The Truth About Butterfly Metamorphosis (It's VERY WEIRD)

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  • Опубліковано 10 січ 2025

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  • @johncao6516
    @johncao6516 Рік тому +1011

    Small correction towards the end: flies don't do the metamorphosis IN rotten meat or poo, they tend to stop eating and craw away from food to pupate (otherwise the adult will immediately drown as soon as they eclose). I worked with both fruit flies and blow flies in the past and you always find the pupae far away from the food.

    • @pierreabbat6157
      @pierreabbat6157 Рік тому +49

      Also, cicadas are bugs; they don't turn into pupae.

    • @divingstag
      @divingstag Рік тому +43

      @@pierreabbat6157 Neither do cockroaches shown at 3:08

    • @patrickcoin9457
      @patrickcoin9457 Рік тому +61

      And another quibble, moths (11:20) do have a pupal skin--the silk cocoon is an additional layer over that. Also a few groups of moth do not make a cocoon--they just have a chrysalis.

    • @patrickcoin9457
      @patrickcoin9457 Рік тому +44

      @@pierreabbat6157 Right, at 11:43 he says "beetles and cicadas do it too, often buried in the ground". Beetles have complete metamorphosis like Lepidoptera, but not cicadas--they have gradual metamorphosis. Great video though, explaining a lot in a short format with excellent graphics.

    • @76rjackson
      @76rjackson Рік тому +7

      Learned a cool new word today: eclose. Sounds poetic except it's about bugs. I only know one poem about a bug:
      The lord in his wisdom made the fly
      And then forgot the reason why.
      Ogden Nash
      He never realized how cool bugs are, I suppose. I understand because I dislike the vermin very much, too, myself.

  • @jimmytaco6738
    @jimmytaco6738 Рік тому +788

    Preschool teacher: And from within the fat little caterpillar burst a writhing mass of wasp larvae that ate the caterpillar from the inside out and grew up and laid their eggs inside more caterpillars!

    • @besmart
      @besmart  Рік тому +222

      I'd read that book

    • @Cdubb1967
      @Cdubb1967 Рік тому +108

      I actually had that occur with a Yellow Swallowtail caterpillar I pulled off my Dill plant years ago. Instead of a regular Crysalis forming after the caterpillar attached it self, it turned black and it's mouthparts fell off. It was the first time I had collected that type, so I was not sure if this was normal or not. I waited and was very shocked to later find a very large wasp in the jar. It was pretty scary opening the jar and releasing it.

    • @kearstinnekenerson6676
      @kearstinnekenerson6676 Рік тому +18

      That sounds like a fun book is there other type of parasitic children

    • @raraavis7782
      @raraavis7782 Рік тому +23

      Isn't nature magical?

    • @Ender240sxS13
      @Ender240sxS13 Рік тому +32

      ​@@kearstinnekenerson6676so so many, the insect kingdom has all kinds of horrors. Some birds even do a similar thing with their young, they lay their eggs in other species nests and push out or break as many of the host species eggs as they can when they do it, and just leave their eggs there for the host species to raise.

  • @rickseiden1
    @rickseiden1 Рік тому +2479

    Could you imagine if humans did this? "I'm sorry, but Johnny can't come to school today. He's locked himself in his room, and isn't coming out for the next two weeks." "That's exciting, Mr. Smith. I'm sure your whole family is very proud. Please remember that when he does emerge, he will be expected to make up the work."

    • @garvgupta3567
      @garvgupta3567 Рік тому +97

      I laughed so loud while reading this lol

    • @raraavis7782
      @raraavis7782 Рік тому +123

      If only puberty actually worked like this 😂

    • @vashsunglasses
      @vashsunglasses Рік тому +172

      @@raraavis7782 It isn't really puberty, it's more like if humans gave birth to 5 month old fetuses and then those fetuses foraged for food for few months then created their own womb to finish maturing into a baby.

    • @oracleofdelphi4533
      @oracleofdelphi4533 Рік тому +73

      I would argue that humans are more amazing. It doesn't seem so as we are just more familiar.
      Butterfly: "Watch me metamorphosize"
      Human: "Watch me create a noise with my armpit"

    • @jaydflay4809
      @jaydflay4809 Рік тому +15

      Getting COVID being like:

  • @mycosys
    @mycosys Рік тому +715

    I feel like one factor for metamorphosis is energy - the amount of energy required in the egg to create a pupal stage vs a more complex adult. The pupal stage means the mother can expend a LOT less energy and instead make hundreds or thousands of eggs that then acquire their own energy. But im an engineer - its always energy XD

    • @marksando3082
      @marksando3082 Рік тому +47

      Lots of organisms have reproductive strategies that involve producing many eggs instead of investing more intensely in a smaller number of young, but also don't involve metamorphosis. How is metamorphosis specifically and separately from producing lots of eggs saving the parents energy?

    • @TheMunchkinita2509
      @TheMunchkinita2509 Рік тому +62

      Energy plays a HUGE part in every animal's biology, so you're not far off by thinking of it that way

    • @terryarmbruster9719
      @terryarmbruster9719 Рік тому +17

      @@marksando3082 it isnt. Nonetheless its still engineering as the field also covers costs. The amount of energy invested per egg is small so total energy invested by mother gives many eggs. Engineering considers business factors too. Since there are many competitors odds of survivability are small per unit but produce volume enough .... Lol you get the idea now

    • @mycosys
      @mycosys Рік тому +33

      @@marksando3082 clearly metamorphosis isnt the only way to have many eggs, but it seems an efficient strategy to do so. Obviously there is more than one factor to why most of the world's animals use it.

    • @catherine_404
      @catherine_404 Рік тому +10

      It's mostly about organisms at different stages of development not competing for same resources.

  • @Beryllahawk
    @Beryllahawk Рік тому +101

    As a matter of fact, no we didn't raise any butterflies in school. HOWEVER. The school I attended for 3rd grade and 5th grade (don't ask, Midland Texas has WEIRD school district lines) had a "caterpillar problem." Every year in spring there would be absolute hordes of itty slightly fuzzy pale green caterpillars, all over the ornamental plantings but also all over the walls!! A lot of the kids were freaked out by them but I was always fascinated since I knew they weren't going to bite or sting me, and finally one day in 5th grade, I caught one of the caterpillars and very carefully brought it home with me. My mother did not flip her lid, and instead gave me a glass jar to put the creature into, and told me to go outside and pick three stems off the ornamental bushes in the apartment complex, but ONLY the ones that looked just like the bushes at the school. (At that age I already knew my mother was smart, never even questioned it, ha)
    She fixed up the jar so that the caterpillar couldn't easily crawl out, and we gave it its food and it was chill! I would get it onto my finger for a few moments every day just because I could, and I'd bring home a new stem every day with more leaves. Then - the weekend. Saturday morning - and my caterpillar had vanished!!! I looked high and low (well, as "high" as a nine year old can look) and couldn't find it. Very sad. But SUNDAY morning I saw the pupa!! The caterpillar had managed to get out of the jar and made its little sack of magic on the curtain.
    Few days later - and there was a moth!!! A beautiful white moth with vivid tiger-orange on the inside of the wings. And though I know now as an adult that bugs don't exactly bond with anything or anybody, it seemed to me like the moth remembered me, and it flew over and landed on my shirt and just kinda sat there like "Welp. Outside now, please."
    So of course I took it outside, set it carefully on a bush, and watched it fly off to do whatever moths do. And at the school? Dozens and dozens of white-and-orange moths on Monday! So many! The grownups were all super annoyed but to me it was pure magic.
    To this day I have no bloody idea what kind of moth it was though. I've never found ANY picture that looks like my moth pal.

    • @erinm9445
      @erinm9445 Рік тому +11

      Wow, what a great story! Now I really want to know what kind of moths they were, but I did just go down a little google images binge looking at all of the different moths with white and orange wings. There are so many beautiful kinds! As for a moth bonding with you, I wouldn't rule it out! There's good science showing that adult insects retain memories from when they were in their larval stage, and there is also increasing evidence that insects have emotions! If nothing else, it sounds like the moth knew you were trustworthy!

    • @Beryllahawk
      @Beryllahawk Рік тому +8

      @@erinm9445 There ARE so many pretty moths with those colorations! I've gone down that image path a few times too hehe, it's never disappointing.

    • @giftofthewild6665
      @giftofthewild6665 6 місяців тому +6

      Cool story, I would have loved to have raised moths as a child but my parents were squicked out by bugs lol. I really wanted an ant farm and wasn't allowed one 😂
      By the way, they've done studies that show that memories made as a caterpillar do get retained as a butterfly / moth. So it's possible your moth friend did in fact remember you in some way.

    • @joeybru
      @joeybru 6 місяців тому

      @@erinm9445😊 ❤❤❤

    • @feeberizer
      @feeberizer 5 місяців тому +3

      Oh, wow! What a special event to witness up close and personal thanks to your mom. I bet you had other fun adventures with her over the years.

  • @ketsuekikumori9145
    @ketsuekikumori9145 Рік тому +107

    If you keep in mind that during the chrysalis stage that hard shell on the outside was once the exoskeleton of the caterpillar before metamorphosis, it makes sense that it has protowings and such.

  • @OlleLindestad
    @OlleLindestad Рік тому +167

    Big and important correction: moths don't spin a silk cocoon INSTEAD OF becoming a hard-skinned pupa; they do it BEFORE becoming a pupa. Cut open a moth cocoon, and there's a pupa inside it.
    Also, cicadas are mentioned in the same breath as beetles, but cicadas don't have a pupal stage; they're hemimetabolous. They go straight from nymph to adult.

  • @MrLeafeater
    @MrLeafeater Рік тому +222

    When I finish writing/illustrating "The Very Hungry Maggot", I'll expect you to review/endorse it. Love your work.

    • @garethdean6382
      @garethdean6382 Рік тому +3

      I believe Gary Larson already tried that.

    • @richmcgee434
      @richmcgee434 Рік тому +9

      That's been done repeatedly. There's a book called Brainboy and Bob in The very Hungry Maggot, another one called the Moderately Hungry Maggot, and a variety of "Very Hungry Maggot" merch, my favorite of which use a human skull and maggot in a parody of the Hungry Caterpillar cover.

    • @whoisWAZz
      @whoisWAZz Рік тому +3

      Username checks out

  • @kienesel7
    @kienesel7 Рік тому +89

    I’m genuinely surprised the chrysalis is inside the caterpillar and they just reveal it. Somehow more disturbing.

  • @Tser
    @Tser Рік тому +148

    My sibling worked at a neurology department in their moth lab. They used the metamorphosis of sphinx moths to study neural development!

    • @risooo2274
      @risooo2274 Рік тому +9

      this is sooo niche omg ur sibling has a very cool job

    • @pyro-millie5533
      @pyro-millie5533 Рік тому +5

      Dude that’s so metal whoaa

    • @VoidTempests
      @VoidTempests Рік тому +3

      Sounds really awesome, do you remember which lab it was?

    • @Tser
      @Tser Рік тому +4

      @@VoidTempests OHSU!

    • @mapples007
      @mapples007 Рік тому +4

      Moths are better than many people.

  • @diyeana
    @diyeana Рік тому +118

    You've brought back a memory from my 5 yr old self where I squished a cocoon to see what it was all about. I buried the pulp and cried.

    • @oxylepy2
      @oxylepy2 6 місяців тому +8

      It had no mouth, but it had to scream.

    • @Jroc3578
      @Jroc3578 6 місяців тому +23

      You're a good person. No sarcasm. Sense of responsibility and regret and morality to bury a blob and cry for a little creature that never was.

    • @tinyhouseranch
      @tinyhouseranch 6 місяців тому +7

      @@Jroc3578precisely 😢

    • @citrusfruit4332
      @citrusfruit4332 3 місяці тому

      @@Jroc3578idk this is kinda poetic and beautiful somehow. The human condition explained

  • @arisis6709
    @arisis6709 Рік тому +169

    I have a fear of butterflies and am trying to reduce it gradually by exposing myself (virtually) and learning about them. This was really cool to watch :)

    • @Ziorac
      @Ziorac Рік тому +18

      ...Not sure this video is gonna make your fear go away though.😅

    • @TheMunchkinita2509
      @TheMunchkinita2509 Рік тому +12

      I do the same with spiders! However, I can still only do it with pics or videos. Irl I wanna die 😅😅

    • @Splarkszter
      @Splarkszter Рік тому

      Butterflies do nothing, is from wasps that you have to fear.

    • @ForestFire369
      @ForestFire369 Рік тому +11

      Do you know where that fear originated? I've never heard of someone being afraid of butterflies before & I'm really curious. Sorry if that's a weird thing to ask lol

    • @EmilySmirleGURPS
      @EmilySmirleGURPS Рік тому +14

      @@ForestFire369 I've seen it before. Sometimes as part of a larger fear of insects, but sometimes just independent "creepy flappy thing eugh" horrors. Not me, I get the horrors about slugs instead - I'm OK with pictures and video but I am NOT getting near one. Calvin said it best: "Living booger"

  • @littlerave86
    @littlerave86 Рік тому +22

    Couple years ago I had a cabbage white in my living room and let it out. More than half a year later I found its crysalis hidden behind the door inside of my fridge, where it apparently ended up as caterpillar with the groceries. Despite the cold, it pupated and eventually hatched. I also found another one next to it, which didn't hatch yet, I could feel it bobbing around carefully shaking the crysalis. I assumed it dead, took both crysalises out and ordered some resin, colours and tools to make fake amber earrings with the crysalises inside. After a week of lying on a table in the warm living room, while I was waiting for the supplies, the 2nd one miraculously did hatch as well. I guess the cool environment inside the fridge basically told it to lay dormant and wait for spring before hatching, which then it did. I was amazed.

    • @erinm9445
      @erinm9445 Рік тому +3

      I also found mystery cabbage moths in my living room one day. Or rather, one one day, and another a few days later. I don't know why it never occured to me that they must have pupated right in my house! (I don't recall finding the chrysalis later, but who knows, it was quite a while ago now). Neat story!

    • @analizaperez7332
      @analizaperez7332 5 місяців тому

      That is amazing😮

  • @ntt2k
    @ntt2k Рік тому +216

    "This isn't kids book stuff, this is more like Silence of the Lambs." I wonder how Joe teaches his kids about the facts of life😂

    • @garethdean6382
      @garethdean6382 Рік тому +33

      "Now bedbugs, BEDBUGS do something called 'traumatic insemination', are you paying attention?"

  • @RJ_Ehlert
    @RJ_Ehlert Рік тому +209

    Imagine parents consuming all the resources in an ecosystem and blaming the children for not having enough.

  • @LeoAngora
    @LeoAngora Рік тому +56

    It seems to me that caterpillars are just a second stage of embryonic development, but external and more autonomous. Since the egg does not have enough nutrients, they must eat to continue their development. Once they secure enough food, the final transformation is done.

    • @vashsunglasses
      @vashsunglasses Рік тому +6

      Yep, that's exactly it.

    • @OlleLindestad
      @OlleLindestad Рік тому +13

      This is, in fact, a decent summary of the prevailing model for how holometabolous development evolved. The pupal stage is believed to correspond to the nymph stage in non-metamorphosing insects like grasshoppers, while the larval stage is thought to correspond to a kind of mobile late-stage embryo called a pronymph.

    • @toolbaggers
      @toolbaggers Рік тому +1

      What's even weirder is the life cycle of the malaria parasite.

    • @erinm9445
      @erinm9445 Рік тому +4

      That's exactly how I think about it. Kinda reminds me of how a lot of people call the first three months of a human baby's life the fourth trimester, the final trimester of development that happens outside the womb, before they really start becoming interactivec and learning how to human.

    • @youngspaghettii
      @youngspaghettii 11 місяців тому +4

      ​@erinm9445 the reason for this on humans is our huge heads. If babies were brought to "full term" based on mammal biology their heads would kill the mother almost 100% of the time (before modern medicine obviously). Most other mammals can at least walk and see when they are born (as with horses) or at most take 3 or so weeks before they can (as with dogs and mice)

  • @brandon8900
    @brandon8900 Рік тому +62

    I raised a monarch from caterpillar to butterfly last year, it was fascinating seeing them change. The end of the period they are in the chrysalis it turns clear

    • @garethdean6382
      @garethdean6382 Рік тому +8

      It's always clear, it's the butterfly's forming body that's changing. Amazing the fine scales on the wings can form in just a day or two.

  • @TheMunchkinita2509
    @TheMunchkinita2509 Рік тому +51

    The butterfly wings are kinda like our 2nd set of teeth.. already there but just under the surface where we can't see it.. pretty cool

    • @T.K.T
      @T.K.T 6 місяців тому +5

      X rays of small kids are terrifying for this reason

    • @mariaenriquez880
      @mariaenriquez880 4 місяці тому

      Nice way of putting it

  • @jennypai3763
    @jennypai3763 Рік тому +6

    13:54 Joe talking with his hand shaking the chrysalis back and forth 😂I was like, "you're going to shake it off the branch!" imagine the pupa going "ohmygod everything's shaking it's the end of the world!!!!!!"

  • @diaryofablackspinster
    @diaryofablackspinster Рік тому +56

    I know multiple people who are scared of insects, even “pretty” and harmless ones like butterflies, despite not having bad experiences with them. I’m sure you have a video posting schedule but it would be neat to explore what draws out the natural fear of these things in a future video :)

    • @TheMunchkinita2509
      @TheMunchkinita2509 Рік тому +3

      My BIL is one of those people. If it has 6-8 legs he ain't dealing with it 😂

    • @Byter09
      @Byter09 Рік тому +8

      It all started with that one scene in Spongebob.... God it was awful.

    • @shadycactus6146
      @shadycactus6146 Рік тому +8

      for me, at least, it tends to be a combination of unpredictable/fast movement and small fragile bodies (i.e. i’m afraid i might hurt it by accident)

    • @b.a.erlebacher1139
      @b.a.erlebacher1139 Рік тому +10

      The definition of phobia is more or less a morbid fear of something that isn't dangerous. People with phobias are quite aware that their fear isn't rational. We have deep-seated mechanisms for developing fear of dangerous things as we encounter them, and sometimes this goes wrong. The good news is that treating phobia is probably the most successful psychotherapy there is. So if you have a phobia, know that you can get rid of it with known, successful methods.

    • @ForestFire369
      @ForestFire369 Рік тому +6

      ​@@TheMunchkinita2509That's exactly my problem with spiders and centipedes. Too many legs.

  • @ForestFire369
    @ForestFire369 Рік тому +31

    I feel like the butterfly goo myth originated when somebody tried to open a pupa to look, its guts came out, and they just went "Welp I guess that's all there is in there!"

    • @Frostvul
      @Frostvul Місяць тому

      Maybe, or they couldn't explain it

  • @ckq
    @ckq Рік тому +58

    I haven't thought about this in 10+ years, so thinking about it seems like magic how a bug turns into a butterfly

    • @kindlin
      @kindlin Рік тому +3

      Does that mean a butterfly isn't a bug?

    • @toolbaggers
      @toolbaggers Рік тому +1

      What's even weirder is the life cycle of the malaria parasite.

  • @viljuska7844
    @viljuska7844 Рік тому +11

    i love how much comedy effort is put into making into all of yours videos

  • @ruudhollenberg
    @ruudhollenberg Рік тому +16

    Omg I didn't know scientists had figured this out. The last thing I heard (long time ago) was that it wasn't known what happens. I always wanted to know this. Thank you so much!

    • @OlleLindestad
      @OlleLindestad Рік тому +1

      Yeah, that's also a myth. It's been known roughly what goes on during metamorphosis since at least the first half of the 1900s, although with new tech like x-ray tomography we can get way better images of it now - earlier research relied heavily on things like dissection and transplantation of developing organs.

  • @TonyTylerDraws
    @TonyTylerDraws Рік тому +32

    We had a bunch of caterpillars for a school project. Some metamorphosed just fine, some died before they had the chance, and some seem to never make a chrysalis and just turned to goo? We never found bodies but there was goo.

    • @dilophosaurusking7437
      @dilophosaurusking7437 Рік тому +3

      Odd

    • @ForestFire369
      @ForestFire369 Рік тому +6

      missed a step

    • @EmilySmirleGURPS
      @EmilySmirleGURPS Рік тому +28

      If I remember correctly, the goo is because after they die, the hormones and chemicals that were directing unneeded cells to recycle themselves are out of control, so the whole pupas corpse "recycles" itself. I'm having trouble finding confirmation, the internet just keeps giving me "caterpillars turn into soup" stuff.
      Vertebrates get attacked by our digestive acids, enzymes, and symbiotic bacteria after death too, but it's not as extreme because we're never in the middle of trying to completely redo our architecture.

    • @wesleyson21
      @wesleyson21 Рік тому +6

      Yeah a fair number die during the many molts that they have to go through as they grow. That and eclosing in to an adult are the riskiest times for them and when things tend to go wrong.

    • @garethdean6382
      @garethdean6382 Рік тому

      The goo ones are because of a viral infection, they liquefy and are picked up by other wandering caterpillars, continuing the cycle. The gypsy moth baculovirus is an especially ingenious version of the parasite.

  • @naturalcauses8768
    @naturalcauses8768 Рік тому +2

    2:00 - 2:03
    "It's me, hi, I'm some people, it's me"
    sound awfully similar to
    "It's me, hi, I'm the problem it's me"

  • @xamishia
    @xamishia Рік тому +8

    Cool. Suggestion: for shots that are sped-up or slowed down, always add the speed in the corner (like "x100 speed"). It's science communication after all. Thanks.

  • @hcn6708
    @hcn6708 Рік тому +6

    3:09 Gonna have to point out cockroaches are NOT holometabolous, they do not pupate and the nymphs look like smaller wingless paler adults

  • @SuiLagadema
    @SuiLagadema Рік тому +8

    School taught me the version of Caterpillar -> Chrysalid -> ? -> Butterfly. I'm 33 and I'm ashamed of myself for never actually questioning "Huh, what does really happens to that caterpillar once inside"

  • @bobtuckey2409
    @bobtuckey2409 Рік тому +5

    Hi Joe, Bob here. Another amazing show. I also used to catch caterpillars and watch them pupate and emerge as butterflies. It was fascinating. And still is.

  • @Manojspidey18
    @Manojspidey18 Рік тому +6

    Why children books doesn’t have these stages explained because i think they still don’t have the age to understand that deeply.

  • @OmateYayami
    @OmateYayami Рік тому +22

    This is super interesting. Also a bit more approachable but on par in weirdness is that an egg containing of inconspicuous white and yolk that probably each of us ate on breakfast at some time... consists all ingredients to make a whole small bird. Given the egg is fertile it contains all the resource and bioengine to transform it into a bird, from some bio-mush. In that sense it's like chrysalis.

    • @richmcgee434
      @richmcgee434 Рік тому +6

      Not really. Butterfly species still lay eggs themselves which hatch to produce live young, which is perfectly conventional. They just pause at the end of the larval stage to undergo a second transformation into the adult reproductive stage, which is a less common reproductive approach. The genes for the butterfly are the same as the caterpillar that presages it, they're just being expressed differently until the hormonal triggers are released.
      The shell of an egg is (from a human viewpoint) much closer to being a self-contained external uterus than anything else. The resources needed for the embryo to develop are pre-loaded rather than being drip-fed over time the way things work in a mammalian womb, but otherwise the functions are essentially the same. Both approaches have their own biological advantages and drawbacks.

    • @toolbaggers
      @toolbaggers Рік тому +1

      By that logic a 'woman of the night" has consumed half the ingredients for a civilization.

    • @Delmworks
      @Delmworks 4 місяці тому

      In fairness, your eggs you eat at breakfast are not fertilized. Now, Salut on the other hand…

    • @OmateYayami
      @OmateYayami 4 місяці тому

      @@Delmworks Yea, but it could be fertilized given the chance. The contents are the same, except lacking few cells of biomachinery to start the process.

  • @Wolf-tk6dk
    @Wolf-tk6dk Рік тому +10

    Heh I taught myself that chrysalis are just another layer under the skin while reading my own caterpillars. Also moths do the the same, they just do it inside the cocoon. Certain ones like the gypsy moth will even just make a super lazy cocoon, just folding a leaf partially together.

  • @desertegle40cal
    @desertegle40cal 5 місяців тому +2

    I have raised butterflies for 15 years and I know what goes on inside a cocoon and it’s absolutely amazing. Its as close as we can get to true magic. It is mind boggling the way that metamorphosis can create a totally new creature. Imagine if that was possible for more complex animals. What would it morph into? The possibilities would be endless if we could somehow harness how exactly this process works. This is the first time I’ve seen this channel. AAAAAND SUBSCRIBE! 🥰
    Oh wow! So i made this comment before I watched the video because I was so excited to finally see a video that delves into the metamorphosis process. And then when I get to that section of the video i see its called a “Sack of Magic”! Even this creator explains it the same way I do when I teach people about raising butterflies. Like MAGIC! (I also raise bees as well. Its so much fun! 🥰

  • @drhat77
    @drhat77 Рік тому +3

    It's an example of the Swiss Army Knife effect - if you have a tool that can do a bunch of different things, it will do them all but poorly, like a swiss army knife. By confining the eating and growth phase to one body plan, and the mating and reproduction phase to another body plan, each body is optimized to that task. All life forms and functions strive for maximal energy efficiency.

  • @IanTindale
    @IanTindale Рік тому +7

    One further interesting tiny point that I find fascinating and inexplicable is the very small period of time when the chrysalis, if it is one that hangs downward from the tail (not all do, some are suspended upward with a silk waistband, some are in cocoons such as with moths) has to shed the skin of the final instar of caterpillarness, which becomes a crinkled up bundle, and then the chrysalis (blind) has to walk with it's tail hooks (which are like hook&loop fastener) across the drying bundle of shed skin, and onto the silk pad onto which it hooks and stays - that’s not only amazing it can do this every time, but that it has ‘knowledge’ to do this specific one-time action, and seriously, how did that evolve, there must’ve been so many that fell off and didn’t survive? That’s certainly one for Darwin if you ask me

    • @andrewf2630
      @andrewf2630 8 місяців тому +1

      the genetic coordination involved, first evolving an organism like a caterpillar which itself has thousands of parts which have ireducible complexity, and then the whole organism , for one, how did the caterpiller movement spring forth out of.nowhere, one day no caterpillers, the next, a whole new organism with hundreds of different protiens. And the way they move, coordinating all their legs to.move at the right time, im sceptical of the scientiic theorys proposed about competition. Sometimes scientists want to be sound right becaise they dont like to appear to have an incomplete understanding
      How the butterfly completely changing shape and function 4 times could have evolved purely by chance. You can't tell me this process evolved by chance, It seems designed, like the cell. Irreducible c complexity. Ohh and it doesn't explain how these processes evolving by adaptation, mutation and competition, how ststistically its nearly impossible to have evolved by chance. Im not a creationist,im atheist, but this has always been a mystery to me.

  • @candycemonroe7345
    @candycemonroe7345 Рік тому +4

    Eric Carle fan. He actually wanted to write a book about a bookworm. His publisher or editor wanted the change. He just wanted to make a book with fun holes in it. A lot of his books have fun tricks to them.

  • @karaschmidt5902
    @karaschmidt5902 Рік тому +5

    5:46 I’m sorry, who’s monarch caterpillar is eating 100 leaves a day?! I’ve seen one demolish a standard milkweed leaf in 6 hours but 100 leaves in 24 hours?! Please.

  • @verdantpulse5185
    @verdantpulse5185 Рік тому +8

    Not just cannibalistic caterpillars. I had some shaped like inch worms preying on aphids, on some umbelliferous plants one year.

  • @HPDevlin
    @HPDevlin Рік тому +20

    I wonder, did all these genera of pupating insects independently evolve their pupating strategies, or did they diverge from a common ancestor only after it adopted the pupating strategy?

    • @rouelejour4080
      @rouelejour4080 Рік тому +2

      Me too! Anybody know?

    • @jjy1874
      @jjy1874 Рік тому

      What are you talking about? Evolution is false.

    • @OlleLindestad
      @OlleLindestad Рік тому +14

      It evolved once. The insects with a pupal stage form a single branch on the insect family tree, called the Endopterygotes.

  • @SavannahBurris
    @SavannahBurris Рік тому +12

    I got up close and personal with some butterflies while camping and even as an adult it’s just such a joy to see them! It’s like a welcome visit from a friend, and I always talk to them as they fly by. I’d always wondered what went on in there 😊

  • @Brambrew
    @Brambrew Рік тому +8

    Tldr: the caterpillar turns into a production line, only retaining basic vital organs as the rest of the body turns into liquefied mini-factories, each "factory" tasked with manufacturing a different part - legs, wings, eyes, etc. Then all the parts are assembled together and voilá, butterfly! And somehow, they can RETAIN MEMORIES after this process, remembering information from when they were a caterpillar!

    • @suruxstrawde8322
      @suruxstrawde8322 Рік тому

      Well yeah the brain clearly doesn’t change much at all in the process just by the fact that’s true at all.

  • @davidripley2916
    @davidripley2916 Рік тому +4

    Hi Joe, when I was a kid my granddad found a thumb-sized black caterpillar covered in hairs. He put it in a plant propagator box with a privet twig. Days later, it pupated. Turns out it was a beautiful Privet Hawk Moth, with magenta and lime green wings. It did its first crap on my thumb, and fed it with sugar water on a microscope slide. I never forget it warming up its flight muscles by vibrating. We released it shortly after, and it remains my fave childhood memory.

  • @shadowscribe
    @shadowscribe Рік тому +3

    It's a little more horrifying to know the foundational elements of the butterfly are developing within the whole time. Its less you assuming a new form, and more your existence is fueling this second lifeform eventually taking over. Like it started with a parasite and they linked life cycles.

    • @erinm9445
      @erinm9445 Рік тому

      It's all one brain the whole time, so I think it's okay! Think of it more like permanent teeth vs baby teeth. The permanent teeth are in there forming long before you lose your baby teeth and the adult teeth come in, but all of it's you the whole time, the adult teeth aren't the foreign teeth of some weird organism living through you!

  • @NewMessage
    @NewMessage Рік тому +9

    And here I thought the transformation my wife goes through before we go out was miraculous.

  • @Areaninetyone
    @Areaninetyone Рік тому +11

    Well over 15 years ago as a child I would bring this up to family and teachers that I believed the inside of a chrysalis was liquid and I wanted to order some caterpillars and open them up mid metamorphosis to prove my theory.So you better believe I was so excited to learn the truth about them when I got older

    • @analizaperez7332
      @analizaperez7332 5 місяців тому

      Me too😊 Kung tao ganyan rin noh at magkakaroon ng wings hehe. Pero gusto ko ung mga axolotl or lizard na nagreregenerate ulit ang putol na part ng katawan nila. Pwede din ung mga jellyfish na habang buhay nabubuhay at umiikot lang cycle ng buhay nila. Daming kakaiba sa mundo

  • @A3Kr0n
    @A3Kr0n Рік тому +5

    In the United States, students are typically taught about butterfly metamorphosis in elementary school, specifically during the early grades. The age at which students are taught this subject can vary by school district and state, but it is commonly covered in early elementary grades, such as kindergarten through third grade.

  • @ThatReplyGuy
    @ThatReplyGuy Рік тому +5

    The Anti-Hero reference did not go unnoticed.

  • @Ben-Hollingbery
    @Ben-Hollingbery Рік тому +3

    When I was a child, I wanted to go to university to be the first person to figure out how catapillars become butterflies because it seemed like no one knew.

  • @briank326
    @briank326 Рік тому +3

    Thank you so much for this video! A few times now I've gotten really curious on what exactly is going on inside a chrysalis but had never been able to find anything remotely detailed enough. This not only provides some good detail into what's going on but also contains some really mind-blowing stuff, such as the imaginal disc starting to develop prior to the pupal stage.

  • @UnintentionalSubmarine
    @UnintentionalSubmarine Рік тому +3

    It is a very fascinating thing. It has been weirding us out, probably since we began to think about things abstractly.
    But while the various forms of complete metamorphosis are all very interesting, I have always considered the incomplete metamorphosis to be much more curious. Take the larva of a dragonfly. While not as completely different as a larva is to a butterfly, it is still remarkably different from the adult animal. But one day it simply says "I'll go up that talk and shed my skin and then fly away." As in for a while a fully adult dragonfly was running/swimming around in an insect version of an encounter suit. That has got to be among the most weird things.
    And yes, I did notice the part about the proto-wings in the larva. And that is probably connected to the dragonfly approach.

  • @shuckieddarns
    @shuckieddarns Рік тому +1

    I love the closed captions, especially towards the end

  • @פנינהפרנס
    @פנינהפרנס Рік тому +3

    As an ex-preschool teacher I had A very ambivalent feeling about "the very hungry caterpillar." But I always told the children that not all of the story is scientificly accurate.
    Not only what happens in the pupa.
    I don't appreciate when people accuse preschool teachers of all the misconceptions people have when they grow up.

  • @sethgardner4453
    @sethgardner4453 6 місяців тому +1

    Here because my 4 year old daughter loves The Hungry Caterpillar so much so that we purchased for her a caterpillar habitat, replete with said caterpillars. They just shed their exoskeletons and are now in their chrysalid form. We are in the midst of their transformation. It is a omderful thing to watch. I needed some data to regurgitate to keep my daughters curious mind satisfied (mine too, I suppose). Thank you!

  • @akmartinez419
    @akmartinez419 Рік тому +3

    Very interesting video! We just became a Monarch Waystation about a year ago. Last fall was our first time rearing , tagging and releasing Monarchs. It was the most amazing process but watching them emerge was probably by favorite. It’s a lot longer process than I thought, they typically stay a good hour or so in the same position just swinging back and forth and pumping their wings. We have only had one bad chrysalis so far so not a bad record!

  • @theduder2617
    @theduder2617 4 місяці тому +1

    Two of my favorite forms of life. Caterpillars (most I believe) are always gentle, and I'm not sure how true it is but I was told as a young child that a butterfly chooses to land on you or not.
    Back then, I took that to mean that the caterpillar and eventual butterfly knew you had no desire to harm them. I think it was my first experience with respect in life. To this day, I will stop all movement if needed in order to prevent harming/disturbing either.

  • @VirtuousCreature
    @VirtuousCreature Рік тому +3

    Fascinating video! Though, cicadas go through INCOMPLETE metamorphosis. I loved collecting their shed skins as a kid! Lol

  • @miriammcfarlane6972
    @miriammcfarlane6972 3 місяці тому

    Love it that you address your audience as smart people ❤😊. You give yourself permission to talk at the level you want to, to people who are going to want to listen....if they don't want to, they won't stay on your page and you don't have to worry about how to address them! 😅

  • @Rennanbarbosa0
    @Rennanbarbosa0 Рік тому +3

    Great video! I was trying to research that exact things a while ago but I couldn't find it in a way that I would understand, now I did!

  • @thethirdjegs
    @thethirdjegs Рік тому +1

    I was so excited at the start, it felt like i was about to watch pbs be smart, pbs eons, & just keep thinking in a single episode. Please check the last one too.
    I hope scientists would discover how holometabolous development evolved soon.

  • @Dynamaximometer
    @Dynamaximometer Рік тому +4

    I'm real curious as to how this process originated. It's such a drastically different life stage from what other species do it's hard to imagine how they might be related.

  • @the_hanged_clown
    @the_hanged_clown Рік тому +1

    12:20 I rhink what you meant to say was, "That's SCIENCE! But, here's some hypothesi.

  • @Scott89878
    @Scott89878 Рік тому +5

    I thought the answer as to why was obvious. Monarch Butterflies consume milkweeds as caterpillars. If it didn't turn into a flying animal, it would be difficult to reach more milkweeds. This is the reason the Mayfly only lives one day as a flyer, because it's an algae eater and if you are in a river and want to reach another river, or a pond not connect to anything, the flying form can do it. While the monarch stays butterfly long enough to justify flying south for the winter, most moths and butterflies live shorter lives and are more focused on reproduction.

    • @patrickhackett7881
      @patrickhackett7881 Рік тому +1

      Monarchs didn't evolve complete metamorphosis independently from its butterfly relatives.

  • @yashaswini1208
    @yashaswini1208 Рік тому +2

    “It’s me. Hi. I’m some people. It’s me.” : Anti-Hero (Joe’s Version)

  • @EmpressoftheLoneIslands
    @EmpressoftheLoneIslands Рік тому +3

    Ok…. I can’t be the only one ready for Joe to publish a children’s book “The very stinky maggot.”

  • @clivematthews95
    @clivematthews95 Рік тому +1

    This is my favorite video of this week 😊
    Very cool, everything I saw here. I always wondered about the pupa stage 🤔🙏🏾

  • @Oler-yx7xj
    @Oler-yx7xj Рік тому +3

    I remember this 'parents not competing with children' thing was used to describe T-rexes

  • @Angel-Kitten
    @Angel-Kitten Рік тому +2

    It was very interesting to look inside the cocoon, thank you. I never thought that magic happens there. I was about right in imagining that a caterpillar grows new limbs while it is in a sleep-like state.

  • @walmirneto3728
    @walmirneto3728 Рік тому +5

    I actually feel validated that Joe pronounces the e in winged when just the other day I was corrected for doing just that.

    • @ForestFire369
      @ForestFire369 Рік тому

      I think they have slightly different meanings

  • @giftofthewild6665
    @giftofthewild6665 6 місяців тому +2

    Why do some bugs not have a pupae phase? Eg dragonflies seem to split out of their juvenile form and just flie off immediately?

  • @nyuh
    @nyuh Рік тому +3

    yes i know this fact because theres this visual novel game thing titled butterfly soup. its definitely about butterflies and arthropods trust me

  • @crewrangergaming9582
    @crewrangergaming9582 Рік тому +1

    Feel so sad for butterflies that they never are nurtured by their parents, they are just left to "go figure out"

  • @DerekSmort
    @DerekSmort Рік тому +5

    Most insects go from larva to the final form, but somehow butterflies have a better PR

  • @lollsazz
    @lollsazz Рік тому +2

    I've heard about the "caterpillar soup" many times, but when watching an actual caterpillar transform, I thought that this definitely does NOT look like a soup, and either some people have a weird definition of "liquify", or something is quite wrong about the "soup" explanation.... my 2 year old is very interested in watching caterpillars metamorphose - now I'll make sure to tell her about the REAL way they do it 😊

  • @bcataiji
    @bcataiji Рік тому +3

    I never heard of the goo myth. It was obvious that there was a morphing, a metamorphosis if you will, that happened.

  • @andreistance
    @andreistance Рік тому

    I’m obsessed with the way you said “Like a JACKET” 😆😆😆

  • @cathy_p637
    @cathy_p637 Рік тому +5

    I have loved butterflies all of my life and this video was the best explanation of metamorphosis I have ever seen. Thank you.

  • @Erufailon42
    @Erufailon42 Рік тому +1

    11:44
    Correction: Cicadas are actually hemipterans and have partial metamorphosis like the rest of their order.

  • @pluspiping
    @pluspiping Рік тому +8

    This video blew my mind multiple times. Sitting here with my mouth wide open. The little proto-wings inside the caterpillar. They shed their caterpillar skin to emerge as a pupa underneath. Why are we not teaching kids the actual stuff caterpillars and pupae do, this is AMAZING.

  • @SoulDelSol
    @SoulDelSol Рік тому +1

    They taught us in 80s/90s in school that caterpillar turns to bug soup in chrysalis and then reorganizing and forms a butterfly. Can't believe it

  • @tiffanymarie9750
    @tiffanymarie9750 Рік тому +3

    The Very Hungry Caterpillar is teaching young children language skills and about growing up at a critical age for that 😅 how did Joe react to If You Give a Mouse a Cookie 😂

  • @edsaurus1419
    @edsaurus1419 Рік тому +1

    Have you tried joining nebula? It’s a streaming platform like UA-cam but it was made by a bunch of educational youtubers without an algorithm I think you might fit in quite well I really enjoy the channel thanks for the information joe!

  • @urphakeandgey6308
    @urphakeandgey6308 Рік тому +11

    I think you missed out on the most interesting aspect: Butterflies remember things from their caterpillar days.
    Let me remind you they turn into insect goop while inside the chrysalis and then re-assemble.

    • @erinm9445
      @erinm9445 Рік тому +2

      Your first sentence is true. But this video shows that your second--though widely believed and taught--is an oversimplification at best. There's no reason to think that the brain of the organism is turned to goop during metamorphasis. But I still agree that butterfly/caterpillar memory is super cool!

  • @reibian
    @reibian 4 місяці тому

    @10:57 “… it hangs upside down…”
    Well, it doesn’t in the video itself. 😂

  • @rtasvadam1425
    @rtasvadam1425 Рік тому +4

    No comments yet

  • @Eguzkia57
    @Eguzkia57 4 місяці тому

    5:50 the caterpillar pooping was something pretty obvious and yet unexpected 😂

  • @jimmytaco6738
    @jimmytaco6738 Рік тому +71

    The truth about butterfly metamorphosis is that all caterpillars actually have a 1% chance of turning into humans.

  • @ChristopherSmith-il6fo
    @ChristopherSmith-il6fo Рік тому

    15:18 is so true especially when the thumbnail is like "Is this yellow banana really yellow" and I'm like 😬

  • @cadrenadams9109
    @cadrenadams9109 Рік тому +1

    I literally googled this yesterday and got distracted before I could find out the process 😂😂😂 this video is just what I needed

  • @ReinerEvans
    @ReinerEvans Рік тому +1

    I was so unsatisfied as a child with the explanation that they were bug soup. Thank you for this amazing revelation!

  • @GardenUPLandscape
    @GardenUPLandscape Рік тому

    By far the best and most comprehensive video on metamorphosis I have ever seen! Possibly the best on the internet! ❤️🦋❤
    Not to mention entertaining! "Eric Carle didn't mention that part did he!?!" 🤣

  • @zack_120
    @zack_120 4 місяці тому

    You are one of the channels that dig the secrets of the universe keeping people curious 👍

  • @maxgluteus4263
    @maxgluteus4263 Рік тому

    I am so glad you recovered!

  • @tanostrelok2323
    @tanostrelok2323 Рік тому

    I have been wondering about this in particular for quite some time, thank you for uploading this.

  • @vlinderXXI
    @vlinderXXI Рік тому

    I literally asked myself about this and now I see this upload. I love this channel

  • @vincentlalyman1008
    @vincentlalyman1008 5 місяців тому

    Two weeks ago I started asking myself questions about this very topic, but did no research it at all. So why does this one year old video suddenly appear in my recommendations ??? Spooky.
    But informative - thank you !

  • @ldmonul22
    @ldmonul22 Рік тому

    Woooow!! I wish there was a super like button on UA-cam to smash it right now! I love this video, I had always wanted to see the inside of a chrysalis and thanks to your flawless explanation now I understand metamorphosis way better. Thank you for your work! 🙏

  • @MonkeysEmperor
    @MonkeysEmperor 4 місяці тому

    I'm obsessed with the little levitating plant on the background

  • @adamj.davidge7933
    @adamj.davidge7933 Рік тому

    It's me! I'm that guy too! Butterfly grower! 😊
    Also, you're an absolute legend! I've been waiting for this video my whole life! 🎉 I'm always racking my brain to work out how this soup transformation happens!😅

  • @AyStar
    @AyStar 6 місяців тому

    Thank you thank you thank you, I've been frustrated about not knowing this for years and I finally understand it better.