if there was a thing like giant caterpillars would they

>>48579212
I could see them tearing up farmland super hard.

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>>48579212
There are a few carnivorous species, so probably yes.

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>>48579212

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>>48579268

>>48579268

how could a caterpillar be so dangerous? they look harmless

>>48579682
Hawaii.

>>48579212
There are tens of thousands of species of caterpillar. Some would be a threat, others would not be.

It also depends how giant we're talking. Are you thinking, like, Celosia? Basaran? Phalanx? Neutronium Golem?

>>48579719
golem/bus/stadium

>>48579212
Depends. Are there plants / leaves big enough to sustain their weight? Remember that every carbon atom that makes up a living thing came from its parents or its own food, so each caterpillar must have consumed an amount of plant matter roughly equalling its mass. (I forget exactly how that calculation works, but it's a thing.)
If no, I can't possibly imagine how a bus-sized caterpillar species wouldn't destroy utterly any habitat it wandered to and would probably go extinct from starvation in a few generations. The web of life would be fucked in the short term, but it'd recover.
If there were enough food to go around and the biggest ones just lived in forests with house-sized leaves, I could see them getting by without absolutely wrecking face.

Alternatively, if they were pretty few in number, they could function like elephants or something, eating tons of grass an' shit every day but slowly enough for it to regrow.

>>48579268
>>48579272
>>48579284
These could all be serious threats in dense undergrowth, but like a python in the Amazon, it couldn't do shit if you gave it a wide enough berth. Their huge weight would almost necessarily make them lumbering bastards except /maybe/ in short bursts. They might learn to lurk in trees near or in waterholes to snap up unsuspecting prey of basically any size. I'm sure that'd be terrifying if you were looking for a PC encounter . . .


These caterpillars develop into butterflies when they reach adulthood, right?

>>48579212
Threateningly fuzzy.

Isn't this the premise of tremors the movie? Underground caterpillars who eat via ambush till they get enough mass to go onto the next phase of life?

>>48584332
They were just weird underground worms in general. I'm not sure if they looked specifically like caterpillars or not. they also had weird freaky worm tongues and shit.

>>48581660
I'm assuming they'd grow into butterflies. If that's the case I can only imagine how fucked up that'd be.

Do caterpillars digest leaves by spewing shit on it and drinking it or am I confused?

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>>48579212
I can see some angles that could work.

Docile, herbivorous giant caterpillars could still be dangerous to adventurers if ther defense mechanisms are too overkill. Maybe some shoot venomous spikes at you if you startle them, while other, more hairy ones are surrounded by a cloud of toxic dandruff.

Some caterpillars trick ants into seeing them as one of their brood via pheromones and then eat the ants' eggs and larvae. A giant fantasy version could take over goblin clans in the same manner or just turn every sentient being in its vicinity docile so they can devour them at their leisure via psionics.

Going full fantasy, a type of giant caterpillar that eats rocks and normally lives deep in the mountains can become a huge problem if a few eggs are mysteriously placed in the castle walls before a major siege.

What about cocoons, /tg/?
We've got to be able to weaponize those somehow

>>48579212
Birds and birdlike creatures, probably. So gryphons, owlbears, stuff like that. Probably a bunch of other stuff, depending upon how tough they would be at that size. Could end up like elephants, or land whales, where they just don't give a shit about anything and eat stuff.

Whale-sized caterpillars and giant butterflies sounds like a cool thing, though. I'll have to include that in one of my settings.

>>48588439
Maybe there is a species of caterpillar with an instinctive psionic ability. This ability would be stronger in the pupal stage when it is most needed, forcing away predators and interlopers from the vulnerable cocoon.

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>>48579212

Well, gee, I dunno

>>48585511
Shit, that caterpillar is the bug world version of a false hydra.

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>>48584403

>get called out to investigate a dryad village that suddenly went quiet a week before
>arrive and see every blade of grass and green leaf has been plucked out of the forest, flowers are shriveled and dry
>rooted wooden feet are still sticking out of the ground, with just a tiny nub of green ankle at the tops
>large brown, discarded husks litter the ground in a clearing nearby
>a huge red butterfly soars overhead, leaving behind toxic dust
>more arrive
>the whole sky is blotted out by the wings of countless massive butterflies the size of drakes
>they're all headed in the direction of the rice paddies and corn fields to the east, loaded with eggs

Pretty scary if you ask me. What if they got the idea to use their proboscis to drink blood later on? That or they become sick mounts. Seeing a chrysalis big enough to snap a willow branch would be pretty cool too, like watching an alien invasion.

>>48588578
Shit, they were caterpillars? I thought they were octopi.

>>48579212
If you've played Tales of Symphonia, you'd know giant caterpillars are annoying as fuck to deal with.

>>48581660
>Remember that every carbon atom that makes up a living thing came from its parents or its own food, so each caterpillar must have consumed an amount of plant matter roughly equalling its mass

This is why I'm kind of boring with my fantasy world: pretty much no fantastic species is ever bigger than an elephant. Even legit monsters who technically do fly in the face of natural biology because of weird, eldritch shit tainting them, they still only manage to be maybe a third bigger than their base species.

>>48579268
>>48579284
The way it just slides up is horror movie-esque.

bumpo

>>48592306

Holy shit, what is that?

Source?

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>>48592343
http://rainworldgame.com/

Concept art for some indie game.

>>48579272
>yyyyyoink

>>48592375

Thank you!

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is there more like this /tg/ or no?

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>>48592557
There are way to many of those lately.