elephant hawk moth caterpillar swimming

mad. a caterpillar that can swim. if you designed it to swim, you probably wouldnt have thought of this method of propulsion - thats the wonder of evolution. the elephant hawkmoth larvae often eats waterside plants like bogbean and willowherbs, so this is a useful ability. its also got very water repellent skin. now there really is everything on youtube !

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• moth
• insect
• butterfly
• bug
• caterpillar
• hawkmoth

[freedomchaser2402]

more like drowning lol still its cool to see how natures survival instinct kicks in and makes it do something unnatural such as swimming

[andy765gtr]

@freedomchaser2402 hi. rather than being 'thought up' by this individual insect, the set of movements evolved over millions of years because the insect lives on river banks and often falls in water. a random caterpillar would not be able to 'think' of a swimming technique to save itself. it will drift aimlessly. this caterpillar can propel itself directionally and i expect it aims for the darkest direction it can sense with its simple eyes, ie the riverbank

[freedomchaser2402]

@freedomchaser2402 but anyway, its a cool vid. elephant hawk moths are my fave caterpillar. and as i found out today when the adult form crawled out its pupa, the moth is also very beautiful and psychedelic.

peace x

[andy765gtr]

@freedomchaser2402 they are great arnt they. other hawkmoths are pretty cool too. i have about 150 elephant hm pupae and some other species hatching soon. i agree most caterpillars could survive a spell in water, these have just elaborated - through evolution -of course (what else lol). the reason i posted the vid is its such a weird swimming solution, nothing like its normal locomotion. with no tail or propulsive legs it would have to be odd i suppose.

[freedomchaser2402]

@andy765gtr what other species do u have? i havent had any luck finding them. wish we had hickory horned devils here in uk cause thats a mean looking caterpillar lol. all my elephant hawk moths have now hatched (though i thought it was a bit early) how are yours doing?

[andy765gtr]

@freedomchaser2402 i also have lots of privet, eyed, lime hawkmoth pupa waiting to hatch as well as emperor moths that have hatched and laid eggs already (hope to colonize them in my location). they are the only ones of mine to hatch so far. your elephant hm were very early, they usually hatch late may or june. its 'internal timer' regulated more than temp related, so i wonder what happened.

i had hickory horned devil caterpillars a few yrs ago. stunning larvae. my favs are atlas moths though

[freedomchaser2402]

@andy765gtr they dont necessarily live on river banks. i found a whole bunch of these on willow herb. the caterpillar isnt designed to swim, but through evolution it would be the ones who survived their falls into water that go on to reproduce. i didnt imply the catterpillar was 'thinking'. i clearly said survival instinct. which is what is happening. you will find that most insects have evolved a way to momentarily survive a fall in water. most trap a bubble of air near tracheae or book lung

[bjornwad]

Weird swimming technique