Hey Thoughty2 here. The humble caterpillar is one of the most
mind-shatteringly incredulous creatures on planet Earth. There’s so much more to this chubby worm
than meets the eye. If there was a prize for the animal most likely
to be a Pokemon, then this suave fella would take gold, because it evolves not once but
twice. First from a larva to a caterpillar then finally
into a beautiful butterfly. Actually, it’s so alike a Pokemon it already
is one. But how does a living, organic thing metamorphosise
so consistently and so perfectly into a completely different creature, of an entirely different
shape and size? You may be either grossed out when I tell
you this, or totally amazed… but inside the chrysalis the caterpillar completely liquidises,
turning into a mush of gooey proteins and fibres, as it slowly reforms into a butterfly
over 10 days. We’ll talk about metamorphosis more later
but first, let’s start from the beginning of this incredible insect’s life-cycle. Because this amazing insect has so many secrets
up its sleeve, or wings, that you’re not going to want to miss any of it. A female butterfly will find a nice looking
tree and lay its tiny eggs on the underside of the tree’s leaves, each egg contains
a tiny, tiny caterpillar lava. But the mother is extremely picky about which
plant gets to play host to her eggs, each different species of butterfly uses a different
species of plant and only that species of plant to lay its eggs upon. This is all made a thousand times more complicated
when you consider that there are over 20,000 species of butterfly in the world. The egg is the size of a pinhead and the mother
will lay 500 eggs at a time. It then takes just four days for the egg to
hatch, by this point the lava is freaking starving so it eats its way out of its own
egg then eats the rest of the eggshell, as well as the entire leaf its on and it will
probably have a good go at the leaf next to it aswell. This first meal is dangerous because the various
sticky residues found inside some species of leaves can cause the caterpillar lava’s
mouth to gum up. Many caterpillars die from this. If it survives the great feast, then all this
sustenance gives the greedy little fella energy to grow into several times its size. It will then take a break to shed its first
layer of skin. The caterpillar will then spend the next week
eating leaves and growing into a full-sized caterpillar. Once fully-grown this ravenous tyrant can
eat a full leaf in under an hour. Once the caterpillar has gotten all nice and
fat it prepares for the big change. It finds a nice quiet spot underneath a branch
and spins itself a silk button to attach itself to the underside of the branch. Other species get even fancier and spin a
fine silk harness that they then sit inside. Now begins the magic trick – it’s commonly
thought that the caterpillar now makes its chrysalis, also known as a pupa, but not a
cocoon, that’s something else. But it in fact grows this hardened shell underneath
its top layer of skin in the week leading up to its metamorphosis. So when the time comes, all it has to do is
shed its top layer of skin and its protective pupa is all ready, for the transformation
to begin. But the caterpillar has another magic trick
up its sleeve. To disguise itself from predators, the pupa
will change its colour to exactly match that of whatever is behind it. And so the transformation begins, taking roughly
two weeks to turn from a furry slug into a beautiful, winged insect. But if you were able to see inside the pupa
whilst this is taking place, you might be rather horrified. The transformation begins with the caterpillar
releasing digestive enzymes to eat itself alive; effectively turning itself into a soup. Yuck. If you were to cut open a pupa at the right
time during metamorphosis, a goo would ooze out. But this magic goo contains everything needed
to create a butterfly, and that is rather incredible. But not every cell liquefies. Certain groups of highly organized cells remain
as solids within the soup. Over the course of two weeks this caterpillar
curry slowly turns into a butterfly broth and then into an actual butterfly, all from
a gooey liquid. It’s such an incredible phenomenon that
scientists still aren’t quite sure how this liquid organizes itself into a butterfly. What’s so amazing about all of this is that
everything about the creature changes during the transformation, its shape, its taste,
how it eats, how it moves and how it senses – yet the butterfly is still able to remember
its life as a caterpillar. You would think that your brain being turned
into a soup then reshaped into an entirely new brain would erase all of your memories. But a recent study showed that butterflies
were able to remember the solution to a puzzle that they were taught how to solve, when they
were a caterpillar. Meaning some of the synaptic connections in
the caterpillar’s brain survive the soupification. Making the humble caterpillar one of the true
wonders of the natural world. Thanks for watching.
And if you remove some of that liquid, the end result is a smaller but perfectly proportioned butterfly!
i wonder if they even know?? like, "i don't know what i'm doing but i'm gonna be beautiful!"
It still really confuses me as to how this happens. Do we even know that? Like what is that soupy liquid? Aren't memories stored in the brain, and how can it be in brain liquid? How weird would it be to literally wake up in a totally 100% different body.
But is it still hungry?
Anyone else ever wonder what soupy liquid tastes like?
No?
Just me then?
Mmmm, a soupy pupa state
I do the same thing with a bottle of Jack Daniels
Every time I read this I have to wonder about the first person to figure this out. They would have had to open that thing up expecting a half-butterfly hybrid but instead, surprise soup.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FAUnDDTz30k