Skip to content

Caterpillar shape and camouflage

3D scanning for our BBSRC-funded caterpillar project is now well underway.  Olivier Penacchio and Philip Cammack are using an optical scanner to extract the full 3D shape of each animal.  We then use a colour camera and a physical light model to extract the reflectance pattern. The aim isP1090959 to obtain the 3D structure of caterpillars, and independently their reflectance (skin patterning), to test whether camouflage really does make them look less 3-dimensional.  This images shows a lime hawkmoth (mimas tiliae) caterpillar alongside its extracted 3D scan.