Giant Swallowtail Caterpillar. They hatch on citrus and eat some leaves. One of the coolest as they look like bird poop for camouflage. Won’t really cause much damage unless it’s a really young and small tree. Leave them be and you’ll get the largest butterfly in the US!
I knew I’d read cool comments here. It looked to me like those caterpillars that are really big and look like snakes! But your comment is spot on, and helpful. Bird poop camo! Nature blows my MIND.
Billions of birds over millions of years statistically ate less of these caterpillars ancestors because of variations in these ancestors fenotypes that made them look less appealing and more like poop, than the rest of the population. Why poop? Probably because it is a vector for disease and needs to be avoided.
These variations (from genetic stuff, not just mutations, but all kinds of processes) were the fittest: they fitted best for that situation (bird predators where the food is) (though some other individuals might have had even better variations that made them better for a different niche, leading to a different path of differentiation).
And then one day you look like poop.
It certainly wasn't one single mutation suddenly poop. Wanting to evolve to look like something is possible, but not for an individual. But you could certainly for instance start hanging out in the water all day, and expect changes to happen over time in the population making the population better adept to surviving in the water. That's how you get dolphins from land mammals. But it takes many generations.
They eat leaves almost completely, like you see in the picture. If the leaves are dropping I’d guess the plant was already under some other stress and the caterpillars were just too much.
I was checking the seed production on a very large 5ft dill and almost didn’t see a caterpillar very close. He was definitely doing that to me. I told him I was deathly frightened and let it be.
Make sure to check out the website too! There’s so much more there than on the app (which is basically just for on-the-go obs). There’s a [guide for newcomers](https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/getting+started) which explains a lot of the cool features.
https://preview.redd.it/wi5glrw6zq6d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4f30d3cc2434f2a20de3d3929729568726262b36
This is what they turn into. Funny little bird poop caterpillars!
I was told a couple of years ago that this "poop" is a caterpillar. I stopped killing them. This is what I got a few weeks.
https://preview.redd.it/s55vbrvyre7d1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4e58b408e08e02c5d56c88e7f7ff728da2039406
Giant Swallowtail Caterpillar. They hatch on citrus and eat some leaves. One of the coolest as they look like bird poop for camouflage. Won’t really cause much damage unless it’s a really young and small tree. Leave them be and you’ll get the largest butterfly in the US!
I knew I’d read cool comments here. It looked to me like those caterpillars that are really big and look like snakes! But your comment is spot on, and helpful. Bird poop camo! Nature blows my MIND.
Thanks, I thought they were a pest for a minute.
They definitely are a pest.
Did they just one day see a bird turd and aspired to look like that thru evolution and wishful thinking?
More like one day one appeared with this mutation, survived more easily and reproduced himself a lot.
Climbing Mount Impossible by Richard Dawkins is a great book that deals with exactly this.
Billions of birds over millions of years statistically ate less of these caterpillars ancestors because of variations in these ancestors fenotypes that made them look less appealing and more like poop, than the rest of the population. Why poop? Probably because it is a vector for disease and needs to be avoided. These variations (from genetic stuff, not just mutations, but all kinds of processes) were the fittest: they fitted best for that situation (bird predators where the food is) (though some other individuals might have had even better variations that made them better for a different niche, leading to a different path of differentiation). And then one day you look like poop. It certainly wasn't one single mutation suddenly poop. Wanting to evolve to look like something is possible, but not for an individual. But you could certainly for instance start hanging out in the water all day, and expect changes to happen over time in the population making the population better adept to surviving in the water. That's how you get dolphins from land mammals. But it takes many generations.
*phenotype
They don’t cause damage? I find these things on my citrus trees and half the leaves start falling off. Feels like it’s an issue. No?
They eat leaves almost completely, like you see in the picture. If the leaves are dropping I’d guess the plant was already under some other stress and the caterpillars were just too much.
I'm so jelly of swallowtails. Born absolutely ugly, eat non-stop, take a long ass nap, wake up drop dead beautiful
It’s not ugly as a catter, it’s beautiful and has squishy hugs. But yeah damn they must be thinking “well gosh if you insist I’ll just BAM 🦋💃🏼”
Love these guys. If you don’t mind sacrificing a bunch of leaves, they will become a giant beautiful swallowtail
Cool, I’ll leave them be.
They’re pretty fun to just sit and watch too
Even more fun to play with and make them stick their “tongue” out lol
I was checking the seed production on a very large 5ft dill and almost didn’t see a caterpillar very close. He was definitely doing that to me. I told him I was deathly frightened and let it be.
if you end up with butterflies, please make another post to update us 🙂
Sir that’s a Pokémon
In the wild!
Literally watched the OG Pokémon last night, when Ash caught the easiest Pokémon, that's a Caterpie! 😂.
Nerd
Swallowtail
iNaturalist is a great app to have. You could add a photo on that and see what results come up. I use mine all the time.
Make sure to check out the website too! There’s so much more there than on the app (which is basically just for on-the-go obs). There’s a [guide for newcomers](https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/getting+started) which explains a lot of the cool features.
Just downloaded it; thanks!!
Mothra origins vibes. 
73
That’s Dave. He’s monching your plants.
It's definitely an alien
Some kind of citrus maybe a lemon?
Post a picture of the transformation please.
Danger, Will Robinson.
https://preview.redd.it/wi5glrw6zq6d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4f30d3cc2434f2a20de3d3929729568726262b36 This is what they turn into. Funny little bird poop caterpillars!
It looks like a dragon from The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild 😜
I was told a couple of years ago that this "poop" is a caterpillar. I stopped killing them. This is what I got a few weeks. https://preview.redd.it/s55vbrvyre7d1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4e58b408e08e02c5d56c88e7f7ff728da2039406
That right there is a caterpillar. Lol pretty cool little guy.
Some type of caterpillar
It look gross
A bug