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But not all caterpillars feed on leaves. Moth caterpillars eating away clothes and other textiles are well-known and feared. Wax, hair and dead insects are food for a few ones, too. In the pantry they are a feared guest.

One caterpillar from Hawaii has a specially pigmented back to resemble a fly. When a fruit fly lands on it, the caterpillar rears backward, grabs and eats it.

However, not only other insects are eaten. The caterpillars of some moths and butterflies feed on caterpillars of their own species.

Hair-streak caterpillars produce a sweet liquid like aphids’ honeydew. Ants like this and carry the caterpillar into their nest after it has skinned for the last time. Inside, the caterpillar takes on the nest’s smell and behaves like the ants’ larvae. So it is fed by the ants, and in addition to that, devours their larvae. It still produces its liquid, but obviously takes more than it gives its hosts.

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As everybody knows, most butterflies feed on the nectar of blossoms. Some specialized on one particular kind of plant. Additionally, many butterflies and moths are looking for nutrients in other things. Some are attracted by rotten fruit, the liquid of cut trees or even the sweet liquid produced by aphids. But droppings of birds and other animals, urine, sweat and rotten mushrooms are also wanted food. Some moths live on eye liquids, others on blood. These unusual foods are likely to provide the butterflies with amino acids and other essential, nitrogenous substances.

They can also be seen on puddles and other places with water. 

The males of a species called gluphisia septentrionis are an extreme. They drink 38 milliliters of water in three and a half hours (this is six times the weight of their body!) to filter the sodium chloride out of it. Afterwards, they spurt the water up to half a meter out of their back. But they don’t use all of the salt for themselves. When mating, they give most of it to the females for the eggs.