Saturday 17 February 2018

Strange caterpillar or case of ectoparasitism?

My family and I were spending a little time outside this evening: my father tinkered with his homemade pizza oven (it's been out of commission for a while now) and the rest of us observed in silence. Suddenly, my father scrutinized the oven's exhaust pipe and exclaimed "Look at that caterpillar! It's has parasites on its back". At a glance, the caterpillar did appear to have three egg-like structures on its back but now I'm not sure whether they are some kind of parasite or just a part of the caterpillar. Have a look and let me know what you think!




Weird, right?

To scale, the pipe is 1.5 inches across
Slightly different viewpoint


Team work


Snowy moth (yet to identify)

The moth perches on white-board's edge