If we ask you to do the exercise of thinking about noisy animals, what comes to mind? It will never occur to you to think about the scream of a caterpillar...Instead, we are sure that the first thing you have thought about is animals like cicadas, crickets or even those buzzing flies that become unbearable in the evenings.In summer, in all the fauna that inhabits our planet, some species are louder than others.The human being undoubtedly takes the gold medal. We are the loudest species and according to some Studies:
"Acoustic pollution produced by humans alters the distribution and behavior of key species, which can have cascading effects on the integrity of ecosystems."
Anyway, and returning to the question with which we started this article, it is impossible that you have related the term "noisy animal" with animals such as butterflies, moths or something even more unlikely, the caterpillars! Well, in the next Science Daily Online article you will discover that the caterpillars may not be as quiet as you imagined.In fact there is the disturbing scream of a caterpillar that we are sure will surprise you.It produces a kind of caterpillar every time it feels attacked and in danger.
Why is this scream of a caterpillar?
Surely the sound produced by the caterpillars will not be one of its main characteristics, because the Most of us have never heard a scream of a caterpillar, but this early phase of Amphion floridensis can change the idea you have about this animal.
When that little animal, which will one day become a moth, is bothered and feels angry its response is to get up and throw a kind of grito , as you hear it! It turns out to be a truly creepy sound, like a breath of sibilant air, like when you scratch a surface with an object, followed by a collection of sounds resembling unpleasant rough burps, but it's still not loud enough for a human to hear only walking near her.What really surprises from the scream of a caterpillar is the mechanism that it uses to produce it, that is, that it is expelling air through its mouth since that is not how it breathes.Listen to it yourself:
As we said, the moth caterpillar Amphion floridensis throws this annoying scream every time she feels harassed and is in danger, either by a person walking near her or by a bird that gets too close to it moved by hunger.This reaction makes us understand that this scream represents a defense mechanism in this species of caterpillar.Perhaps the fact of disconcerting its enemies is more than enough to survive.
There are, in nature, other small insects capable of producing sounds such as grasshoppers or cicadas, whose noises are the product of rubbing or vibrating their rigid exoskeletons , the difference with the caterpillar Nessus sphinx hawkmoth is that it does it with its mouth.
To date, vocalization has never been observed in caterpillars but, unlike vertebrate voices, the "voices" of these caterpillars have nothing to do with the respiratory system. The mechanism of these insects to be able to " to shout ”is to swell your air entrails and expel it by the mouth , which means that no lungs are required for this caterpillar scream.
Caterpillar cacophony
Surely the moth caterpillar Amphion floridensis is the only caterpillar known to be capable of screaming It literally arises to its predators but it is not the only insect capable of producing sound at will.The truth is that this caterpillar is the fourth animal that is known to be able to do it.There are also other caterpillars capable of emitting sounds but they do it with a very different methodology and for very different reasons.The masked birch caterpillar, for For example, it produces a sound similar to that of a drum and the reason is to attract other caterpillars to come and help you build your next protective silk cocoon.
Silk butterflies have also been discovered Americans who produce a few clicks when they join their mouth parts .
The animal world, as we see, never ceases to amaze us.It is full of rarities, strange animals with extraordinary characteristics.As we will tell you in our article about strange underground flower that blooms every 150 years, nature never ceases to surprise us and we keep discovering, from time to time, new species of both flora and fauna, which continue to leave us speechless.
Do you know your Is this strange species of animal, the moth Amphion floridensis, and its disturbing caterpillar cry? What do you think about your system to scare away predators? Do you think it will be effective to scream at a grasshopper so he doesn't use you for dinner? Explain to us what strange animals you know and what their rarity is.Surely there are more than one we don't know yet! Cheer up because we will be happy to read you!
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