good morning John it's Friday you know
how caterpillars become butterflies well
that is a lot any given caterpillar you
spot honking its way down the sidewalk
there's a 90% chance that that fresh
little wiggler is incapable of becoming
a butterfly and instead it will become a
moth and John loss no my god they're so
good what precisely is a moth you ask
well here's where it gets a little bit
messed up because butterflies are a
thing they're like all they have a
single common ancestor moths are just
anything that's not a butterfly any
scale winged thing that isn't a
butterfly moth is it more closely
related to some butterflies than it is
to some moths doesn't matter moth and
talk about a branding problem right
butterfly is this beautiful word it
spoon arises to flutter by and then moth
it sounds like the noise you make when a
moth flies into your mouth but moths
mouths mouths moths moths we're stuck
with the name let's just look at these
beautiful creatures and what I want to
talk to you about today is mostly the
Regal moth why because of its
caterpillar the Hickory Horned devil
which looks like this you will never
forget this caterpillar or probably its
name because it has got brand power
brand too strong
now there are other horned Devils out
there this is the largest of the Horned
Devils it's from South America but the
Hickory with its blue body and it's red
horns why does it look this way
well because it's basically a hot dog
with legs it's very good eating it looks
fierce but it's not it can't sting it
can't bite it's not venomous it's not
poisonous but it's too big to hide from
raccoons and possums so it's got to make
those fuzzy folk worry about their noses
and toesies before grabbing on and
taking a bite but lots of caterpillars
don't become gigantic food bags in fact
the Hickory Horned devil is the largest
caterpillar in the US so why if it's so
big because the Hickory Horned devil has
to consume massive amounts of food
because Saturnian moths which is this is
one of it's like authorities of these
guys do not have mouths once they become
moths once this attorney and Caterpillar
puke
it will never eat again and so these
caterpillars eat two to three times
their own body weight in leaves every
day growing in size over a thousand
times in the course of a month they
don't even digest the cellulose of these
plants instead they basically juice the
leaves in their guts this time-lapse
footage by the way is from John the
butterfly farmer and his channel is
amazing there will be a link in the end
screen and description males emerge from
their chrysalis they fly sometimes for
miles trying to sniff out a female with
their extremely sensitive feathery
antennae their job is to locate the
female because the females job is to use
all of its energy creating hundreds of
very large eggs female regal moth does
not fly until it mates and if it does
not mate it never flies it just dies
waiting they have to mate and lay their
eggs within the seven days they have to
live in their adult forms the strategy
of Regal moths and other Saturn ID is
that the moth phase exists only for
meeting and breeding and to pull that
off the caterpillar needs to be
successful in storing fats and proteins
before it pupate and so it has to get
big and full of nutrients which makes it
a perfect snack so it has to look
ridiculously fierce pretty much anything
would see this juicy boy and think that
is not worth the risk which is also how
most people feel about them even though
they are completely harmless
still be nice because they are a marvel
even if they are a little terrifying
John I'll see you on Tuesday the bizarre
bees pin Club was so successful that
this month and this is the only time
we'll do this we're actually going to
give you two pins both the caterpillar
and the moth thank you to everybody who
signed up and thanks both to the
butterfly farmer and to Bart for letting
me use their moth footage both channels
are linked here