Caterpillar is known as the young stage of butterfly. A caterpillar in Peru showed an exceptional behavior which was never seen before. It made a piece of body armor with some piece of leaves. That armor looks like a tube and the caterpillar was first crawled inside the tube then started walking by pulling the leafy armor with its mouth.

This strange activity was first spotted by Dr. Joe Hanson. Dr. Hanson documented this full never seen before activity and uploaded to his own Youtube channel, “It's OK to Be Smart” presented by PBS Digital Studios. This video was shot at Peruvian Amazon with the guidance of Pedro Lima and entomologist Aaron Pomerantz.

Hanson said in his video, "like a knight inside a suit of armor". while Hanson picked the caterpillar in his hand then it immediately hide inside the tube. The tube is a natural camouflage which helps them to be unnoticed by the predators.

Although, caterpillars use several techniques to protect themselves from predators. Some of the species use ‘Freeze and Drop’ techniques to confuse predators and some of them rolled themselves like a spiral formation. Sometimes they get defensive, while they seem danger they eject a foul smelling liquid that stops predators in their tracks. But this is the first example that a caterpillar is building a body armor to protect itself, according to the report by LiveScience.

Hanson Explained in his video that the tube was so finely crafted that it looks like the leaf have been cut and pasted together with glue by an artist. The Caterpillar used its saliva to glue the leaf which becomes silky after getting dry. Hanson and his team also noticed that there was a bulge in the middle of the tube. The main purpose of the bulge was to turn around for the caterpillar. It helps them to escape from the other end while trapped inside the tube.

Researchers identified the species of this caterpillar as,”hermit crab caterpillar”. DNA analysis suggests that it will become a moth after being developed. As it is a newly discovered species, so entomologists are planning to conduct several studies on this to gather more information about the life cycle of this insect. Hanson told that the Amazon is still full of species that are yet to be discovered.

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