this post was submitted on 24 May 2025
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cute bugs
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cute insects, bugs, arachnids, invertebrates, etc
post cute like tiny inchworms, fat bumblebees, and jumping spiders
can just title post "cute bug" if u want
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I had commented on the original post saying I called these cutworms as a kid.
I remember seeing them around the compost piles along with some yellow and brown/orange beetles.
Always assumed these cutworms turned into the beetles because they could be found inside these little hard mud pods and sometimes you'd find them in a larval state.
Just looked it up, yeah... fruit chafer beetle in South Africa ( a few different names https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachnoda_sinuata) and they start off as these cutworms.
That's how I know them as well, around compost heaps these yellow and black beetles hover, and then you find those guys in the ground, but I am south African so that might be why I know them as cutworms
Interesting, cutworms seems to be a term used for various catipillar type larva, though none of the pictures I saw look to have the front 6 legs from my photo
Not a great photo in the Wikipedia link, I can see 1 leg sticking out only and looks a lot hairier.
Your photo looks very close to how I have seen them.
Looking up African Fruit Beetle grubs gets me this.
That is incredibly similar if not identical!