Moving Landscape

This caterpillar, because of its earthy color and the black, branched spines all along its back, looks to me like a moving landscape of burnt trees!

View the large version for more details if you like. It will become the Tawny Coster butterfly. You can see pictures of the adult stage here: http://butterflycircle.blogspot.sg/2008/03/voyage-of-tawny-coster.html

PS. The head of the caterpillar is on the left.

[Jennifer Ruge]

Amazing capture!

[Leana Niemand]

Wow great detail, love it Livia!

[Jason]

Brilliant little spikey fella

[Pete]

great detail, it looks fantastic in large

[Anne]

Fab shot and I can see exactly what you mean by burnt trees :)

[Sally Ings]

Love your description! Cool caterpillar.

[Patty J]

WOW! Yeah, I see the trees!! This is incredible - fav :)

[Vendetta]

Livia, following your project is truly a fieldbiologist's dream come true!

[Chris Johnson]

I see the burnt trees! Awesome detailed shot!

[Rebecca Briggs]

amazing.. what a shot..love the green background...beautiful

[Kass]

Very cool capture. Love it in both its caterpillar and butterfly forms! :)

[Chris]

Love the picture, love the title - I can see he makes a great landscape. The spikes are amazing.

[KWind]

Wow...incredible focus and close up!

[Humphrey Hippo]

Love the spikes!

[tony gig]

Looks like a chocolate Twiglet , Fantastic capture....Fav

[Simon]

Awesome macro

[Pyrrhula]

Wonderful capture , a great close up and stunting details

[Lisabell]

Spiders are no problem for me, but these guys creep me out a bit. Still, you’ve taken a fabulous shot!

[Vesna]

Awesome!

[Yvonne]

Amazing capture, Livia. A fav for sure--look at that face.

[Junan Heath]

Wonderful pov and capture! Great title too! :)

[👑 AnaZad]

Amazing capture of this caterpillar. Definitely a FAV for me.

[Tony]

Fabulous capture and I can see the avenue of burnt trees silhouetted along its back. I'm also amazed at how you can distinguish one creepy thing from another. fav

[Ruth Moucharafieh]

Absolutely right!!!! Love it Livia!

[Nia]

Livia he is so cool

[Lisa Pouncy]

Wow! Fav xx

[aurorajane]

wonderful macro work :)

[Michelle]

Oh that is such a beautiful shot.

[Ann H. LeFevre]

Oooh- good description! Very creative and very accurate! Nice shot!

[Tracy]

Fantastic :) you do an amazing job of capturing all the detail.

[Martin]

Great shot can see whe you think they look like burnt trees.

[Karen Williams]

Wonderful capture - full of detail and character. Love his spikey hair-do.

[MaryBeth Dailey]

Pretty caterpillar and adult b fly!

[ladyjane]

Instant fave! Love the POV and detail you've captured here.

[Corinne]

amazing details, very well done !

[Shirley Chetwynd]

Lovely capture Livia.

[Kerri]

Beautiful

[Pam Hawkes]

Wow! Fabulous macro!

[Debbie]

Great capture! Amazing detail!

[cglist]

Wow! Amazing detail!

[Margaret Tryon]

Wonderful detail!

[hueymilunz]

ohhh... this one creeps me out... look at those spiky thingy...

[Dana]

Wow !! Amazing detail and composition.

[Sybil Freeman]

wonderful detail....

[Sharon]

Fantastic close-up. It does look like burnt trees. Nice analogy.

[Wendy Bowden]

Magic capture

[Sheri]

Very cool!

[Donna]

Oh my, this is awesome! great closeup!

[Vicki Dixon]

fav! very awesome shot!

[trude]

they sure do look like spikey pine trees on his back!! Amazing shot Livia:)

[Penny Milner]

Great shot

[Ellen Young]

they do look like moving burnt Trees!!! Fabulous Shot Livia!!! :)

[Karen Mitchell]

haha totally! I really like the red on green contrast as well. Awesome.

[Sandra]

Great shot again, FAV!

[Chris]

beautiful details!

[Kathy A]

Wonderful capture

[Mags ッ]

Now he's a spiky beast - amazing capture!

[Nat]

Love him Liv! Seeing these guys up close really brings out their character I reckon.

[Corine Wernsen]

haha love the title!!! awesome detail!

[8yearson]

That is one spiky caterpillar! Great photo!

[GPix]

love it!!

[Bobbyj]

such a spiky caterpillar!

[Sassik]

Great allusion Livia! And great shot!

[samantha]

Excellent details! look at those spikes! =)

[Reva]

How cool, what awesome details in this pic! Those are quite the spikes, if I were a bird I'd think twice about eating him. And it really does look like a walking burnt-out forest, lol! :)

[Sharyn's Shots シ]

Awesome macro of this prickly little fella.

[Louie]

Wow - he is spikey! Love the detail and colours in this Livia. Great shot.

[Marie]

Fascinating creature!

[Dione Giorgio]

Amazing detail, Livia. the spikes do look like burnt trees. Great shot.

[Peter de Graaff]

Incredible detail

[Cassandra Hoffmann]

I have so many of your shots to catch up on!!! This is awesome!! I aspire to have macro bug shots like yours!!!

[Nikki]

Fantastic

[Allison Williams]

With spines like this, I imagine the birds leave them alone. Great close up.

[Carole Imes]

This is such an awesome shot capturing those tree-like spines....amazing find and the butterfly is beautiful. I wonder how many people smash caterpillars not realizing the end result will look like that. FAV!!

[Princess Fairlane]

Beautiful macro! lovely colors :D

[Brian Baptie]

Looks like a forest on his back!! Brilliant!!

[alia_801]

Nice shot of the spiky little guy!

[EvaHenriette]

Wow, curious looking fella. Viewed the butterfly pics and he certaily becomes a lovely looking butterfly. Nice capture.

[Jolly]

Looks more like a moving cactus :) But looks great!

[Aleksandra]

Wow, those are some intense spikes! Great shot!

[Al Perry]

Great shot it is amazing what they transform into.

[Tessa]

so stretched out. great detail.

[Abhijit]

very cool composition

[Cindy Rez]

Cool looking caterpillar...his spikes do look like branches!

[Danny G.]

What a fascinating creature and a great capture - your composition with the diagonal lines is terrific!

[william wooderson]

Did you feel tempted to stroke its spiny back?

[Ulpi]

Amazing detail!

[Kd Wallis]

kind of hard to tell which end is which!! haha. Amazing looking tho! and great details too!

[Claire]

Wow you seem to have him mid munch:0)

[Sheila]

What a spiny beast!

[Livia]

A great, big, earthy-hued, slow but sure "THANK YOU!" to everyone for stopping by! This caterpillar is the most surreal one I've seen so far. I love the branched spines, I think they're cool. Thank you very much for taking the time to leave a comment. I appreciate it. 8)

[Lisa]

Wonderful! Fave of course

[❀ Lynn]

Very cool. Great focus and contrast with the background. Do those spines hurt when touched, I wonder, or are they soft?

[Livia]

@lynnb As it is with caterpillars that have spines, these spines are probably hollow and release a poison when they are broken. A defensive measure against predators. I wouldn't try to touch them. XD

[Janelle]

Wow. Amazing focus Livia. That is one scary looking caterpillar

[Anatoly]

Fine and another fav of mine!

[Carolyn White]

Wow! Cool find! Your details are fantastic! :0)

[Kitti Nelson]

Fabulous find Livia and incredible detail - I love the information you give with your captures.

[Sean O'Neill]

Delightful Livia, and what a beautiful butterfly it turns into.

[Linda Lorraine]

It does it does! Great shot and title to help us see it differently

[Nada A.]

Amazing detail.

[Amy Spada]

I sure wouldn't want to be small and tangle with him!

[Cristina]

Holy cow, where do you find all of these interesting creatures! Amazing!

[Beau]

That's awesome. Before I looked at what you wrote, that's the first thing I thought. Reminded me of a lake I just saw that had these dead trees sticking outta the water. Great capture. Incredible detail, dof and color.