Watch: Bizarre Caterpillar With Erupting Tentacles Filmed
Deep in the Amazon, a scientist recently recorded—possibly for the first time—a caterpillar that shoots out its tentacles like a jungly jack-in-the-box.
Deep in the Peruvian Amazon, an odd-looking caterpillar is doing its best to look like just another rain forest twig. But its four long tentacles are coiled, ready to respond to the first sign of danger.
Suddenly, a group of people approaches. Sensing vibrations from the group's voices, the caterpillar unleashes its defenses. Boing! The four tentacles sprung outward like a jungly jack-in-the-box before recoiling.
"It was super bizarre," says Aaron Pomerantz, an entomologist with the ecotourism company Rainforest Expeditions, who found the caterpillar about 100 feet (30 meters) up a tree near the Tambopata Research Center in southeastern Peru.
"All of a sudden there was this little thing that went 'bloop' when I called out to a couple
