Any Ideas?

tat2stuff

Arachnopeon
Joined
Dec 2, 2007
Messages
9
my friend asked me about this bug...any ideas what he's describing?

"They looked like the crinkled type french fry and were about that size. They were bent in the shape of a capital L. The top part of the L was were there face was. One of them was brown and one was green. They had what looked like a bullseye painted around each eye. I took them in the house. My dad was on the floor reading the news paper. I put them on the paper and asked him what the heck they were. He was clueless. He poked them with a pencil. When he did, these antenna grew out of their head and then they made this nasty smell. Anyone ever heard of anything like that?"
 

Galapoheros

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 4, 2005
Messages
8,982
Sounds to me like the caterpillar of a Swallowtail butterfly ...maybe the Tiger Swallowtail? The caterpillars sometimes raise the front of their body up in a defensive posture ("L" shape) and expose an organ that look like antennae that emit a smell.
 

Xaranx

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 18, 2007
Messages
1,057
Based on your description I've put together a composite sketch to aid in your search.

 

lucanidae

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 15, 2006
Messages
1,081
Agreed, 100% positive it is family Papillionidae. The osmeterium is what you saw pop out and only this family has it.
 
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