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My son Sam found this awesome spicebush butterfly caterpillar at camp in the Pocono's the other day. It demonstrates how awesome evolution really is. Take a look at the false eye spots on the top of the body and how closely they mimic an animal eye. (the head is actually at the very tip of he caterpillar). I've read that the spicebush caterpillar is one of the best snake mimics in the eastern United States and from the look of it, evolution did a pretty damn good job. When the caterpillar is disturbed, they often raise the body up so the eye spots are as prominent as possible hopefully startling and fooling a predator to think twice about eating it. Mimicing a snake seems like a pretty good defensive plan for a basically helpless and tasty soft bodied caterpillar...
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