When people see a caterpillar inching its way across a blade of grass or your jacket, they’re bound to react in one of two ways. They either say, “Oh, cool” or they run away yelling, “No, no, no, no, no!” Caterpillars are gorgeous and more than a little peculiar. But have you ever taken a closer look at them? Especially at what their ‘legs’ and ‘feet’ look like?
Caterpillar ‘feet’ are weird. But cool. And gross. But cute. And they totally look like alien appendages with suction cups. Bored Panda was fascinated by these grippy ‘false legs,’ called prolegs, so we collected a whole bunch of caterpillar ‘leg’ and ‘feet’ photos to show you. So scroll down and enjoy dear Readers. Remember to upvote your fave pics and let us know if you have any cool caterpillar facts for all of us in the comments below.
Craig Macadam from the Buglife charity in the UK told Bored Panda that caterpillars have two different types of feet. “They have three pairs of segmented legs at the front of the insect. These true legs have three separate main sections: femur, tibia, tarsi, and at the end of the leg is a small claw. This claw is used to hold on to the plant stem or leaf that the caterpillar is sitting on.”
He continued: “They’ve also got 5 pairs of prolegs or ‘false’ legs. These are fleshy stumps that have a series of microscopic hooks on their base which are used for clinging and climbing.” Scroll down for the rest of our interview with Craig from Buglife, as well as for our other two interviews with the Insect Lore Europe team, as well as with Imgurian Attackoftentacle whose post about caterpillar feet went viral. Enjoy!
#1
Image source: Sandy Konzell
#2
#3
Image source: Tonya Wilhelm
#4
Image source: Jennifer Rose Lane
#5
Image source: roshan_photography17
#6
Image source: Pekka Raukko
#7
Image source: reddit.com
#8
Image source: Karuna Markham
#9
Image source: douglasheusser
#10
Image source: Kim Smith
#11
Image source: reddit.com
#12
Image source: Ted
#13
Image source: Thomas Marent
#14
Image source: Ted Kinsman/Science Source
#15
Image source: Dwight Kuhn
#16
Image source: reddit.com
#17
Image source: Francisco SotoFollow
#18
Image source: xulescu_g
#19
Image source: Elizabeth Howard
#20
Image source: buiten beeld
#21
Image source: 7 years ago
#22
Image source: nps
#23
Image source: nyffy
#24
Image source: immortelle_cr
#25
#26
#27
Image source: reddit.com
#28
#29
Image source: Satyrium
#30
Image source: otherhalfcat
Follow Us
