Is that...*really* a snail? - Observation of the Week, 9/5/24

Our Observation of the Week is this Carea moth caterpillar, seen in Malaysia by @rhinolin!

This July, Lin Yu Fan, a naturalist from Hangzhou, China, found himself hiking in the Damai Rainforest Resort in Sarawak, Malaysia. A family traveling with him spotted an interesting snail, which he photographed and posted to iNaturalist and initially identified it as a snail when he got home.

On August 18th, iNatter @larry216 sent me a message and suggested it as an observation of the day, writing

I came across it while reviewing identifications for Pythia, a genus of rare land snails from southern Asia, through the Indo-Pacific, to the South Pacific. I noticed a few things that were odd about this one, which led me on some late night research in the category of “What the heck is that???” The results can be summarized by the questions, “When is a land snail really a caterpillar? When is its ‘head’ really its ‘tail’?”

Larry identified it as the caterpillar of a Carea moth (check out those small legs, above), and that ID was confirmed by moth expert Dr. Roger C. Kendrick (@hkmoths). Yup, it’s a caterpillar that mimics a snail! I reached out to Dr. Kendrick about this taxon, and he recommend I check out Jeremy Holloway's write up of the tribe Careini in the Moths of Borneo, which states “The larvae are characterised by a ‘berry-like’ swelling of the thoracic segments.” 

For his part, Lin Yu Fan says 

[The family and I] were completely deceived by its camouflage, thinking it was a special type of snail, and I didn’t notice it when I uploaded the records later. Big thanks to @larry216 and @hkmoths for help with identification.

Back at home, Lin Yu Fan (above) serves as a nature educator. 

My main job is to lead others to go outdoors, observe nature, think about the relationship between man and nature, and establish a connection between myself and nature. On weekends we will do activities in parks and mountains around Hangzhou, and during long holidays we will go to different provinces in China or other countries. In these camps, campers are always enthusiastic and very observant. Although I am the one who brings them to these places, it is often they who help me discover more creatures that I have not noticed, and this observation is an example. It’s a process of helping each other and learning, which I enjoy very much.

He joined iNaturalist about four years ago, on the recommendation of his friend @smalltown_huang, who he says “has uploaded many amazing records himself and is very enthusiastic about identifying the records of others.”

This system and the people in the community help me understand more different organisms and form my own database, which allows me to better prepare for my nature courses. Many thanks to all staff and community partners….I hope that in the future I can continue to upload records on the platform, assist in identification, and make more friends.

- take a gander at photos of adult Carea moths, or check out more photos of the caterpillars!

- learn more about caterpillars and caterpillar research in this interview with @gaudettelaura!

- if you want to help out with annotations, like annotating lepidoptera observations as adults, larvae, pupae, etc., check out this tutorial!

Posted on September 6, 2024 12:40 AM by tiwane