#spiny caterpillars

[colorsoutofearth]

Saddleback caterpillar (Acharia stimulea)

Photo by Ingo Arndt

[bugfarm]

Spiny Oak-slug moth caterpillar (Euclea delphinii)

[guccilavalamp]

Some Certified Cool Guys™️

📍central alabama

[bootleg-nessie]

Rating the Accuracy of Animal Names:

(I keep updating this list so check back later)

Marine Iguana: 1/10. They don’t allow lizards in the military

Honey Badger: 1/10. It’s not even made out of honey

Horny toad: 0/10. First of all, this is a lizard. Second of all, I couldn’t find one that was willing to have sex with me so they must not actually be all that horny

Crabeater seal: 1/10. They don’t even eat crabs. Felt uncomfortable asking about the other kind but I’d guess probably not those either

Comb jellyfish: 4/10. Doesn’t even have hair

Hammerhead shark: 10/10. Stop killing hammerhead sharks to make hammers

Paper nautilus: 1/10. Paper would get too soggy

Red Panda: 2/10. Not a panda. More orange than red

Jellyfish: 0/10. Not even a fish, but if it were, jelly would be one of the worst things to be made out of

Electric eel: 5/10. Not an eel. Shocking, I know

Blue footed booby: 2/10. My disappointment is immeasurable. Turns out this lying sack of shit is a just a stupid BIRD

Spiny lumpsucker: 8/10. Apparently this fish is named because it has spines AND a suction cup, not because it sucks on spiny lumps

Pleasing fungus beetle: 2/10. Why would fungus be pleased by a beetle eating it? It just worked so hard to grow

Chicken turtle: 1/10. This is just a regular turtle, there are no chickens involved

Red lipped batfish: 8/10. Not a bat. Does have red lips. Also looks incredibly sexy with that makeup on

Aye aye: 10/10. Does in fact, have two eyes

Blobfish: 10/10 out of water, 1/10 in water. The blobfish gets a bad rap, it only looks like a blob because some dickhead pulled it out of its natural habitat at the bottom of the fucking ocean. You’d look pretty weird if you switched places with them too

Dik dik: 5/10 if male, 0/10 if female. This one’s pretty self explanatory

Mountain chicken: 0/10. THIS IS A FUCKING FROG. STOP NAMING ANIMALS AFTER CHICKENS!

Peacock: 0/10. It pees out of a cloaca, not a cock. Technically it doesn’t even pee either

Monarch butterfly 1/10. They aren’t even one of the species of insects that has a queen, let alone understands the concept of monarchism

Cockatiel: 0/10. They do not have teal cocks

Monkey slug caterpillars: 1/10. These are neither slugs nor monkeys, nor are they some kind of fucked up monkey/slug hybrid. Terrible name all around, the only part they got right was caterpillar

Robin: 5/10. It’s a shame this bird has to resort to thievery but we all have to put worms on the table somehow

Alligator snapping turtle: 1/10. This is not an alligator, nor does it even have the fingers to snap with

Ground squirrel: 5/10. Please don’t grind squirrels

Axolotl: 0/10. Doesn’t ask a lot. Doesn’t ask anything at all

Sea robin: 7/10 This is what happens when the land robin goes pro. This creepy fuck evolved little fingers just to steal things. Is this where fish fingers come from?

Tasmanian devil: 8/10. Much like the christian devil, cool name and way more chill than most people give them credit for. Statistically speaking, they’re far from the deadliest player on the board, but they do have the strongest bite force and won’t hesitate to use it if provoked

Water deer: 7/10. No. This is a meat deer

Star nosed mole: 7/10. Name is somewhat misleading, nose merely star shaped, and not a mass of incandescent gas, a gigantic nuclear furnace

Paddlefish: 3/10. Too narrow to effectively be used as a paddle

Shoebill stork: 1/10. Not made of real shoes. Doesn’t pay bills either

Great white shark: 8/10. I’m inclined to agree for the most part but who came up with the name, David Duke?

Bioko drill: 0/10. At least the hammerhead shark looks like a hammer, this stupid monkey doesn’t even remotely resemble a drill

Hippo Tang: 0/10. That’s a fish, and hippos don’t even drink Tang

Bluejay: 3/10. Not actually blue, it’s just a trick of the light. I bet their real name probably isn’t even Jay either

Satanic Nightjar: 4/10. Should be called “slightly evil looking bird” instead

Tarantula hawk wasp: 1/10. Not a tarantula. Not a hawk. Starting to question if it’s even a wasp

Goblin shark: 10/10? Ever seen their jaw move? They sure are gobblin’

Nudibranch: 5/10. The nude part is accurate but it’s a sea slug, not a tree branch. Not even sure how you could possibly make that mistake

Mongoose: 0/10. No mon, it’s not a goose

Bison: 7/10. I just googled it, bison have more gay sex than straight sex so calling them bi is actually pretty accurate. Points removed because there are bidaughters too

Ram: 10/10. They sure do!

Mandrill: 2/10. They could probably be taught to use drills but I couldn’t find any research on this

Silver fox: 1/10. Silver is way too heavy of an element for an animal to be made of

Mayfly: 9/10 Yeah, they might

Fin whale: 10/10. Yep, whales have fins. Glad we cleared that up

Macaroni penguin: 1/10. They don’t eat macaroni

Horseshoe crab: 0/10. Not a crab. Doesn’t wear horseshoes either

Fangtooth: 10/10. Objectively I have to give it a 10 but this is the stupidest fucking name on the whole list. What’s next, knucklefist? Titboob?

Milkfish 1/10. If I go to your house and you offer me fish milk I’m fucking leaving

Little penguin: 10/10. Telling it exactly like it is

Spider monkey: 1/10. Was expecting a monkey with 8 limbs. Let down once again

Glass frog: 2/10. Not actually made out of glass

Hummingbird: 1/10. They can’t even hum

Centipede: 3-35.4/10. Depends on the species, very few actually have 100 legs

Millipede: 0.8-8/10. They have 800 legs at the most

Sockeye salmon: 1/10. Socks would make terrible eyes

Furry lobster: 10/10, 11/10 if that’s a fursuit

Flying fish: 4/10. Merely glides

Sailfish: 3/10. Doesn’t actually know how to sail

Blanket octopus: 2/10. Octopuses make terrible blankets

Cane Toad: 2/10. Can walk just fine without a cane

[irradiatedsnakes]

the Big TMA Furry List

this list with commentary/choice rationale below the cut :] i wrote a lot of thoughts down do please check it out.

jon: common raven

martin: tan jumping spider

sasha: southern flannel moth

not!sasha: red postman

tim: jackson's chameleon

melanie: eastern copperhead

georgie: triceratops horridus

basira: domestic cat (calico shorthair)

daisy: domestic dog (german shepherd)

elias: barn owl. jonah: eurasian eagle owl.

gerry: domestic dog (black doberman)

annabelle: white-booted racket-tail

jane: cabbage white

michael: spiny softshell turtle

helen: common hermit crab

oliver: black vulture

peter: risso's dolphin

mike: caelestiventus hanseni

jude: black kite

agnes: ???

nikola: stealing major's carousel horse

jared: american dog tick

breekon&hope: Hog and/or Bear. you get no more information

dekker: mouflon

gertrude: great tit

leitner: domestic cat (persian)

manuela: gray long-eared bat

rayner: olm

salesa: sea otter

simon: dodo

elaboration below !

jon: common raven

this was a choice i made before i even finished listening to the podcast back in 2020. jon's 1000% a bird to me, and the curious nature of corvids works well here. plus, i think a bird so universally ominous as a raven works perfectly as a horror protag :P i used to draw raven!jon with a couple troodon traits, mostly just cus it was fun, but i wanted to make my designs more grounded for this iteration. made them plantigrade, didn't get silly with body styles like i have with mp100 designs.

martin: tan jumping spider

if you've been here for a while you'll know that my furry martin has gone through about two million iterations. he started off as a european pine marten, to bold jumping spider, to chinese pangolin, to nine-banded armadillo, finally to nurse shark.

out of all of these the spider and the shark are my favorites. i wanted to go back to the jumping spider though- the design is really fun and i wasn't able to get the expressions right, but i'm more confident in my skills now and i'm having fun with the design. i may revisit nurse shark at some point. i switched from bold to tan jumper- i originally chose bold just cus they're my favorite jumper, but their stark black/white and iridescent aqua coloration just doens't work for martin. so, the tan jumper!

sasha: southern flannel moth

another old choice. species chosen because of a friend's fic, pharos by right (another i'm planning to reread now that i'm dipping my toes back into tma..)! southern flannel moths are poofy and orange, and their caterpillars are those super painful teddybear ones. i really like the design.

not!sasha: red postman

wanted to have her be another lepidopteran, and with all the many examples of mimicry among the group i thought red postman was a fun choice. doesn't look anything like a southern flannel moth, but that's sort of the point.

tim: jackson's chameleon

yet another choice from the oldtimes- most of the main characters are, i've mostly switched around the more secondary chars. first suggested, i believe, by @/ofdreamsanddoodles. i think there's something very fun about chameleons being basically a living mood ring & tim's Descent s1-3 showing physcially not just through the worm scars but through like, constant stress coloration during s3.

melanie: eastern copperhead

one of my favorite choices. i have a young copperhead specimen named after her. this one is quite vibes-based, but i do really like the copperhead as a viper that is not deadly. and i'm always a sucker for the "animal perceived as scary and violent that in actuality only strikes when under extreme stress" thing in furry assignments.

georgie: triceratops horridus

another favorite choice. visually, i really like how this works out, and trikes as a social and protective animal works well. she's literally got a shield on her face. horridus was chosen because i like the shape of the head and horns better than prorsus.

basira: domestic cat (calico shorthair)

got a little cat/dog thing going on for dasira. i like the inversion of the usual cat/dog dynamic with their unhealthy devotion instead, and visually it just works very well for them both.

daisy: domestic dog (german shepherd)

yeah i know this one's an exceedingly obvious choice.

elias: barn owl. jonah: eurasian eagle owl.

it's the institute logo! it's him! barn owl for elias specifically because of its very sleek look, designing him went fantastically. also, i can make the eagle owl's face disk work as a mimicry of ben meredith's muttonchops, which i think is a fun design bit to give to magnus.

gerry: domestic dog (black doberman)

certified gerryguy @/gerrydelano's choice. to quote a discord message from 3 years ago (sorry ron): "i feel like.........my INSTINCT is some kind of canine because like. the whole symbolism thing about being either an obedient or rabid dog. something something muzzled all your life. being a dangerous figure if people only see the silhouette but you just want scritches and nobody'll get close enough to you." black dog symbolism + breed which has ears cropped and tail docked, unecessarily molded for a Purpose which the dog has no say in

annabelle: white-booted racket-tail

sort of my original choice- she used to be part white-booted racket-tail, part anna's hummingbird. kept with the racket-tail cus it's fun and very cute. i've had a couple people express surprise that she wasn't a spider, but i think that's way too obvious. hummingbirds, though- they steal the webs of spiders to use as material to make their nests, but can sometimes become trapped in the webs and eaten by the spiders themselves. which is probably the metaphor-via-fursona-assignment i'm most proud of in this whole list

jane: cabbage white

the cabbage white is a butterfly whose caterpillars are routinely parasitized by the parasitoid wasp the white butterfly parasite. in case you're not familiar, parasitoid wasps lay their eggs on (usually) caterpillars, which hatch on the still-living caterpillar, devouring it from the inside before eventually emerging from the consumed husk of the host. also, i really liked the image of parasitoid wasp larvae emerging from an adult butterfly, rather than a caterpillar.

michael: spiny softshell turtle

for michael and helen, i wanted to choose animals which were, in some way, their own home. turtle is an obvious choice- and spiny softshells are a favorite of mine, and sufficiently strange-looking.

helen: common hermit crab

see previous entry. also please google "hermit crab without shell"

oliver: black vulture

bit of an obvious choice, but i adore vultures so i had to. black vulture chosen because i think the monochrome color scheme + straighter face work better than a turkey vulture for him

peter: risso's dolphin

i really like the idea of a cetacean for peter and the lukases as a whole, a famously social animal for the seemingly contradictory nature of this lonely-but-huge family, plus with so many cetaceans being endangered getting that lonely angle (risso's specifically are not, though, as peter is lonely through his own choice, not by circumstance).

mike: caelestiventus hanseni

it's a dimorphodont. he feels like a pterosaur to me, and i like the idea of a vast avatar as a usually short-flying arboreal species, for the unnaturality/contrast of it.

jude: black kite

black kites are one of the species of kites known to intentionally spread fires by picking up burning sticks to flush out prey.

agnes: ???

the only one i'm still undecided on. will update.

nikola: stealing major's carousel horse

i can't top that

jared: american dog tick

great choice from @/magnusarchivememes. Takes Your Blood And Gets So Big

breekon&hope: Hog and/or Bear. you get no more information

vaguely russian animals that are large and imposing but remain somewhat generic. which is the hog and which is the bear is not consistent.

dekker: mouflon

dekker has very much mammal vibes to me. the mouflon is a neat species of wild sheep. i think the noble, imposing but kind image of the ram works well for dekker as that sort of true-good hero figure, and mouflons in particular are very nice looking with good shapes. the statement giver in distant cousin describes dekker as "though he was slightly shorter than I was, it seemed like he towered over me." which i think this sheep works well with.

gertrude: great tit

i wanted all the main eye avatars as birds, just like how i give them all glasses. just a fun little treat for me. great tit was chosen for gertrude as a kind of classic british bird, and as tits in general are VERY fiesty despite their round and adorable appearance. i really like this image of a great tit posing with a dead mouse like it's a hunter with a trophy deer. the cheek markings also work really well to bring to mind the image of old person jowls.

leitner: domestic cat (persian)

vibes. also i like the idea of him as a spoiled domestic animal. if i remember correctly, this was also @/ofdreamsanddoodles' suggestion

manuela: gray long-eared bat

she's a bat. what's to say. WELL actually okay there's the perception of bats as blind but actually having quite good vision which i think meshes in a fun way with the dark, and the way manuela does her sciency stuff.

rayner: olm

i mean, yeah

salesa: sea otter

largely design-oriented, suitably scruffy. ocean animal with strong social bonds, it was a slam dunk soon as i thought of it.

simon: dodo

how couldn't i, come on.

[apsciencebydan]

This caterpillar is made of ectoplasm.

(spiny oak slug, Euclea delphinii)

8/30/23

[ufolliegy]

i Need to know if you have bug versions of the rest of the science team now,,, if u don't and need ideas i think bubby would be some kind of arachnid or a centipede or smthn like that, or maybe a fire ant. coomer'd be a hercules beetle, tommy would be a bee or wasp or dragonfly, n darnold could also be some kind of beetle. maybe a ladybug. or possibly a butterfly that could also be neat

YEA DUDE. of course ive got bugs of every hlvrai character. i am autistic.

Bubby and Coomer. Bubby is a blowfly and Coomer is a stag beetle!

some older art of Gman, Darnold, and Forzen! They are a ghost mantis, a painted lady butterfly, and a spiny soldier bug respectively.

and then i have Tommy who is a giant walking stick! (which i cannot find a better pic of him than this one. but i draw him all the time hes my favorite)

also i think sunkist would be a yellow woolly bear caterpillar, and of course joshua is an atlas moth caterpillar. hope this helps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[crevicedwelling]

Any ideas? Southern Appalachians. Thank you! 😁

the unmistakable stinging Euclea delphinii, the spiny oakslug caterpillar. slug moths are so good

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/136548?locale=en-US Euclea delphinii

[mewkinscreations]

Character Designs for a Game Concept im working on! It's a 2d sidescroller akin to classic sonic the hedgehog games.

You play as Tillie the Rolly Pollie and have to reach to the end of the levels without dying to hazards like Spinys (based on spikey caterpillars), pitfalls, and falling rocks!

[nyktomorphia]

I don't know that I'm actually going to count this as part of the Night Land bestiary. :P

Making spiders look scary is difficult, okay? It's against the natural order of things.

The Night Land description is of a yellow spider-like thing that lives under the sand, with powerful claws and poisonous spines. And okay first of all those are not really adaptations that go well together? Like, there are spiders with spines (I'm counting the urticating hairs tarantulas have), but they aren't poisonous because spiders need their poison for hunting prey. How are you going to get the venom into your food, little one? Roll around on it?

But second off, spiders that live in the sand obviously make me think "trapdoor spider, maybe mixed with antlions or something which are the obvious other inspiration", except trapdoor spiders in their hidey-holes are almost as adorable as jumping spiders. Just a bunch of shy legs peeking to see if the pizza delivery has arrived yet.

There are spiders with larger gothic spikes on them, including some pretty edgy-looking spiny orb weavers, but they don't use them for hunting to my knowledge. And you know what big, elaborate spikes are really bad for? Burrowing. I'm sorry Hodgson but I'm beginning to think you don't know much about arachnology

Anyway - spiders don't have poisonous urticating hairs, but caterpillars do, so I took inspiration from some and then decided it looks like a saguaro. I'm still not entirely sure how that works - trying to lure food by disguising yourself as a rather standoffish plant is really sending some mixed signals, so it makes more sense to me if both are actually an adaptation to disguise itself from an even larger predator.

[colorsoutofearth]

Indian Luna Moth (Actias selene) caterpillar defensive spines

Photo by Alex Hyde

[impulseimpact]

[second form] [third form]

well thats odd, these guys arent meant to live here, give me a hand will yah? catch one an ill deal with the other

danarva just a little caterpillar camouflaging as bones, based on this critter

lizpin based on a little lizard endemic o mexico known as the blue ornate spiny lizard or Sceloporus caeruleus

[jonnysinsectcatalogue]

Brush-Footed Butterfly Snack Time & Hungry Owl Caterpillars

Our time observing the Butterflies of Mexico comes to a close with a delight sight of many individuals coming in to land for a citrus-filled snack! In this Butterfly garden, snacks are placed to encourage photography and closer glimpses at these beautiful insects. Handling is discouraged of course, but I'd be willing to bet that these Butterflies wouldn't mind flying over if you were close enough and holding some fruit. Using the orange slices, you can get a sense of scale for these scale-winged insects, and all things considered they are quite large and if they were to open their wings, their wingspan would be impressive! At this snack station, there are (at least) 3 different species of Butterflies congregating and sipping with their proboscises. Though different in many ways, these Brush-Footed Butterflies have one beautiful thing in common: their drab/mottled colored wings conceal vibrant colors on their dorsal side, aiding their survivability via cryptic camouflage. See if you can identify which specie is which.

The most conspicuous of these 3 are the Giant Owl Butterflies (Caligo telamonius), so named because of their large eye-spots on their hindwing's underside. Their cryptic colors combined with their dusk flying allows them to fly around with low risk of bird attack. And if a bird does attack, the eye-spots make a handy decoy. The hypothesis that the eye-spots deter predators by resembling a predators' eyes has been called into question. It's dorsal side features white, blue and black wings.

My dear friend was also able to find some Giant Owl Caterpillars among the plants. With the horn-like structures on their faces, the lines along their body and their spiny protrusions, they remind me of dragons. The wrigglers here appear to be enjoying Musa plants (the leaves appear similar to those of banana trees, one of which my family has had before). The green individuals appear to be the further developed instar since the spines are more prominent and far larger.

The individuals with brown and white wings featuring many ring-patterned spots are actually the Blue Morpho (Morpho peleides), one of the most iconic and iridescent-winged Butterflies. A few individuals here actually showcase their blue dorsal side (see Pictures 2, 3 and 7). Amazingly, their scale color is not caused by pigmentation of the scale, but rather the scale's prismatic qualities (a phenomenon known as structural color) which are stacked, resulting in entering light wavelengths manifesting only the blue wavelength of light.

Finally, try and spot the One-Spotted Preponas (Archaeoprepona demophon). These were the hardest to identify since they blend in amongst their larger friends and their tan-colored wings would make them difficult to see in the wild. What made the difference for me was the curvature along a vein in the hindwing. In comparison to their conspicuous fruit-mates, they aren't so distracting. However, up close there's quite a bit to enjoy. Looking at pictures other photographers have taken, they have a pink proboscis and a stunning teal-blue and black pattern on their dorsal wings.

Pictures were taken on February 11, 2024 in Mexico with a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra.

[monstersdownthepath]

How would you make a demon lord or Infernal duke who focuses on psychic powers and the occult?

You could do a lot with the power of ritual and psychic magic, but I personally have a Qlippoth Lord who's manipulating it.

It has no name yet, but it has an appearance and a modus operandi. The creature shoves it's horrid, spiny tongue into the base of a victim's skull and bonds with it, fusing to their back. The victim gets incredible strength, speed, longevity, and psychic powers... but the price is the victim is driven to consume the brains of others, especially ones with psychic potential themselves, to fuel the gruesome mutation the qlippoth is going through.

The qlippoth itself looks like a caterpillar, and eventually victims turn into grotesque cocoons that barely resemble their former selves... but to date, no host has ever survived long enough for the creature to fully transform into whatever it's hoping to turn into.

[butchblooms]

The first installment of my 2024 microcomic project! Planning to release a new one every 2-4 weeks.

[ID: A four-panel comic. The first panel is a white background with a black and white drawing of a hand holding a stem of goldenrod in bud. The text says, "I work as a gardener, and though I can ID most plants well, every day I find joy in discovering new insects and fungi." On the left side of the panel is a comic-y sketch of a person's face shouting, "Ah yes! Solidago speciosa!" The second panel is a white background with a black and white textured drawing of a maple leaf with a series of tall, thin galls rising from its surface. The text says, "Spindle galls on maple leaves where microscopic mite nymphs grow." Below, on the same panel, is a drawing of a mushroom, with a black hat covered in white splotches, and a stick resting against the mushroom. The text says, "a magpie inkcap that disintegrates when I try to get a closer look at its gills." The third panel is a white background with a textured black and white leaf underside. A saddleback caterpillar, with spiny antennae and feet, is on the leaf, and small oblong objects are clustered on its back. The text says, "A saddleback caterpillar parasitized by a wasp whose eggs burst from the caterpillar's back." The final panel is a black background with a matrix of white dots/stars arranged on it in waves. The text says, "Every creature in its own unimaginable niche, the life of one dependent on the death of another."]

[quill-of-thoth]

I do not always post fundraisers, but when I do they are for developing new antivenoms for tropical creatures. On May 20th, this thing is 80% funded with five days to go, and new antivenom could save a lot of lives in South America. So with the permission of the affected parties, I'll tell you a little story about last summer's Caterpillar Incident. My brother is a field herpetologist: his girlfriend is a botanist. They went down to a field station in Peru last summer to document a bunch of threatened / endangered / unstudied species, and made a discovery that they very much regretted. (The botanist has since recovered.) Descending from a very large tree, our botanist placed her hand down on a patch of bark that was covered in brown, spiny looking caterpillars. There were a lot of them, swarmed together like bagworms, and doing that twitch thing that's been described as a "caterpillar rave" and looks, frankly, like they've been posessed. She describes being stung by the caterpillars as a sharp, but brief pain that didn't initially cause her much worry, but within the next few hours the signs of failure for her blood to clot had become obvious, and she was med-evaced to the nearest hospital, and after the first dose of antivenom was not fully effective, to Lima. More doses of antivenom were flown in overnight from Colombia: eventually the antivenom was effective enough that she was cleared to fly back to the US. This took many weeks, a lot of international phone calls, and a lot of recovery time afterwards. She was lucky: the combination of being an American national, with a large university paying for her healthcare, got her help quicker than she might otherwise have had. People who get stung by Lonomia and don't recognize the symptoms or can't get antivenom fast enough generally die of internal hemorrhaging: the venom prevents blood clotting. ... oh, wait. Usually my stories are at least somewhat amusing. For your information, this caterpillar's nickname among entomologists is Cater-killer. (This is why we generally let etymologists, not entomologists, name things.) Don't pet the caterpillars!