Spongy, plump, and elastic, I found this caterpillar crawling slowly on a plant in my yard. The Mormon caterpillar—I don’t think it has anything to do with the Mormon church—is the larva of Papilio polytes or the common Mormon butterfly. The back near its head has a beautiful pattern, like a pig’s eye; I like this one. It has no hairs or spines, so I dare to touch it, to stroke its rubbery texture. What a naughty little guy! It lives only to feast on leaves before metamorphosing into a chrysalis and transforming into a beautiful butterfly.
