, which are dumb.

2) Wait, adults? I thought they generally ate the way through in a larval state, am I wrong with that? Or is it only certain clades of things?

So, I don't have a picture because it was taken by a grad student before I got there, which is why I treasured it so much. Image searching isn't helping me too much either.

As to the second point, it depends. Some parasitoids consume their host during the larval state, kill it, chew their way out as larvae and then pupate in soil, or somewhere else. Others instead complete their entire life cycle inside the host- they pupate and eclose inside their host, emerging as adults. Both of these strategies (and many more!) have specific names that I can't remember right now. Insect parasitoids have some of the most complex and weird diversity of lifecycles around (look up polyembryonic parasitoids if you're bored- they basically asexually reproduce during embryonic development and multiply from one egg into millions of parasitoid larvae, each with individual castes inside the body).

@Tofystedeth heh. Actually the smallest known insect is a wasp, the Fairyfly in the family Mymaridae.

The most famously small insect, from this family, is less than 100 microns long, which is smaller than a lot of amoebas and other single celled organisms. It's so tiny, that the wasp actually ejects the nuclei from it's neurons to save space in it's body.

Shivahn

Arch wrote: »

Shivahn wrote: »

Arch wrote: »

Orogogus wrote: »

Arch wrote: »

or it has already been attacked by parasitioid wasps or flies, which will burst out of the caterpillar's body after a week or so

Ugh. That's something I never want to image search ever again.

I had a framed electron microscope image of an adult wasp bursting out of the body of an aphid hanging above my desk during my PhD

Can't believe I forgot it when I graduated....

1) do you have pictures of this? This sounds awesome. Way cooler than the parasites I run into, which are dumb.

2) Wait, adults? I thought they generally ate the way through in a larval state, am I wrong with that? Or is it only certain clades of things?

So, I don't have a picture because it was taken by a grad student before I got there, which is why I treasured it so much. Image searching isn't helping me too much either.

As to the second point, it depends. Some parasitoids consume their host during the larval state, kill it, chew their way out as larvae and then pupate in soil, or somewhere else. Others instead complete their entire life cycle inside the host- they pupate and eclose inside their host, emerging as adults. Both of these strategies (and many more!) have specific names that I can't remember right now. Insect parasitoids have some of the most complex and weird diversity of lifecycles around (look up polyembryonic parasitoids if you're bored- they basically asexually reproduce during embryonic development and multiply from one egg into millions of parasitoid larvae, each with individual castes inside the body).

Tofystedeth heh. Actually the smallest known insect is a wasp, the Fairyfly in the family Mymaridae.

The most famously small insect, from this family, is less than 100 microns long, which is smaller than a lot of amoebas and other single celled organisms. It's so tiny, that the wasp actually ejects the nuclei from it's neurons to save space in it's body.

It'd actually fit inside the neurons I study, @Arch, which amuses me

Calica

Arch wrote: »

This is most likely the larvae of the Tersa Sphinx Moth (Xylophanes tersa).

Congrats! This insect's adaptive mimicry is designed to do exactly what it just did- make you confuse it for something much scarier (i.e. a snake or a lizard).

You can raise it on leaves in a big jar and it will either get you a nice, gigantic, fluffy moth....or it has already been attacked by parasitioid wasps or flies, which will burst out of the caterpillar's body after a week or so, much like the movie Alien.

That is a beautifully Art Deco moth!

Nobeard

Arch wrote: »

Shivahn wrote: »

Arch wrote: »

Orogogus wrote: »

Arch wrote: »

or it has already been attacked by parasitioid wasps or flies, which will burst out of the caterpillar's body after a week or so

Ugh. That's something I never want to image search ever again.

I had a framed electron microscope image of an adult wasp bursting out of the body of an aphid hanging above my desk during my PhD

Can't believe I forgot it when I graduated....

1) do you have pictures of this? This sounds awesome. Way cooler than the parasites I run into, which are dumb.

2) Wait, adults? I thought they generally ate the way through in a larval state, am I wrong with that? Or is it only certain clades of things?

So, I don't have a picture because it was taken by a grad student before I got there, which is why I treasured it so much. Image searching isn't helping me too much either.

As to the second point, it depends. Some parasitoids consume their host during the larval state, kill it, chew their way out as larvae and then pupate in soil, or somewhere else. Others instead complete their entire life cycle inside the host- they pupate and eclose inside their host, emerging as adults. Both of these strategies (and many more!) have specific names that I can't remember right now. Insect parasitoids have some of the most complex and weird diversity of lifecycles around (look up polyembryonic parasitoids if you're bored- they basically asexually reproduce during embryonic development and multiply from one egg into millions of parasitoid larvae, each with individual castes inside the body).

@Tofystedeth heh. Actually the smallest known insect is a wasp, the Fairyfly in the family Mymaridae.

The most famously small insect, from this family, is less than 100 microns long, which is smaller than a lot of amoebas and other single celled organisms. It's so tiny, that the wasp actually ejects the nuclei from it's neurons to save space in it's body.

It's been a loooooong time since I came across a weird animal fact as hardcore as this. Thanks!