UPSC CDS 1 2018 English Paper

Passage

  To eat and not be eaten - that’s the imperative of a caterpillar’s existence. The leaf roller reduces its risks of being picked off by predators by silking together a temporary shelter in which to feed and rest. Adopting a different line of defense, the jelly slug extrudes a sticky translucent coating that may foul the mouth-parts of marauding ants. For its part, the aquatic larva, by its watery element, fashions a portable hideout from fragments of aquatic leaves. Cutting a serpentine trail as it feeds on tender young leaves, the minute citrus leaf miner spends its entire larval life inside its host plant, thus keeping its appetizing body safely under wraps.