This is a Saddleback caterpillar (Acharia stimulea)—undeniably beautiful, but definitely not touchable. Those vibrant spines are venomous, and a single brush can cause intense burning, swelling, or even nausea. Nature’s beauty often comes with a warning label. | explorewithdara

Caterpillar-of-the-Day Follow Along: Weekend Days 11/12 continued. Here is one last saddleback video from the vaults. Macrophotography and film often help us see details that we would otherwise have overlooked. These videos are often revealing to us - in this clip, for the first time, I am noticing apparent sensory hairs pointed down and out from just near the caterpillar's orange spiracles. Slug caterpillar locomotion depends on them maintaining a very close connection to their substrate and ma

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