Ladies and gentlemen, the award for best invertebrate mimicry goes to Hemeroplanes triptolemus for its masterful impersonation of a venomous snake!
Native to the rainforests of the Amazon, the snake imitates a caterpillar and transforms into a rather unremarkable moth in the family Sphingidae, yet in its larval stage it incorporates an astonishing survival tactic. It needs one too, as without a decent guard framework in place, sphinx moth caterpillars are essentially energy-rich ‘nom-chunks’ introduced on a bed of leafy greens for the wilderness’ predators.
To avoid that fate, the larva of this moth expands and opens its underside to imitate a snake’s head with black eyes and even light reflections.
However, it’s anything but an easy feat. The caterpillar begins its protective maneuver by throwing itself backward and twisting its body to uncover stowed-away shades of yellow, white, and black on its underside. Then, it sucks in air through tiny openings in its sides (known as spiracles) and siphons them to the front of its body. Once the portions are inflated, the caterpillar is genuinely transformed, having taken on the form of a venomous snake total with a diamond-shaped “face” and large, black eyes.
If the “deadly” (and rather expensive) ensemble isn’t sufficient to hinder a predator, for example, a lizard or a bird, the caterpillar could also strike like a snake to enhance the impact.
Although deflection – a tactic involving using eyespots to draw predators’ attention away from the head – isn’t uncommon among animals, the snake copy caterpillar’s false face is located on the same end as its real one.
“Deflection probably won’t function admirably for a caterpillar because the caterpillar probably won’t get by on the off chance that any part of its body gets penetrated or ripped off by an attacker,” explains eyespot master Dr Thomas Hossie. “This guard is all about intimidating or startling an attacker who will take off (or fly) away instead of chance a lethal experience with a snake.”
Interestingly, we also know about a moth that camouflages as a snake in its completely evolved stage, and for which the cost of this kind of mask is also rather high energy-wise.
In any case, this person appears to beat every other person in the animal kingdom as far as sporting the best snake ensemble of all time.
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