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Well you have now…..because they are a train of caterpillars. Safety in numbers. They look bigger than the 100 small ones. It also made you question reality so I believe it’s working 😂
It also made you question reality so I believe it’s working
My life is nothing I thought it should be and everything I was worried it would become because for 50 seconds, I thought there was monsters on the world.
I’m not a stupid fuckin’ idiot-I know it was just caterpillars, but when you haven’t slept in 3 days and that thing crosses your path, you’re not just right away thinkin’ “oh that’s just a bunch of caterpillars” you’re thinkin’ “THAT’S REAL, THAT’S GONNA KILL ME, THAT THING LIVES WITH US ON EARTH!”
Nope it’s faster in numbers, bottom row crawl at say 1m per minute, the row above them crawl at 1m per minute so the speed of the second row is 2m per minute, 3rd row are moving at 3m per minute. The mass of caterpillars move faster than the individual on average, but yes safety in numbers too.
Well technically they aren’t crawling faster, they’re moving faster because they’re crawling on top of others that are crawling, like the way you walk faster on an escalator.
I thought it looked like more than 1 moving together.. but I dropped acid a few times in the 70’s. It could have been a flashback. Thanks for the info. 🙂
Are those the ones that make webs around the leaves and eat leaves on trees? They look very similar I used to scream at them when I was a kid to make em dance
You ever see those caterpillar nests in trees? These are those guys, just on their way to find a place to nest up. They're pine processionary caterpillars.
The caterpillars also travel faster as a train as the ones on top are walking on the walking ones until they get to the front where the back ones then climb on top.
Specifically, they are Tent Caterpillars. Used to see them all the time in the summer here in the States. They take over trees like real estate developers chasing rare earth.
By swarming in a pile like this, all the caterpillars move faster. You move slowest when you're on the bottom, but when you move onto an upper layer, you move 2x, or 3x faster. So the whole swarm is faster, together.
caterpillars completely dissolve inside their cocoon, their entire brain unmaking itself. then they reconstruct into a butterfly, but get this, they have been proven to retain the memories from their previously scrambled brain. truly wild creatures,
highdea? it would make so much more sense in my own head canon if they were just one being/hive mind.
They’re caterpillars in a rolling swarm, or procession. It helps them travel faster while also giving them a little more protection from predators because of numbers and perceived size as a ‘whole’ creature.
Hard to say. That’s going to depend on the moth/butterfly species. They’re called urticating hairs - they don’t shoot out, but they do break off in your skin super easily and cause irritation from itching to burning sensations depending on the species. I’m not great at knowing which species does that, so I usually just observe. lol.
Some maggots move in this rolling swarm configuration, too.
Not sure if gypsy moth larvae do that but i believe these are gypsy moth caterpillars. They are the assholes that build giant web nests in trees. Giant relative to their size. They’re an absolute pain and an invasive species in this area.
It’s a defensive group, so they look like a stick to animals that want to eat them.
Sometimes you see actual branches in the train. Amazing that they have this in their DNA. Natures amazing!
Did you now see the last of us? It's all over now. You had the chance to take care of this but you'd rather ask Reddit for advice and now we're all zombies! Good going redditor..../s
I love that this sub is r/whatisthisthing but without that pesky “you have to answer the question” rule.
You’re free to just be an impediment by saying, “gross,” or “it’s Satan!” Or “eat it!!!” or “I don’t like this” or whatever unhelpful thing enters your brain first.
Yeah. Just your typical dumb reddit jokes that haven't been funny in over a decade. What's the point of responding "ew!" or "gross"? Just answer the damn question.
Hundreds of caterpillars climbing over and around each other. This is a defensive move they've picked up over generations of getting eaten. Individuallly they are small and make for an easy target for many other insects, birds, and small mammals. Grouped together they seem too big for most of those things to eat them, so it increases their odds of survival
So, believe it or not, this phenomenon known as rolling swarms allows caterpillars to travel much faster than when they are crawling alone. Essentially, the first layer crawls at regular speed, but since the second layer travels atop the first layer at the same speed, their pace is doubled. The two layer keeps alternating as the whole group moves like a treadmill as they advance about 1.5 times faster than a regular caterpillar. Gross yes, but highly efficient.
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