Caterpillar resembling ‘Muppet’ lands on Aussie camper’s chair: 'Pretty amazing'
While many people saw a human or Muppet face, an insect expert has revealed that's not what the caterpillar was trying to mimic.
A caterpillar with a “large Muppet face” has shocked a holidaymaker at a popular Aussie seaside campground.
While Tony Haning’s wife was unnerved by the encounter, he was delighted by its strange appearance and placed it on their tablecloth to take pictures. Once they were uploaded to social media, insect lovers delighted in how “damn cute” the creature was.
Many thought the caterpillar was actually a puppet. And some thought that it closely resembled Janice, an original 1970s Muppet who played in the puppet show’s house band alongside Animal, Dr Teeth and Floyd Pepper.
While the tiny grub’s markings appeared to mimic an entire face, it’s likely it instead evolved to appear as a specific body part.
What did the caterpillar really evolve to resemble?
Dr Thomas White is an entomologist at Sydney University who specialises in adaptive evolution and behaviour. Markings similar to the caterpillar are a “relatively common” adaptation and are also frequently seen on moths and butterflies.
“We see these spots, and as humans we put them together and almost can see faces,” he said. “But really these big, bright circular markings are supposed to look like eyes, and they’re often called eye spots.”
The markings are used in defence by small creatures that are often eaten by predators such as birds, to try and scare them away.
“The spots are often accompanied by postural changes or behaviours that reveal them suddenly, or make them even more startling,” White said. “If a bird comes along wanting a nice snack, these things that look like eyes can shock and startle and give the prey a moment of pause to run away.”
Researchers have found that even animals with simple nervous systems have well tuned eye-detectors to help them avoid being eaten. In particular, brightly coloured circles will catch the attention of predators and cause them to pause, because anything with eyes could be a threat. “Butterflies make use of that, and exploit the feature to give themselves a fighting chance,” White said.
While it’s not known when this mechanism began to evolve, it’s thought to be an ancient form of defence. “Predation is such a powerful evolutionary pressure because most things out there in the world don’t die of natural causes, they get eaten by other stuff,” White said.
Exciting moment campers first notice caterpillar
When the caterpillar was first spotted at the Prevelly Caravan Park in Western Australia’s Margaret River, Tony began to film it. In a short video supplied to Yahoo, which you can watch below, his wife can be heard exclaiming “Enough, enough”. But Tony is clearly excited and responds with “Put your hand next to it”.
“No! What is it?” his wife defiantly says.
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Speaking with Yahoo News Australia, Tony said the caterpillar encounter was one of the most “exciting” things that happened during his family’s Margaret River trip. “I often put a bright light out to see what interesting things turn up,” he said. “The next night, a pair of very specific orchid pollinating wasps turned up randomly.”
“It’s pretty amazing about how many insects there still are out there.”
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