With a snake-like appearance, the Hemeroplanes triptolemus butterfly larvae often make many people mistake it for a new, undiscovered reptile.
The hawk moth caterpillar lives in the Amazon rainforest near Puyo, Ecuador. This species is famous for its extremely skillful camouflage ability, not inferior to spider snakes or orchid mantises.
The caterpillar is endowed with a very special body structure with a head that can change size. Whenever provoked or threatened, the head of the worm will swell into a triangle, along with a yellow-brown color and 2 round black patterns on both sides, the worm looks like a ferocious venomous snake about to attack the enemy.
Not only copying the shape, the worm even knows how to imitate the movements of venomous snakes to threaten larger predators such as birds and lizards.
