For example, clothes moths feed on wool, and horn moths feed on the hooves and horns of dead ungulates.Ĭaterpillars are typically voracious feeders and many of them are among the most serious of agricultural pests. Both lepidopteran and symphytan larvae have eruciform body shapes.Ĭaterpillars of most species eat plant material ( often leaves), but not all some (about 1%) eat insects, and some are even cannibalistic. A monarch butterfly ( Danaus plexippus) caterpillar feeding on an unopened seed pod of swamp milkweedĬaterpillars ( / ˈ k æ t ər p ɪ l ər/ KAT-ər-pil-ər) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths).Īs with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder Symphyta) are commonly called caterpillars as well.
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