the mad hatter

Comments

• ininewcrow@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Stupid caterpillar … it thinks wearing fancy head gear make it look sexier, more important or significant … what dumb animal would do that?

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  • blackbrook@mander.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Stupid sexy caterpillar!

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    • ininewcrow@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Taking off their molted head like it’s wearing nothing at all … (caterpillar booty shake) … like nothing at all!

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• Rivalarrival@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  They wear their old heads, because they don’t have access to dead salmon.

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  • Minarble@aussie.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Ah, the old Lemmy metaaroo!

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• watersnipje@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  That doesn’t make sense, caterpillars don’t mate. So why have a display like this? Or does this scare off predators somehow?

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  • Deceptichum@quokk.au ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Image

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  • rowrowrowyourboat@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    But why undertake this elaborate millinery? One study published in 2016 investigated this question by holding trials involving the caterpillars and their natural predators — spiders and stink bugs. The researchers found that attacks on larvae with a stack of headcases took more than 10 times longer than attacks on larvae that had had their stack removed. They found that the empty head capsules acted as a false target for predators and could also be used to deflect the piercing rostrum of a predator.

    livescience.com/…/gum-leaf-skeletonizer-the-venom…

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    • watersnipje@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Oh really cool, thank you!

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  • tdawg@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Put a stack of decaying skin on your head and see how appetizing you look to predators

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    • watersnipje@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Yeah, fair. Maybe it’s just like that lizard that squirts blood out of its eyes and predators just go “EESH WTF”

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  • PapaStevesy@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Maybe it does nothing and evolution just never selected against it.

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    • watersnipje@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      It’s possible. Seems like it would at least change visibility to predators though. Or make it harder for the caterpillar to hide. Interesting!

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• Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  What do you do with your old faces?

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  • Ziglin@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    No, I steal other people’s faces.

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• kilroy@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Apparently it is venomous as well!

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