A man in Alabama, USA, recently found a huge caterpillar while weeding his own backyard. Not only that, but the caterpillar has horns on its head, which looks like the appearance of a cartoon painting and has a frightening appearance.
The man took a video and uploaded it online. As can be seen from the video, the caterpillar is the size of a man's palm and has multiple black-and-red tentacles popping up on its head, making it look quite aggressive.
Subsequently, entomologists said that this caterpillar, also known as the "pecan horn devil", is the larvae of the emperor moth. It's not unusual, it's just that they weren't very noticeable before they metamorphosed. And their largest can grow up to 6 inches long (about 15 centimeters).
Although they look scary on the outside, they are harmless. The antennae on the head look very sharp, but they never use the tentacles to sting people or other creatures.
Scholars have pointed out that when the larvae are ready to metamorphose into the monarch moth, the color of the whole body will change from green in the video to pine green, and then it will climb onto the host plant and begin to metamorphose.
After two months, the emperor moth will break out of the cocoon, and the average emperor moth can reach a wingspan of 6 inches.