The Caterpillar Defense
by Carl Zimmer
Let’s say you’re a baby bird. In particular, you’re a chick belonging to the species Laniocera hypopyrra, which also goes by the elegant common name of the cinereous mourner. You hatch out of your egg and find yourself in a nest up in tree in a rain forest in Peru. You can’t fly. You can only wait for your parents to bring you food. You are, in other words, easy pickings.
So what might you do to avoid getting snatched up by a predator? Perhaps you might hold very still so as not to attract attention. Perhaps you might also grow dull, bark-colored feathers to help you blend into you background.
If you’re a cinereous mourner, however, this is not what you do. As you can see in this video, you grow brilliant orange plumage. You make yourself absurdly easy to see.
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http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2014/12/10/the-caterpillar-defense/
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which have long fuzzy hair, and are dangerous to touch, as they can leave a sting that will knock a grown man down.
Called Puss caterpillar, puss moth, puss caterpillar, tree asp, and the asp caterpillar , it is a moth in adult form.
and looks remarkably like the caterpillar described in the OP.
The most common places to be stung are the hands, arms, and feet, with symptoms of envenomation ranging from painful to severe. Pain is obviously the first and most common symptom, but can also include swelling, nausea, headache, chest pain, and shortness of breath).
In more serious cases, shock-like symptoms and seizures occur, requiring hospitalization . Treatment of non-life threatening stings is usually just supportive, with anti-histamines, such as cimetidine (Tagamet) (4), and/or methylprednisone for inflammation, pain relievers for the pain, and benzodiazepines to calm the nerves.
