Check out this captivating caterpillar found near Kamloops
Pritchard resident Sarah Wade saw a unique looking caterpillar with big eyes painted on it crawling on an apple tree in her grandmother’s yard in Pritchard a few days ago.
“My kids thought it was super cool and I wanted to know what it was so I took a photo of it and looked it up,” she said. “I used it to educate my children.”
Lake Country's The Bug Guys Pets and Exotics owner Stuart Brown confirmed it was a caterpillar of the swallowtail butterfly genus. There are hundreds of species of swallowtail butterflies around the world, with the exception of Antarctica, and six of those live in BC.
At this time of the year, the caterpillars are eating, or being eaten, and are known for their protective displays and tactics to ward off predators.
“Identifying caterpillars is not my specialty so I can’t be certain of what species of swallowtail it is, most swallowtail caterpillars have that similar look,” Brown said.
The “look” is a survival mechanism to confuse possible predators and include the large patterns on their heads that look like eyes.
“Those eyes are not actually eyes, they’re meant to look like a snake or some other confusing creature,” he said. “It they get threatened, the caterpillars will posture like a snake and put a plume out the top of their heads that look like snake’s forked tongue. They are fascinating creatures.”
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Brown said the swallowtail caterpillars also put out a “strong, sweet scent” when threatened which adds more to the confusing displays.
The caterpillars will eat for a few months before curling into a pupae or chrysalis for the winter, then emerge as swallowtail butterflies in late spring.
For Wade and her kids, it was the first time spotting a swallowtail caterpillar.
“The kids were really excited, they thought it was neat and wanted to take a closer look at it.”
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