Page 170 - Atlas Of The World's Strangest Animals

170 ATLAS OF THE WORLD’S STRANGEST ANIMALS

Insects are so plentiful and commonplace that it’s easy to
Death’s head hawkmoth habitats
forget just how strange they really are.Almost all insects
have an amazingly complex life cycle.The more primitive,
wingless species develop into adults by shedding their
outer skins as they grow.Winged insects undergo a much
more dramatic transformation, which entails either an
incomplete or a complete metamorphosis.
The word metamorphosis comes from the Greek words
meta, meaning change, and morphe, meaning form or
shape. Remarkably, that’s what every butterfly and every
moth does, along with many other insect species – change
shape. For such insects, early life is spent in a larval form.
In the case of moths and butterflies, these larvae are
known as caterpillars, and they’re basically massive eating
machines.They grow so quickly that they need to shed
and replace their skin regularly to accommodate their
growing bulk. It’s only once they’ve stored up enough fuel
to begin their amazing metamorphosis that they stop
eating and pupate.
During the pupal stage, butterflies and moths cocoon
themselves in a hard, protective shell.There they remain,
immobile, while their bodies are gradually broken down then die. But what is really amazing about this whole cycle
and reformed. It’s a staggeringly complex procedure but of birth, metamorphosis and death is that such a staggering
one which is so successful that 85 per cent of all insects feat of nature usually happens, completely unnoticed, in
develop into adulthood this way. our own back gardens.
All of this energy and effort is for one purpose only –
to reproduce. Males track females down by following the Power food
unique scent they leave behind, and once adult death’s For the death’s head moth – as for other members of the
head moths have sniffed out a partner, the two mate and order Lepidoptera – the transformation from larvae to adult

Comparisons

The beautiful hummingbird hawkmoth (Macroglossum stellatarum) of Good Hope, although they’re very common in Africa and southern
may not be as large as its infamous cousin, but it’s just as widely Asia.The hummingbird moth breeds much more widely and has been
travelled. Death’s head moths can be found from Britain to the Cape known to migrate as far as the United States and Polar regions.

Death’s head hawkmoth Hummingbird hawkmoth

(c) 2011 Marshall Cavendish. All Rights Reserved.