"Is Caterpie a moth or butterfly larvae?"

In order to test the well known theory that Caterpie was originally meant to be the first evolution of Venomoth I’m going to have a detailed look at the inspiration behind Caterpie's design.Let’s take a look at the real life species that may have served as inspiration. The first moth candidate is the Puss moth caterpillar (Cerura vinula). Like Caterpie, this species is bright green and yellow with a red mouth region, with ringed patterning along its side. It has large dark eye spots that resemble Caterpie’s eyes. The major difference is that the Puss moth larvae has two projections on its rear end, rather than on its head like Caterpie. However, Caterpie’s tail closely resembles the tip of another moth larvae, the larvae of Hawk moths (Sphingidae). Further evidence is that Caterpie is called a ‘Worm Pokemon’. Generally, only moth larvae are referred to as worms.The main butterfly candidate is the Eastern tiger swallowtail caterpillar (Papilio glaucus). This species shares a lot of physical features with Caterpie; it has large black and yellow eyespots that are very similar to Caterpie’s eyes, its colouration is a closer match with Caterpie than the Puss moth larvae, and it possesses the two red projections on the head region.The paired red projections on the head of swallowtail caterpillars is called an osmeterium. This fleshy organ is normally hidden but is everted when the caterpillar is threatened. The osmeterium emits foul-smelling terpenes (the class of chemical which gives marijuana its scent!) to repel threats (as mentioned in Caterpie’s Pokedex descriptions). This feature, combined with the large eyespots, makes swallowtail caterpillars resemble snakes, and therefore is an example of anti-predation mimicry.What does this all mean for the Caterpie-Metapod-Venomoth theory? Although there are some features (e.g. the tail and ring patterning) which are inspired by moth larvae, it is clear that Caterpie was primarily based on the Swallowtail caterpillar. In order to put the theory to bed we’ll need to decipher if there are any moth features in Metapod! via /r/pokemon http://ift.tt/2G0zQ9K