It may resemble a cross between some sort of bizarre alien plant and a funky Christmas decoration, but this is neither.
This is a spun glass caterpillar, a North American member of the slug moth family – a name that clearly flatters terrestrial pulmonates.
- Why are so many insects iridescent?
- 7 prettiest - and possibly weirdest - insects in the world that you might not know
The adults are rather unremarkable little brown jobs, but the larvae… oh, the larvae! Many of the family’s 1,700-odd species are adorned with all manner of extravagant, intricate spines, bristles and protuberances.
What they do have in common with shell-less molluscs is that they glide rather than crawl. Their fleshy walking legs have been all but lost and they lubricate their passage over the vegetation with a slippery trail – not of slime, heaven forbid, but liquid silk.
