Oct 24, 2009

To Defoliate an Automobile

What do you do if you're an ermine moth larvae and you and your horde have run out of trees to defoliate? If you're in the Dutch city of Rotterdam, you turn to automobiles.

This is the scene the Dutch woke up to one late Spring day. They immediately thought they were under siege by a giant spider. They were relieved to find that they had instead been descended upon by caterpillars. The webbing is meant to protect the caterpillars while they feast and then pupate.

Sidenote: Much to my relief, no cars were defoliated in the making of these webs.

Thanks for the link, Mike.

Photo
source: NGM Blog Central

2 comments:

Unknown said...

What do you do to get this stuff off?? How disgusting.

Jessica said...

How in the world do you find sush gross ugly creatures. This one is one of the worst.