WEBVTT - Caterpillars: Nature's Magicians 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:07.080 Hey, and welcome to the playlist. The Stuff You Should 0:00:07.080 --> 0:00:10.560 Know Think Spring playlist to be exact, Chuck, Jerry and 0:00:10.600 --> 0:00:12.680 I figured it was high time that winner got the 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:15.440 heck on, So we're tapping into all of our wishful 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:18.640 thinking and getting the crocuses to sprout and the air 0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:21.439 to warm up and the chipmunks to come out. For 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:26.239 our first episode, we're going with caterpillars colon Nature's Magicians 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:28.520 because we can't think of a more poetic way to 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:32.240 kick things off. So enjoy this episode, and enjoy the playlist, 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:35.440 and don't forget to think Spring with all your might. 0:00:37.240 --> 0:00:51.720 Cool. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:57.720 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh and there's 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:00.480 Chuck and there's Jerry. The three of us just inchin 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:04.360 along in life together, trying to make do, making our 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:07.199 way in the world today. It takes everything a cop 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:11.120 Oh yeah, and this is stuff you should. 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:13.080 Cheers. 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:16.520 Cheers, Chuck cheers. Uh. 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:22.520 You know, if it's an episode where we say mouth parts. 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:23.400 I knew you're gonna say. 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:27.160 This, then we're going back to the old school from 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:31.360 our let's say, former colleague Tracy is still our colleague. 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:34.120 We just never see anyone anymore, right fully. 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:38.400 But Tracy Wilson, a co host of The Stuff You 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:41.360 Missed in History Class along with Holly. They're wonderful. They've 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:46.200 been around for years. They're icons of podcasting. Tracy used 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:48.760 to write a bunch of insect articles for HowStuffWorks dot 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:49.560 com back in the day. 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:53.320 She very legendarily stayed up for seventy two straight hours 0:01:53.320 --> 0:01:56.160 and wrote like more than two dozen insect articles in 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:59.600 that time. They just got weirder and as the time 0:01:59.640 --> 0:01:59.920 went on. 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:04.440 I almost believe that for a second. But Tracy always 0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:06.480 does a great job with those, or did a great job, 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:10.680 And most of most of the insect articles we've ever 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:14.920 used have been Tracy's original, like the ticks and the 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:20.040 fleas and I don't think ants, but bees probably was. 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:22.440 She's the master of it for sure. 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:25.160 I mean she wrote a lot of them, and this 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:28.560 one about caterpillars was from Tracy, along with stuff from 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:31.200 World at List in the eighty eight and rereading butterflies 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:34.080 dot com. But I just realized today when I was 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:37.920 researching this some more, that we haven't done butterflies yet no, 0:02:38.040 --> 0:02:39.320 which is shocking. 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:41.720 We've done one we. 0:02:41.639 --> 0:02:43.880 Did the wings like that, you're desk Okay. 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:45.320 That's what it was. Yeah, And we talked about them 0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:47.200 in the Animal Migration episode two. 0:02:47.800 --> 0:02:50.400 Yeah, but not a standalone on butterflies. So we're going 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:55.000 to talk about their their counterpart. And one of the 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:57.920 facts of the episode already for me is that but 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:00.600 caterpillars that eventually turned into butterflies. 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:03.359 It's it's the same species. It's still the same thing. 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:03.760 Right. 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:06.200 We should never knew that we should do it too, 0:03:06.800 --> 0:03:07.200 You didn't. 0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:10.880 I just figured it like, well, now it's something else, 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:12.519 like entirely huh. 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:15.600 But did you know about the transformation and the chrysalis 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:17.800 or cocoon and everything? Did you know that was sure? 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:19.680 Okay, I knew how it happened, but I thought it 0:03:19.720 --> 0:03:24.440 was like presto chaninjo. Now you're you're not whatever Latin 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:26.000 name you are, you're a new Latin name. 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:28.560 Oh gotcha. So like they just became a completely different 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:32.720 animal basically, or a different insect. Yeah, okay, I gotcha. Yeah, No, 0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:36.040 they're the same thing, they're just configured differently. Yeah, they 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:39.160 got wings like a transformer, like they go box to 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:42.840 robot with the gun. That's right, you know, But in 0:03:42.880 --> 0:03:46.160 a much more organic, soupy way, as we'll see you. 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:49.480 I love this one, Chuck. Like every kid knows about 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:51.680 caterpillars to go look at them in the garden and everything, 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:54.280 and they're super cute and weird looking, and you learn 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:57.280 the hard way not to touch some of them. But 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:00.320 I did not know a lot of this stuff either, 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:03.760 and it's endlessly fascinating to me, especially if you step 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:08.560 back and think about a life stage where an organism 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:13.200 undergoes such a complete transformation that their cells, they break 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:17.240 themselves down to their cells and then are rebuilt into 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:20.720 a new version. Not that many animals do that, and 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:24.960 scientists aren't exactly sure how or even why that evolved. 0:04:25.000 --> 0:04:28.120 Although why it's kind of teleological, but how that evolved. 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:33.279 It's just this really bizarre thing that we're so aware of, 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:35.360 we kind of just take for granted until you really 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:38.680 stop and think about it. I love caterpillars, I guess, 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:39.800 is what I'm trying to say. 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:43.000 Yeah, And it was also one of those where I 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:44.880 just I kept looking and kept looking. I was like, 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:47.120 how has just this been sitting here under our noses 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:50.080 all this time? I don't know, because it's right up 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:52.000 our Alley to talk about something like cat. 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:53.920 No. 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:58.279 Yeah. One of the reasons why they are so different 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:02.800 and they're configured differently, is that a caterpillar's life it 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:06.600 is the larval stage of an adult moth or butterfly. 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:11.600 That's probably the best easy definition of a caterpillar. The 0:05:12.120 --> 0:05:15.159 reason that it's configured differently than its adult form is 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:21.640 because in the larval stage, its entire life is pooping, eating, pooping, molting, eating, 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:25.480 pooping molting. That's what I saw the caterpillar's life described 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:28.360 as over the course of five different molts. As we'll see, 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:30.200 that's all it does. That's all it wants to do. 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:33.480 It just wants to eat. So it's designed essentially as 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:34.440 an eating machine. 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:37.880 Yeah, kind of shark like. And as Tracy points out, 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:41.960 like it's a very singular purpose. And the same butterfly 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:45.680 has a singular purpose later on, which is propagating the species, 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:49.520 if you know what I'm saying. But the caterpillar, yeah, 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:50.200 it's very shark like. 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:51.240 All it does is eat. 0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:54.839 And store food and poop it out. And they eat 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:57.840 so much that apparently they say that they can eat 0:05:57.839 --> 0:06:00.919 as much as twenty seven times they're body size in 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:04.280 their fairly short life. Yeah, and they can end up 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:08.359 being about one hundred times bigger at the by the 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:10.520 time they go to pupe et, which is when they 0:06:10.560 --> 0:06:12.800 you know, hole up and turn into the butterfly as 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:13.400 when they. 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:15.960 Pop out of that little egg that they also eat. 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:19.920 That's amazing. And if you want to see something just astounding, 0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:24.359 go look up a caterpillar egg or butterfly egg. I 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:26.280 don't know which one you'd call it, but they look 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:30.480 like little have you ever seen vasaline glass Huh? They 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:33.799 look like little like ornate vasaline glass vases. 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:35.400 Yeah, they're very pretty. 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:39.279 Yeah, I mean everything about butterflies are just great. Okay, 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:40.920 I'm on board with them fully. 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:45.440 But yeah, that thing, I mean, it starts eating, It 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:46.720 eats its way out of the egg. 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:49.800 Then it says, well, I'll just eat the rest of 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:50.440 the egg. 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:54.040 And you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna go ahead and 0:06:54.080 --> 0:06:56.520 eat this leaf that the egg is sitting on as well. 0:06:56.360 --> 0:06:57.000 While I'm at it. 0:06:57.160 --> 0:06:57.480 Uh huh. 0:06:57.920 --> 0:07:00.080 And they said, wow, I really like eating. Maybe I 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:02.120 should just keep eating for the rest of my life. 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:05.400 Yeah, each one suddenly turns into Augustus glop and just 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:06.560 keeps going from there. 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:08.080 That's exactly right. 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:11.240 So I said that at molts. Apparently it molts five 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:14.720 different times, and the reason why it molts is because 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:16.800 it eats so much it outgrows its skin. 0:07:17.480 --> 0:07:18.240 It's amazing. 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:21.440 It has a mechanism where it releases an enzyme. There's 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:23.880 a hormone that says, hey, you're getting a little your 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:26.200 clothes are getting a little tight. Maybe it's time to bolt. 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:30.080 And so that releases an enzyme that basically dissolves its 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:34.520 attachment to the exoskeleton. And then the new, bigger version 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:38.520 pops out of the old exoskeleton, walks away, and guess 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:41.679 what it does immediately after it starts eating again. 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:44.000 Yeah, it tries to outgrow that suit. 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:47.440 And it does that five times in its larval stage 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:48.360 as a caterpillar. 0:07:48.880 --> 0:07:51.360 Yeah, these molts are called in stars. Did you say. 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:55.400 That that's the period of its life between molts. 0:07:55.800 --> 0:07:59.600 Yeah, yeah, so five in stars and between molts. Like 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:01.760 you said, all it's doing is just eating, trying to 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:06.240 get a larger suit size. But here's another cool fact 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:11.000 is they believe that not only do caterpillars have a 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:15.480 memory that lasts like a molt or two, but they 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:20.040 even think there are researchers at Georgetown that have sort 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:22.840 of proven that. I'm not how you sort of prove something, 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:25.240 but they feel pretty good about the fact that they 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:28.920 think that a butterfly remembers being a caterpillar. 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:31.880 Yeah, they've done this at least one study that showed 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:35.000 that if they trained it to avoid certain smells as 0:08:35.240 --> 0:08:39.400 one of its last in stars, it will remember that 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:42.800 as an adult butterfly, that it will avoid those same smells. 0:08:43.200 --> 0:08:46.640 That's pretty cool because, as you'll see, what happens in 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:50.520 the chrysalis is so mind bending and nuts that the 0:08:50.600 --> 0:08:55.040 idea that it can remember anything is it's pretty pretty amazing. 0:08:55.679 --> 0:08:57.839 Oh yeah, for sure, I didn't even consider that. That 0:08:58.360 --> 0:08:59.920 is really hard to process. 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:03.440 So let's talk about the body. Like you said, it 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:07.960 has mouth parts very important because it eats, eats, eats, 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:12.280 and the rest of its body is essentially a storage 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:16.720 facility for that food that it eats and that it 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:20.199 breaks down and stores. Essentially is fat. They're very fatty. 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:21.280 Yeah. 0:09:21.360 --> 0:09:25.640 I get the idea that the inner body movement through 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:30.320 that body tube never stops. It's just a conveyor belt 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:33.199 almost of food coming in and poop leaving. 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:35.680 That's my impression too. 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:41.480 Yeah, the caterpillar is six legged. If you're like Pho Chuck. 0:09:41.800 --> 0:09:44.600 I've seen a caterpillar or two in my day, and 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:46.360 they have tons of little legs. 0:09:47.160 --> 0:09:48.920 Those are not real legs. 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:52.480 They only have six genuine legs, meaning that they have 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:56.200 segments and joints. The rest of those are called pro legs, 0:09:56.840 --> 0:09:58.840 and there are a lot of those, and they move 0:09:58.840 --> 0:10:01.880 all up the length of the abdomened the caterpillar, and 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:03.520 at the end of those little pro legs they have 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:07.600 little suction cups, little hooks. Basically, is it is it 0:10:07.600 --> 0:10:09.680 a crochette? Do you think I think crochet? 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:10.760 I'm going with crochet. 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:17.120 Yeah, they're called crouschettes. And the yachts a crack rocket. 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:22.480 Isn't that what those really fast motorcycles are called. Sure, okay, 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:25.360 I didn't know if that was, you know, a dirty 0:10:25.360 --> 0:10:26.040 thing to say or not. 0:10:26.360 --> 0:10:29.559 No, no, that's all over. It's like douchebag. It was 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:32.960 it one time, like not very nice, but now everybody 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:35.920 says it, so even PG. Thirteen Movies. 0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:38.760 Oh I thought you meant it was okay to say, yes, 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:39.640 you're a real douchebag. 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:42.920 Okay, Oh no, no, no, it's not. Still not, but 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:45.520 it's not like, you know, a horrid thing to say 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:46.200 like it used to. 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:48.480 I gotcha because someone called me one the other day 0:10:48.480 --> 0:10:49.800 in the car and I was like, oh, I thank you. 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:56.440 Did they really No? No, they don't have bones, of course, 0:10:56.480 --> 0:10:58.480 but they do have lots. They're very muscly. 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:01.640 If you compare them to a human, we have about 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:05.600 six hundred and twenty nine muscles. Caterpillars have four thousand muscles. 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:09.360 Because those muscles, that's the way they're moving, you know. 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:12.840 They move in a little wave from front to back, 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:15.679 front to back. Yes, front to back, back to front, 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:18.240 back to front. How did I mess that up? 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:20.160 Well, it depends on which the direction they're going. 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:23.079 I guess, well, I guess so, And they move in 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:25.360 a couple of ways. One of two ways is sometimes 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:28.199 they're crawling, which means they're moving all of those pro 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:32.000 legs and legs at the same time in sequence. Or 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:34.600 they do what it sounds like an inch worm does. 0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:34.920 Right. 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:38.640 Yeah, I don't know why they didn't identify them as inchorms, 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:40.599 but that's what they're talking about. They can move in 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:44.600 little arches where they bring their their front to their 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:47.719 back and their back together, making a mound. Out of 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:50.320 their middle their abdomen, and then they stretch the front 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:51.840 out and they bring the back up and then they 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:53.760 stretch the front up. That's what an inch worm does. 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:56.600 And that's basically one of two ways. The other way 0:11:57.000 --> 0:12:00.000 for a caterpillar to move, either as a wave under. 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:03.400 There's a lot of like really cool videos of caterpillars 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:05.040 moving or inching along. 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:08.720 Yeah, and I never looked close enough at an inch 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:12.640 worm to figure out why they move that way. And 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:15.160 I feel like a dummy now because it seems obvious 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:18.800 they move that way because their middle section doesn't have legs, right, 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:21.880 it's pretty The front pulls the back because those are 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:23.439 where the legs are, and the legs go, let me 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:23.920 catch up. 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:25.400 It's like a little cute accordion. 0:12:25.559 --> 0:12:28.160 And it's really neat to see. When you watch a 0:12:28.200 --> 0:12:31.520 close up of a centipeder, I keep wanting to say centipede, 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:35.920 but that's definitely a different animal. Caterpillars pro legs moving 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:39.640 as they they attach themselves. Like you said, they have 0:12:39.640 --> 0:12:42.480 a suction cup. They just attach themselves to like the 0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:45.960 branch or whatever that they're walking on. And if you 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:53.040 watch it and close enough detail, yes, excellent, Chuck, you 0:12:53.080 --> 0:12:55.760 can really see those suction cups working and it's pretty cool. 0:12:56.320 --> 0:12:56.920 It's awesome. 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:01.120 Most things on a caterpillar are small, obviouslycluding their little eyelets. 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:05.000 They have twelve of those are called stemata, and they 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:07.000 if you do look closely, though, it's really cool looking. 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:10.719 They have their arrange in a semi circle, sort of 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:12.360 wrapping around the head. 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:15.720 Like what's his name from Reading Rainbow but on Star 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:17.280 Trek the next generation. 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:18.880 Yeah, LeVar Burton. 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:23.040 Like his eyewear, Yes, yeah, that's what I said. It 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:24.920 would be on top of his head though, right, like 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:27.800 like a headband. I think is it more on the front? 0:13:27.840 --> 0:13:28.720 I thought it was more on top. 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:30.840 I thought it was on the front, but you could 0:13:30.840 --> 0:13:32.000 be right, it could be on top. 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:34.680 It's kind of hard to tell with the caterpillar head 0:13:34.840 --> 0:13:35.520 right exactly. 0:13:35.679 --> 0:13:37.800 You don't really know what's what. It's kind of like 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:39.920 a studio baker. You can't tell which way it's going, 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:47.200 right for our aged listeners love a good STUDI baker, Joe. 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:50.000 Yeah, there's one little guys like Damn Skippy. 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:54.880 Uh So those stamata they can identify light in darkness, 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:59.120 but caterpillars are are basically blind. They're for sure color blind, 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:01.559 and they just like I said, they can see sort 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:03.400 of light and dark and shadow and stuff like that, 0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:07.880 but they are not like they're not crawling around seeing things. 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:10.439 They're kind of feeling their way around with those antennae 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:14.600 that they have. But although those antennae only handle taste 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:16.320 and smell, so I don't even know why I said that. 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:19.760 So they also breathe in a really interesting way. They 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:22.360 breathe through spiracles, which are holes in the side of 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:26.120 the caterpillar, and they breathe in oxygen. It goes directly 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:29.320 to the trachea, and they breathe out carbon dioxide and 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:32.600 as they move, it's kind of like breathing in and 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:36.280 breathing out. That's like a byproduct of their movement, and 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:38.040 it all goes to that trichia, like I said, and 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:41.960 the trachia just diffuses it to the tissue throughout the body. 0:14:42.280 --> 0:14:45.440 They have blood. It's called hemolymph like most insects blood, 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:48.120 but it doesn't it's not used to transport oxygen. It 0:14:48.120 --> 0:14:51.680 transports things like hormones that trigger molting and things like that, 0:14:51.720 --> 0:14:54.520 but the oxygen just diffuses throughout the body. 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:57.840 Yeah, you know, an inch worm, it is like a 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:01.280 little accordion, And if you could figure out how to 0:15:01.320 --> 0:15:07.000 build and insert a tiny little like wooden reed in 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:10.560 each spiracle, that little thing might sound like an accordion 0:15:10.600 --> 0:15:11.040 as it moved. 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:13.920 That'd be pretty neat, kind of cruel to I imagine. 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:17.880 Yeah, I mean probably if you're sticking wood in the 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:21.200 tiny breathing holes of a caterpillar. I don't think it would. 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:21.840 Don't try that. 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:25.440 By the way, Chuck, did I tell you that caterpillar 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:29.960 is from the old French chateapellos, which means shaggy cat. 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:33.760 Oh, like the actor Timothy Chatapellos? Is that you know 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:35.080 that's Timothy Shallomey? 0:15:35.120 --> 0:15:39.200 Sorry, right, Yeah, Timothy. Shaggy cat would be that name. 0:15:39.280 --> 0:15:40.520 Kind of looks like a shaggy cat. 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:43.360 But apparently they think it was the the is it 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:48.760 the wooly bully caterpillar that? Yeah, they think that that 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:51.520 was the original shaggy cat and it's just kind of 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:54.000 caught on from there, But that's where caterpillar comes from. 0:15:54.520 --> 0:15:57.840 Yeah, And speaking of wily bully, you notice on caterpillars 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:01.080 a lot of times those little hairs or little quills 0:16:01.120 --> 0:16:04.800 or spines those are called Oh man, we've even had 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:06.680 scientists tell us how to pronounce that ae. 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:08.280 Is it? Stay? 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:10.160 That's what I think it is. 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:13.640 Yeah, it's either that or we've been getting it wrong. 0:16:13.680 --> 0:16:14.320 I can't remember. 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:16.920 But everyone is like in science guys, anytimes it's AE, 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:21.160 you pronounce the blank and I can't remember which one 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:25.440 it is. Oh, it's either set or SETAE. And now 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:27.360 we're gonna get more emails. And maybe I should just 0:16:27.400 --> 0:16:29.240 put a sticky note on my laptop so i'll always 0:16:29.280 --> 0:16:32.160 remember that. But that's what they're called, and they have 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:35.960 a lot of functions. They can deter things that want 0:16:36.000 --> 0:16:39.200 to eat caterpillars because a lot of times these things 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:42.480 carry little irritants and toxins. And you just put a 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:44.880 pin in that for our very final segment at the end. 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:52.000 But like you said, yeah, but you can get, you know, 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:55.000 little little irritated bumps sometimes if you handle the wrong caterpillar. 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:57.000 Oh yeah, and you shouldn't handle a category get much 0:16:57.000 --> 0:17:00.000 worse than that too. Yeah, if you've ever touched the caterpillar, 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:02.560 That's why I was referring too earlier, Like as a kid, 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:05.400 I remember touching one and just being like, oh my god, 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:09.720 what what just happened? And it hurt very badly, I 0:17:09.760 --> 0:17:13.000 remember distinctly, but I still love caterpillars after that. 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:17.879 I remember there was one kind and someone will know 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:20.200 what kind ofness is, but I think it was sort 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:24.920 of yellow and black, and we would, you know, put 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:27.959 our finger on the ground and the caterpillar would crawl 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:31.439 up our hand and then we would like get a 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:33.880 leaf and have it crawl off. So I don't think 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:35.719 we harmed the caterpillar. We were just sitting it kind 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:37.879 of crawl on us for a minute. But and I 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:40.160 wasn't touching the spine, so I never got that irritation. 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:43.239 But I used to love doing that, and I just 0:17:43.280 --> 0:17:46.760 thought that was so cool that they I guess now 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:49.480 knowing that they're blind, that there's like crawling on a stick, 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:51.600 and it's like, now I'm crawling on a finger. 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:53.920 Right, Yeah that's cute. 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:56.000 But yeah, you wouldn't stick like kid fingers. 0:17:56.000 --> 0:17:58.639 You wouldn't have been touching the hair like structures, so 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:00.320 it wouldn't have stung you. It's not like I don't 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:02.359 think it's an active process. I think it's a passive 0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:04.639 thing where you just touch it and they're not like 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:07.399 die die die. It's just like, right, you just touched 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:10.240 it and it did its Thingah. 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:11.520 Yeah, I get the feeling. 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:14.480 The caterpillars even like, sorry, man, and you know it 0:18:14.520 --> 0:18:16.280 shouldn't touch me, but sorry. 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:19.560 Most caterpillars seem rather chill, but not all of them are. 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:22.680 I was not happy to find this out. I find 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:27.800 this rather unpleasant. But there's some species of caterpillars in 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:32.119 Hawaii that are actually carnivores. Far and away, most species 0:18:32.160 --> 0:18:38.280 of caterpillars, and hence butterflies are are herbivores. They just 0:18:38.400 --> 0:18:41.800 eat leaves, That's what they do. They eat leaves and shoots. Wait, 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:47.719 eat shoots and leaves. So there's the ones in Hawaii, though, 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:51.640 they'll eat snails. And not only do they eat snails, 0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:55.439 it's really awful. They tie the snails to, say, like 0:18:55.480 --> 0:18:57.960 a twig or a leaf or something, using spinnerets. They 0:18:58.040 --> 0:19:01.600 have silk producing organs, and they'll tie the snail, the 0:19:01.600 --> 0:19:03.840 whole shell and all to like a twig so the 0:19:03.880 --> 0:19:06.080 snail can't get away, and then they climb into the 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:08.080 shell and eat the snail alive. 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:10.360 It is horrifying. 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:13.199 I don't like that particular kind of caterpillar, but I 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:14.000 like all the rest. 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:17.240 Yeah, they tie it down and eat it. 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:20.320 So awful. Imagine it just coming into your house too, 0:19:20.359 --> 0:19:22.560 and you're like, please know, and you have no escape. 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:23.960 And that's that. 0:19:24.840 --> 0:19:28.000 Yeah, it was pretty horrifying to read that and frankly disappointing. 0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:35.880 But there's also a brand, a brand in Australia brand Hey. 0:19:36.440 --> 0:19:38.240 They lay their eggs and ant hills and when they 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:40.959 come out, they will eat those ants. But aside from that, 0:19:41.000 --> 0:19:45.600 in the Hawaiian they, like you said, are strictly herbivores 0:19:46.840 --> 0:19:50.360 and they are using those leaves also to camouflage themselves. 0:19:51.600 --> 0:19:54.480 They have a lot of great mechanisms to keep this 0:19:54.640 --> 0:19:58.040 not quite octopus level, but they seem like they're you know, 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:00.160 I don't know if it's wrong to use words smart, 0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:04.160 but they know to feed under leaves so birds can't 0:20:04.160 --> 0:20:09.240 see them. They also have some natural camouflage, like sometimes 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:13.000 those eyes can look like the fake eyes can look 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:13.560 like snakes. 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:14.480 Did you see that one? 0:20:15.160 --> 0:20:16.359 Yeah, it looks like a snake. 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:19.280 Yeah, it looks like a bright green snake. And apparently 0:20:19.320 --> 0:20:22.240 they'll arrange themselves sometimes to make it look like a 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:26.119 long snake, Like three hundred caterpillars will get together and 0:20:26.200 --> 0:20:28.399 line up and it's like Wow, there's a snake. No, 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:30.200