# Help ID this Caterpillar
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-caterpillar/589605
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 19, 2011, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-caterpillar/589605 "2011-07-19T17:24:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@The\_Evil\_Prince\_Zorte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Evil_Prince_Zorte)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2011, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-caterpillar/589605/1 "2011-07-19T17:24:41Z")
Does anyone have any idea what kind of caterpillar this is, or what it might turn into? It’s pink with a yellow underside.
[ ](http://i808.photobucket.com/albums/zz4/EvilPrinceZorte/269417_1873077068102_1276424426_31702075_4962751_n.jpg)
How would I go about identifying something like this without looking at pictures of every kind of caterpillar in existence? Is there some kind of online larva mug shot book?
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### Author:  [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2011, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-caterpillar/589605/2 "2011-07-19T17:58:00Z")
Try here:
[http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?guide=Caterpillars](http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?guide=Caterpillars)
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### Author:  [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2011, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-caterpillar/589605/3 "2011-07-19T18:18:46Z")
Also note that some caterpillars which are normally some other color may have pink color variations. These guys decided that a pink caterpillar was a color variant of a tobacco budworm:
> **[Pink Caterpillar? ID needed](https://www.houzz.com/discussions/1754416/pink-caterpillar-id-needed)**
>
> I am usually over at the cottage garden forum but I thought I'd also post this here as well. Does anyone know what this is? I found about four of them on my grape scented sage (Salvia mellisodora). Not sure if I should squish em or protect them. I...
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2011, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-caterpillar/589605/4 "2011-07-19T19:09:59Z")
It looks to me more like a beetle grub than a caterpillar. Where did you find it?
Caterpillars have several pairs of[prolegs,](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_AcI_7qIKx4o/Su7XjYmjQiI/AAAAAAAAAIE/eME9jc2IoAc/s400/The+ancestrial+form.jpg) or “false legs” along the abdomen, as well as three pairs of true legs at the front of the body. I don’t see any indication of prolegs in the photo.
Beetle larvae, like this [Japanese beetle grub,](http://www.arbordoctor.net/Japanese_beetle_grub.jpg) have true legs but lack prolegs.