If this is real, it is gorgeous !!
Real, according to (
wiki) and this shitty "article":
These moths are some of the most amazing creatures you'll see.
www.zmescience.com
Ha, great comment:
"Ryan Russell
7y ago
This is hardly an "article." Here is the piece in its entirety without the photos: "What you see here is the amazing caterpillar of saturniidae moth. The family Saturniidae includes the largest species of moths which generally feature heavy bodies covered in hair-like scales, lobed wings, reduced mouthparts, and small heads. We don’t know for sure why the caterpillars have this extremely intricate appearance. This is how they look like after the metamorphosis." 4 sentences does not an article make. Two of these sentences refer directly to the images, so that makes the article really only 2 sentences long.
There was so much more information that could have been given, like that there are 2300 Saturniidae moth species. (Oh hey, look at that - one of the 4 sentences was copy-pasted straight from Wikipedia: "heavy bodies covered in hair-like scales, lobed wings, reduced mouthparts, and small heads." So really there's only one sentence in this article.) How about mentioning that Saturniidae is mostly tropical? Or that some species lay eggs twice a year, and that the eggs laid later somehow know to wait until Spring to hatch? Why not mention that some species lay a single egg, while others lay up to 200? You could have also mentioned how some of the caterpillars make a clicking sound when disturbed, or that others have stinging hairs with poison toxic enough to kill a human. Your "article" could have also expanded on the point of reduced mouthparts by including the fact that the mouthparts are reduced because the adult moths don't eat. Their mouths are vestigial and they have no digestive tract. They emerge as adults, live approximately two weeks while they locate a mate, then they breed and die. As for the photos, you didn't even bother to use a high resolution. Here, I've included one for you:"
Edit:
Oh yeah, a pic... here's one I saw the other day walking Rocky:
Any ideas anyone...? Some kinda woolly bear? It was pretty big!