Caterpillar that 'looks like Donald Trump' found in the Amazon
Two tour guides couldn't believe their eyes when they came across a strange-looking caterpillar that bore an uncanny resemblance to Donald Trump.
With its brightly-coloured, carefully parted 'hair' the bizarre-looking caterpillar has been compared to the US property mogul's famous toupee.
The creature was spotted in the Amazon by friends Jeff Cremer, 34 and Phil Torres, 27, who run photography tours from Posada Amazonas, a 30-bed rainforest lodge in Peru.
Conservation biologist Phil and wildlife photographer Jeff were leading a small group of tourists on a recent tour when Phil spotted the insect on a leaf and was so struck by its fluffy mane he couldn't resist taking a photo.
Jeff told Caters News: "On these tours we take tourists and photographers into the Amazon and point out cool and unusual things for them to photograph.
"We have been leading photo tours together for two years and have never seen anything as strange as this."
Phil, a field biologist, said: "I've seen some bizarre-looking caterpillars in my time of working in the field but this was definitely the weirdest one I've ever seen.
"I wasn't sure what I was looking at at first, it was this big yellow fuzzy thing.
"It's actually a flannel moth caterpillar, they're really rare, I've seen this type of caterpillar before but never one of this colour.
"We put the picture of our Twitter and Facebook page and immediately people started comparing it to Donald Trump."
He added: "It's not the most approachable of caterpillars - if you touch that thing it would seriously hurt, it has these little hairs that can poke into your skin and release a venom.
"When we show people the image some don't even know what it is, some think it's a mammal others a bird or some have said a plant.
"But to us and most of the people who've seen it, it's Donald Trump's toupee - left on a leaf in the Amazon."
The moth is scientifically known as Megalopyge opercularis, but has numerous common names, including southern flannel moth, pussy moth, puss caterpillar, tree asp, and, asp caterpillar.
It is visually striking in both larval and adult forms. The inch-long larva is generously coated in long, luxuriant hair-like setae, making it resemble a tiny Persian cat (or Donald Trump?).
The adult moth is also very bizarre in appearance, covered in long fur in colours ranging from dull orange to lemon yellow, with hairy legs and fuzzy black feet.
The 'fur' of the larva contains venomous spines that cause extremely painful reactions in human skin upon contact. The reactions are sometimes localised to the affected area, but are often very severe, radiating up a limb and causing burning, swelling, nausea, headache, abdominal distress, rashes, blisters, and sometimes chest pain, numbness, or difficulty breathing.
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