{"id":9842,"date":"2020-10-08T17:06:18","date_gmt":"2020-10-08T21:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/?post_type=cu_description&#038;p=9842"},"modified":"2026-02-23T15:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T20:52:10","slug":"what-do-caterpillars-eat","status":"publish","type":"cu_description","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/description\/what-do-caterpillars-eat\/","title":{"rendered":"What do caterpillars eat?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n<header class=\"mb-6 cu-pageheader cu-component-updated md:mb-12\">\n    <h1 id=\"\" class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 relative text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] pb-5 after:w-10 after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px\">\n        \n    <\/h1>\n\n    <\/header>\n\n<p>Almost all caterpillars feed on plants and most plant-feeding caterpillars feed on leaves, which are the most abundant and accessible part of the plant. However, there are some that burrow into stems, and others, called leaf-miners, that live between the top and bottom membranes of a leaf (the adults of these caterpillars are very tiny moths). A few caterpillar species prefer to eat flower petals, and there&#8217;s even one that decorates itself with the petals for camouflage (see the below photos).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even more bizarre are the caterpillars that eat meat. Yes, that&#8217;s right: some caterpillars are carnivores! Here is a link to a video of a Hawaiian inchworm caterpillar catching and eating a fly!&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zAiMzeOfOgA\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zAiMzeOfOgA<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And in case you think that sort of thing can only happen in exotic, tropical places like Hawaii, here&#8217;s a local example of a carnivorous caterpillar. The caterpillar of the harvester butterfly lives among wooly aphids on alder trees, uses their &#8220;wool&#8221; (which is actually made of wax) for a disguise, and eats them! Harvester butterflies can be seen in Ottawa in the Mer Bleue sector of the Greenbelt.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/harvester-butterfly\/\">https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/harvester-butterfly\/<\/a> &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/people\/naomi-cappuccino\/\">Dr. Naomi Cappuccino<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/230\/Find_the_caterpillar-credit-Naomi-Cappuccino.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/230\/Camouflaged_looper_caterpillar-credit-Naomi-Cappuccino.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_description_type":[59],"class_list":["post-9842","cu_description","type-cu_description","status-publish","hentry","cu_description_type-butterfly-show"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_description\/9842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_description"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_description"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_description\/9842\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_description_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_description_type?post=9842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}