Do you ever pay attention to caterpillars’ feet? Do you know how many pairs of legs a caterpillar used to have? I won’t be able to answer your any of these questions until I came across a photo. Honestly, I didn’t think that is related to the caterpillar at first. But it turns out these appendages with suction cups are caterpillar’s ‘false legs,’ called prolegs.
According to “Buglife charity in the UK“, caterpillars have two different types of feet: three pairs of segmented legs at the front of the insect. They’ve also got 5 pairs of prolegs or ‘false’ legs. These are fleshy stumps that have a series of microscopic hooks on their base which are used for clinging and climbing.”
Below, we have some super close-up pictures showing you how those chubby little legs look like. If you don’t know they belong to a bug, you might find them cute.
h/t: boredpanda
