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Head before carving | Finished head |
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Whole log before carving |
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Whole log after carving |
The Wildlife Trust asked me to look at a log in Queens Park, Blackburn. It was near a butterfly garden and I saw two eyes and the mouth of a caterpillar in the branches at the end of the log. We agreed on the idea and when I got home my ignorance about caterpillars struck me. I would recognise one if I found one, but I did not know enough to carve one.
I searched the internet and found www.whatsthiscaterpillar.co.uk , asked for help, and got the reply
The structure of a caterpillar.
The caterpillar head has simple eyes, two short
antennae and strong chewing mouth parts. The body is
made up of 13 segments. The
first three segments behind the head are called the
thoracic segments. Each of these three segments has a
pair of jointed true legs.
These become the legs of the adult butterfly or moth. The remaining 10
segments are the abdominal segments.
These usually contain 5 pairs of false legs called
prolegs. These are purely to support the growing body.
Loopers have no prolegs which is why they have the characteristic "inchworm"
method of moving. Small hooks called crochets
at the bottom of the prolegs act as grippers.
Spiracles are circular openings on each side of the body
through which air passes in and out.
In order to survive many species have adapted behaviours
With this vital information I started to carve but still had little idea about the shape of the head. However, I had little choice, as the branches dictated the forms. I toyed with the idea of putting boots on the true legs but in the end found I did not have enough wood for them. To eliminate any confusion and because a caterpillar has eleven segments excluding the head and tail, and there are eleven letters in caterpillar, I carved the word along its back.
Most of the hard work was done with a chainsaw, but as children will obviously play, crawl, and sit on the caterpillar, I used hand tools on the top surfaces for a smoother finish