Awesome Caterpillars

After artist Kayakasaurus saw a photo of a colorful slug caterpillar, he wanted to make a larger-than-life version. He started by sculpting a digital model of the blue and yellow creature’s body, then output it on a Elegoo Jupiter resin 3D printer. His application of transparent paint and fuzzy flocking really bring it to life.

Meet hemeroplanes triptolemus, AKA the snake-mimic caterpillar. Most of the time, little guy looks like a stick with a bunch of legs. But when provoked, it shows off one of nature’s most fascinating adaptations – its head puffs up to look like the head of a viper to scare off predators. Mark Bowler got up close with this amazing species.

Scientist Steve Mould introduces us to one of the strangest insects we’ve seen. Like other caterpillars, the uraba lugens aka gum leaf skeletoniser gradually sheds its exoskeleton as it grows, but it keeps a stack of its old head shells stacked on its head like a crazy hat. And nobody seems to know why it does this.