Caterpillars with Large “Eyes”

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We recently received a couple of great photos of a brown caterpillar (or rather a brownish, tan caterpillar) from a reader. The reader correctly assumed he had found a caterpillar (as opposed to a worm, which is what many people who find caterpillars assume them to be), and he was wondering what kind of caterpillar he might have found. It has dark stripes on its body and what appear to be large eyes. We can’t be sure how big it is because there is no scale in the picture other than a leaf (which we also don’t know the size of), but we would guess it’s around an inch or so in length (most caterpillars are around this size). So, what is this brown, striped caterpillar?

First, let’s take a look at the very cool pictures our reader sent. Here is one:

Brown Caterpillar With Faux Eyes 2

And here is another:

Brown Caterpillar With Faux Eyes

Unfortunately, identifying caterpillars is extremely difficult, even with good photos of them. Caterpillars are the larval form of moths and butterflies, which means there are as many species of caterpillars as there are moths and butterflies. Moths and butterflies belong to the order Lepidoptera, which is composed of about 175,000 different species. For obvious reasons, this makes correctly picking the species of caterpillar pictured above more than challenging.

We began our search using the caterpillar identification guide, an extremely helpful resource to which we always try to point our caterpillar-finding readers. However, the database is limited, and even after combing through several different possibilities we were not able to find any species that matched the caterpillar pictured above. The caterpillar above kind of looks like the Yellow Striped Armyworm (Spodoptera ornithogalli), a caterpillar that is commonly found in the eastern United States, but the match is far from perfect. However, given the similar features, perhaps the creature our reader found is related to the armyworm. Alas, we don’t have any other specific possibilities to offer. However, we are always open to getting reader comments with identification suggestions, so please provide your thoughts if you think you have an idea of what this caterpillar might be.

One thing that we can say about the caterpillar is that it appears to have fake eyes; that is, it has spots on its body that appear to be eyes, even though they don’t actually function as eyes. These distinct patterns are believed to be a defense mechanism. A caterpillar that is otherwise harmless can appear to be a creature that isn’t harmless (like, say, a snake) to ward off predators (e.g., birds). This is one of many defense mechanisms that caterpillars use. Others caterpillars protect themselves by blending into their surrounding and some have spikes (setae) that will detach and irritate a predator’s skin, to name two of many possibilities.

We wish we could precisely identify the brown, striped caterpillar our reader found, but given how many different caterpillars there are, we simply cannot in this case. Again, though, readers are invited to share their suggestions.

 

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15 thoughts on “Caterpillars with Large “Eyes”

  1. The cat just brought one into the kitchen and dropped it on the floor, on picking it up it’s like a big fat grub with big eye’s and 2 smaller ones underneath. Never seen anything like it before. Put it back into the garden.
    From Nottinghamshire England.

  2. Found one today eating my flowers
    Pinellas Park florida USA
    About the length of my baby finger but as fat as my thumb
    Looked at me with those big eyes

  3. I found the same caterpillar as the one in the first picture in morocco, here is the picture note that it changes appearance when touched i looks then like a crocodile’s head.

  4. I’ve found one of these wonderful caterpillar this morning in my garden, in Sicily(Italy). Beautiful! It is a moth for sure..

  5. I’ve found one of these wonderful caterpillar this morning in my garden, in Sicily (Italy) Beautiful! It’s a moth for sure…

  6. We just found one in our garden 9-10 cm long and 12 -16 mm thick, and his nose part look like an elephant shrew as he moves forward . We lives in Amanzimtoti K.Z.N. South Africa

  7. I’ve found one of these (or similar) in our garden (Cape Town, South Africa) a couple of weeks ago and struggle to find out what it is.
    It is approximately 10cm (4inches) long. The end with the fake eyes is not so elongated though. I’ve taken a couple of pictures if that could help someone to identify it.

  8. My daughter and I have just found the first caterpillar in our garden. We live in Cheshire, England. An initial search says it is a Hornworm or Sphinx Moth caterpillar??

  9. My daughter took a picture of a Caterpillar she found in our back yard. We are from Winnipeg. We also would like to find out what type it is. She lay her keyring next to it to give it scale. If you can send me an address to send it to, I would be happy to have someone look at it to identify the species.

  10. Just found on in my yard in Georgia, USA. Creep looking little thing. It’s about an inch an a half long. I took pics and put him in the woods. Maybe I should have kept him, may be an unknown species.

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