People are only just realising that caterpillars don't actually have legs

28 October 2023 , 15:02

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Caterpillars don't actually have legs - even if they look like they do (Image: Getty Images/500px)

We've all seen caterpillars before, and we're all in agreement that they definitely have legs, right? Well, apparently not. It turns out that those little nubs at the bottom of a caterpillar's body that seem to move as it moves are not, in fact, legs. Despite them looking, and even seemingly behaving, like legs.

According to a research paper published earlier this month, caterpillars actually have what scientists call "prolegs", and they don't actually propel the critter forward when it moves. Instead, they simply act as accessories to the system of movement that the little bugs use and operate more like anchors.

Caterpillars propel themselves forward by contracting the muscles in their bodies and then thrusting forward, so they don't use their legs for movement in the same way we do. Their prolegs are instead used in a different way, thanks to the small barbed pad called a crochet that each proleg has. This pad sticks to leaves and twigs to ensure the caterpillar doesn't fall.

The research paper published in Science Advances was created as scientists weren't sure whether caterpillars' prolegs came from a now-defunct real leg, were a modified real leg, or were their own special thing. After a team of researchers looked into the bizarre biological phenomenon, they can now confirm that the genes responsible for making caterpillar prolegs are the same ones that create legs in crustaceans.

What's even weirder is that the little nubs caterpillars use for support won't even develop into full legs when the bug transforms into a butterfly. In fact, the stubs that will develop into butterfly legs are bunched up in the caterpillar's face!

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If that didn't quench your thirst for weird insect facts, then what about this horrifying discovery of what an ant's face really looks like? Many people were left terrified after seeing the face, which was captured in a stunning photograph by Dr Eugenijus Kavaliauskas for Nikon's 2022 Small World photography competition.

Thanks to how zoomed in it is, you can see everything from the unusual yellow hairs on its chin to the bumps on the surface of its skin. One person admitted that they felt "sick" at the sight of the ant's face. Another wrote: "That's the very real face of an ant. An ant. Now you have to think about that all night."

Zahna Eklund