One of my lupines is hosting a group of caterpillars. I looked up their collective noun, and it’s an army of caterpillars (which seemed ominous). I just have a few. No army. But since I like to have butterflies and moths around, and since Wikipedia says hairy caterpillars turn into butterflies and moths, I thought the caterpillars could have a few plants.
See those three pairs of front legs? They eventually become butterfly or moth legs, six legs total. The back legs that look like little suction pads will drop off during metamorphosis. And that hair? It’s designed to give you contact dermatitis.
The caterpillar has a surprising number of tricks. It eats very efficiently.
Here it has its mandibles spread and out of the way as it uses the spinneret in its mouth to make silk.
and here it has made a nice pile of frass. Which is a very polite and precise word for caterpillar poop.
frass –noun
insect excrement
[Origin: 1850–55; orig., the refuse and excrement of boring or leaf-eating insects < G Frass insect damage, corrosion, n. from base of fressen to eat (of animals); see fress, fret1
]
| Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006. |
If you aren’t impressed by their eating, spinning silk or pooping, consider this: Humans have 629 muscles and a skeleton.
A caterpillar has 4,000 muscles
and is far more coordinated than I could ever dream of.
What kinds of caterpillars are these? They lok like ones we had in Vermont, and I always thought they were gypsy moths. They build tents, if they’re the same caterpillars… and why is a “caterpillar” a term for an endless tread, like on a bulldozer? Is the etymology entomological?
These aren’t the tent caterpillars–those have a blue stripe; these don’t. I wasn’t able to figure out what type these are, except that they’re partial to lupines. As for the word origin, it’s probably middle english for hairy cat. [Origin: 1400–50; late ME catyrpel, prob. alter. of an ONF var. of OF chatepelose, equiv. to chate cat1 + pelose hairy (≪ L pilōsus; see pilose); -yr prob. by assoc. with cater tomcat (see caterwaul); final -er prob. by assoc. with piller despoiler (see pillage, -er1); cf. chenille]. The caterpillar tread is an odd one/when you look at different languages some call a caterpillar tractor just that, and others use the word ‘belt’ instead.
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary
caterpillar [ˈkӕtəpilə] noun
the larva of a butterfly or moth that feeds upon the leaves of plants
Example: There’s a caterpillar on this lettuce. Arabic: دودَةٌ، فَراشَةٌ
Chinese (Simplified): 毛虫
Chinese (Traditional): 毛蟲
Czech: housenka
Danish: sommerfuglelarve; kålorm
Dutch: rups
Estonian: tõuk, röövik
Finnish: toukka, mato
French: chenille
German: die Raupe
Greek: κάμπια
Hungarian: hernyó
Icelandic: fiðrildislirfa, tólffótungur
Indonesian: ulat
Italian: bruco
Japanese: 毛虫
Korean: 쐐기벌레
Latvian: kāpurs
Lithuanian: vikšras
Norwegian: sommerfugllarve; kålorm
Polish: gąsienica
Portuguese (Brazil): lagarta
Portuguese (Portugal): lagarta
Romanian: omidă
Russian: гусеница
Slovak: húsenica
Slovenian: gosenica
Spanish: oruga
Swedish: larv, kål-, lövmask
Turkish: tırtıl
caterpillar [ˈkӕtəpilə] adjective
moving on endless belts
Example: a caterpillar tractor Arabic: جَرّارَةٌ مُجَنْزَرَةٌ
Chinese (Simplified): 履带拖拉机
Chinese (Traditional): 履帶拖拉機的
Czech: pásový
Danish: bælte-(køretøj)
Dutch: rupsband-
Estonian: lint-
Finnish: telaketju-
French: à chenilles
German: Raupen-…
Greek: που μετακινείται με ερπύστριες
Hungarian: hernyótalpas (traktor)
Icelandic: beltadráttarvél
Indonesian: traktor
Italian: a cingoli*
Japanese: 無限軌道式の
Korean: 무한 궤도의
Latvian: kāpurķēžu-
Lithuanian: vikšrinis
Norwegian: belte-(kjøretøy)
Polish: gąsienicowy
Portuguese (Brazil): de lagarta
Portuguese (Portugal): de lagartas
Romanian: cu şenile
Russian: гусеничный
Slovak: pásový
Slovenian: goseničar
Spanish: de oruga
Swedish: bandtraktor, caterpillar
Turkish: tırtıllı
Wow! Fascinating, unlikely animals described by fascinating, unlikely words!
Nice website!!