Butterfly Farming IS AMAZING - (Full Life Cycle) - Smarter Every Day 96

Hey, it's me, Destin. Welcome back to Smarter Every Day! I did a video and I put Mr. John, the butterfly farmer, in it, and you had a bunch of questions about butterfly farming. So, we're going to do a video about butterfly farming. Is that okay with you? That's good with me! So, I'm going to tell you what this paper is at the end of the video, but this is pretty important for my family. But for now, let's go learn about how butterflies are made, or how they… yeah, um, let's do that!

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Okay, the first step in the life cycle of a butterfly is butterfly eggs. All right, where do we go? Let's go see if we can find some in our flight house.

All right, John, so you have a huge butterfly house here. How do you know where the caterpillars are going to be?

I bring in a certain host plant. I know that spice bush swallowtail will only lay eggs on a few plants, and one of them is a sassafras tree. So they have favorite, favorite plants, yep, called their host plants.

But there's… look at all, I mean, all these plants right here have flowers and stuff. They will not lay an egg on anything but this. It's amazing! So, you put one little sapling in here and you get everything you need?

Yep, and I just when this one has about what I want on it, I just take this pot out, and I bring another one in.

Oh, wait, what’s happening here?

She's about to lay an egg!

No way! So, she's laying an egg on the bottom side?

Yep! So, can we see that egg that she just laid? That and probably several others.

Yeah, so she just laid that egg. She laid one of these two right here – that’s… and I caught it on film! And here she comes again.

No way! Come on, girl! If you notice, she comes up to the plant downwind – bam! I got it that time!

All right, she did not lay. Is that normal?

I just don’t know what I’m looking—she laid—mess that up. I should probably listen to the butterfly farmer.

Okay, and I assume at this point they hatch, right?

Yes, that's right. Next step, they'll be hatching. And in fact, let's go over next door.

Man, those are little! These guys are actually… this is not their smallest. It's actually, they're probably already in their second… uh, second instar.

Second… what?

Instar! Or basically step, the process between the molting. Most lepidopterans molt between four and five times.

Turn around, I think there's a caterpillar on your butt!

Oh, really?

There is!

You said the word!

We can't say… oh, the "B" word! Yes, I'm sorry! Go catch more butterflies!

I'm sorry, I won't say that again! So, yeah, this is a T. fast tree. Put the sleeve on it.

Uh-huh. Um, and then the caterpillar… oh man, so he looks like he's got a huge head, but he doesn't, does he?

Right, yeah, his actual head is just right down there on the very end!

Is he supposed to look like a snake?

Yeah, exactly! Which no bird likes. His first six legs there are actually his permanent legs. Those are his only true legs.

So what you’re saying is those legs will make it through metamorphosis, right? As an insect, he only really has six legs!

So, let's also see if we can catch a caterpillar as it's switching to its pupa!

What do you mean switching to its pupa?

The caterpillar will actually um, split its skin the same way it does when it’s molting and actually come out of the caterpillar as a pupa.

Really? It doesn’t build one?

No, that's actually a common misconception!

Are you telling me a caterpillar just sits in one spot and turns into a pupa?

I can tell you whatever you want!

Show… show me!

Yeah, if you look, look down, you there should be a silk, basically a tether line that he has just running right across his back.

Oh, I see it! Their silk is quite a bit like spider silk; it's extremely strong for its size.

Hey, what am I seeing? There's something moving inside the skin!

I think you're actually about to get to watch him split and turn into a pupa.

What?

Mm, this should be good! The caterpillar skin is splitting, and the pupa is actually going to wriggle right out of the caterpillar skin.

I cannot believe we’re catching this!

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So the only thing holding him to the net is that one little silk thread that you showed me earlier?

Yep, that one little security line!

What happens if it breaks?

It doesn’t!

So, he’s done with the skin, right?

Yep! And he actually jumped off, reattached, and now he’s going to wiggle around till that skin drops down below him.

And see there, he just ejected! He got loose and now he's going to wiggle around a little bit more, and then he's going to calm down. If you tried to pull on the pupa, it would cut right through him. Instead of breaking, the silk thread would cut the pupa. The pupa would break before the thread.

And down here, he just shed—that’s the caterpillar skin!

This is totally backwards from what I thought! I thought that the caterpillar made this pupa and then crawled inside and then turned into a butterfly. But you're telling me he just sits there and grunts and turns into a pupa?

That's right! After he's finished there, he's going to start hardening. He will lighten up to a nice light, uh, whitish background because he's on a white background. So, he'll end up with a color similar to this guy right here.

So you're saying that they change color based on the background of where the pupa spins its cocoon?

So that means, think about that… that means that this, when he was a caterpillar, he had to look at the color he was on and remember it. And then somehow… I don’t know how, I don’t think anybody does… somehow he figures out what color he needs to be!

Like a chameleon?

He matches! He matches the best he can to that background color.

So can you show us some different colored ones?

Absolutely! Usually, you get anywhere from about 40 to 60 out of a sleeve, and most of these guys here will actually be going to the Bronx Zoo!

Really?

Yep! From Alabama to the Bronx Zoo! Pretty neat!

That's pretty cool! And of course, I always keep a few that I save out for my own breeding stock.

So do you get to see them come out like the emergence out of the cocoon or the pupa, excuse me?

Yeah, sure do! And in fact, why don't you take a few of these and we'll see if you can catch them on camera coming out of the cocoon and drying their wings?

Oh, that… I bet it’s… you—this feels like a trick. Is it hard to do?

Oh no, you’ll be all right! Thank you!

Wings!

So, I turned this upright so he could crawl.

Okay, so he crawled from the bottom to the top just… just now! I've been waiting for weeks for this to happen!

All right! So this is one of the most amazing parts of the process. This butterfly, which is a totally different-looking creature than what went into this pupa, just came out of it!

Now, what I think is cool is that those wings were folded up in such an efficient way that they were crammed into this thing! That’s amazing!

So when he comes out, those wings are obviously kind of new, so they're wet and floppy. So they have no real structural integrity, so he can't use them. So he's pretty vulnerable for the first little bit.

He comes up to the top here, and he dangles his wings down. He's got fluid in his abdomen, and he starts pumping it into those veins on his wings so he can inflate it. That's actually called inflation!

Oh, you see it? That's excess fluid that he had in his body that he was getting rid of!

Cu, he's already inflated his wings! I can't believe I just caught that!

I just induced it, really! Anyway, he just ejected that meconium because it was no longer needed for his wings because they already inflated!

So, it looks like he's got one more fold in his wing that he's trying to straighten out—he's almost there! But not quite!

Where you going, buddy?

Oh, he just flew! That was the first moment that guy flew!

So his wings were ready!

Okay, so it turned out that butterfly emergence was a little too difficult for me, so I'm bringing it back to John. John’s going to borrow the camera for a week or so, and he’s going to see if he can catch it for you!

You gonna catch butterfly emergence?

We’re going to try!

All right, next thing you’re going to see is John with the camera. My timing was off!

All right, we'll see what we can do.

All right, these are the guys that I think are going to be hatching over the next day or two. And down here I have my trusty old carrying case, and I'll actually be hanging the pupae from up on the roof there.

Now, if everything goes well, the next thing you should be watching is a butterfly as it hatches from its chrysalis.

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Oh!

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Oh!

Oh no! A little bit in a hurry there! A little bit higher! One, two, three, go! How's that?

Good!

Okay, so I mentioned earlier in the show I was going to show you what's in this envelope. I was hand-delivered this at work, and it's called a notice of decision to furlough, which means basically I no longer get paid on Fridays.

This is a pretty big deal as a dad of three! So there's a way you can help me out of this situation. I'm very thankful that audible.com has decided to use Smarter Every Day to advertise.

You know I don’t run advertisements on Smarter Every Day, so it's a pretty big deal. During this time, please consider going to audible.com/smarter and clicking on the free trial— that would help me a lot!

They're audiobooks! You can listen to tons of different types, but I'm going to let her tell you what her favorite is.

Hello! This is my favorite book. It's called The John Trizzer. I like it very much because they go on adventures, and like they are actually in a picture frame, and they try to go to the end of the world!

Going where?

To the end of the world!

They are?

They don’t have!

Tell them who wrote it by!

Um, L… and tell them who's in it that I like!

R!

Let’s see if I can find a…

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Picture!

Who's that?

Rap?

If you look on some of his videos, you can see a little re right here!

Okay, you want to swap back?

Yes! Swap!

I used Audible before they asked me to advertise. Clearly, now’s a good time for me! You're smart people. You know what's up!

Here anyway, I'm Destin. You're getting Smarter Every Day! Audible.com/smarter free trial. That helps me out! Have a good one!

Who planted these flowers?

I did!

Yeah, one of my favorites is right here!

What color is it?

This little pink one!

Mm, that’s your favorite, huh?

Mm-hm!

You me show one that's not falling!

The rule!

I didn’t know flowers had rules!

It's not attached!

Oh, so the base of the bloom!

That's strange! Why would it do that?

Your favorite place you ever gone?

Um, I like Peru a lot!

Maybe?

Are you filming that?

Maybe!

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