Top 10 Beautiful Caterpillar Photos

Photo by Lukas Jonaitis

This is one of my favorite caterpillar photos of all I've seen! The little guy has a funny face and a pair of awesome red tails. It grows into a Puss Moth that is found in Europe and North Africa. This Cerura vinula caterpillar sure looks cute, but Wikipedia says these things can even defend themselves by spraying formic acid if provoked.

Photo by Gerald J. Lenhard, Louiana State Univ / © Bugwood.org / CC-BY-3.0-US

You can certainly see where this caterpillar gets its name from! I would like to enlarge it a few thousand times and use it as my epic mount in World of Warcraft :) Acharia Stimulea is a very colorful and unusual larva of a moth that's native to North America. It belongs to a family of so-called slug caterpillars which have distinctive, flattened shapes. The spikes you see in the photo actually contain venom; the stings can be painful and even cause nausea.

Photo by Michael Hodge

This is one of my favorite cute caterpillar photos. The little guy looks like he's saying "Hello there" with a funny face. It kind of looks like a snake, too - apparently that's a defense mechanism meant to scare away predators. Besides that it can also use a stink attack to ward off foes. Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillar turns into a butterfly found in North America; it is also the state butterfly of Mississippi.

Photo by Ophrys34

Saturnia pyri is yet another awesome caterpillar that is found in Europe. It turns into a big pretty butterfly called Giant Peacock Moth. It wouldn't be very impressive if it weren't for those brightly colored spots. This caterpillar kind of reminds me of a tiny crawling cactus.

Photo by Daniel Schwen

This smooth black Spurge Hawk-Moth caterpillar is actually used a terrible biological weapon... Or to be more precise, an agent of weed control against the leafy spurge. This poisonous weed releases toxins that prevent other plants from growing underneath it; however, it's nothing this brave Hyles euphorbiae caterpillar can't handle. OM NOM NOM.

This is another slug caterpillar from the Limacodidae family, so called because of a supposed resemblance to a slug (although if you ask me, it looks much more awesome). It almost reminds me of some sort of sea creature. Like the name suggests, Stinging Rose (Parasa indetermina) caterpillars are somewhat poisonous, and the bright colors are there to warn potential predators that they should stay away.

Photo by Greg Dwyer

This weird, furry creature that looks like a brush of some sort is a Banded Tussock Moth (Halysidota tessellaris) caterpillar. It uses toxic alkaloids that it acquires from plants to defend itself. The butterflies live in North America.

Photo by Marvin Smith

This colorful cactus-like caterpillar is native to the North America. It grows to be huge (can get over 10 centimeters!) and turns into a giant silk moth. Like the name suggests, the Hyalophora cecropia butterfly is really majestic and can have a wingspan of over 13 cm.

This neon-green Automeris io caterpillar looks really cool. However, the butterfly it turns into is even more awesome. They live in North America and can have wingspans of over 8 centimeters. The larvae feed in groups and are often seen traveling in single-file processions all over the plant they're devouring.

Photo by Materialscientist

While the adult Gypsy Moths look somewhat boring, the caterpillars look truly spectacular. They were brought to US by a French scientist Leopold Trouvelot back in 1868. Now they are considered a major pest in the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada.