Caterpillars vibrate their anuses to communicate with each other

Today’s Video of the Day illustrates how caterpillars vibrate their anuses as a means of communicating with one another. By sending out the vibration, which cannot be heard by human ears, caterpillars can send signals to each other about where to find food and shelter.

According to a new study from researchers at Canada’s Carleton University, caterpillars scrape their anus against leaves using special appendages called “anal oars.”

“These tiny caterpillars produce a complex diversity of signals – they shake their bodies, drum and scrape their mouthparts, and drag specialized anal ‘oars’ against the leaf surface to create bizarre signals,” said evolutionary biologist Dr. Jayne Yack told New Scientist. “I’ve been studying insect sounds for more than 30 years, and I’ve never seen one insect species produce such a diversity of signal types.”

—

By Rory Arnold, Earth.com Staff Writer

Source: Carleton University, New Scientist