Why do caterpillars move as a group?

Although it is well known that fish and birds make flocks and act collectively, larvae such as caterpillars and butterflies may act like a mass. At first glance, why do actions that should be easily found in foreign enemies occur? So, the science show on YouTubeSmarterEveryDayUses Lego block to explain its mystery in an easy-to-understand manner.

STRANGE but GENIUS Caterpillar Speed ​​Trick - Smarter Every Day 93 - YouTube


This is on YouTubeSmarterEveryDayI have released a program calledDestinMr.


The program starts with a room of Keirebu who won the science contest.


This time Kelebu made me make this high tech lego caterpillar.


When turning on the switch, the motor started to move, and the caterpillar came forward as usual.


So this theme is "caterpillar movement". I came to the Amazon rain forest to see the movement of caterpillars.


When turning the camera at your feet ...


We found a group of caterpillar lumps in one place (Clicking on the caterpillar image afterward will make the blur disappearing and it seems that you are clearly sticking out the moon).


I think that the caterpillar was moving too, and stopped all at once, it started moving again and stopped.


It looks like this from the side as if the group goes over the branches of the tree that fell to the ground.




It is well known that birds and fish progress in groups towards one direction, but it seems very strange that caterpillars move and stop repeatedly. And when you look closely, when the caterpillar group stops moving, the movement stops from the back individual to the previous individual.


Let's look again the actions of the previous caterpillar. First, stop the movement of the individuals who are most behind.


The number of individuals that gradually stops increases, and movement stops until around the middle.


And when the first one stops, the movement of the group is completely stopped.


Why do caterpillars behave collectively like this? In order to elucidate that, I will return to the room of Kelebe once again and start the experiment with the Lego block.


We prepared one block on the left side of the road made with LEGO and two blocks in the right side. We will advance both blocks one by one, but at this time also the top of the block on the right also advances one block above the lower block.


So, starting the race.


The block on the right quickly overtook the block on the left.


And in the blink of an eye a goal.


In this time, the block on the left side is stopping at exactly half the distance of the block on the right side, but the speed does not double by moving in the group.


Speed ​​will go up every time you overlap blocks with 3, 4 ... ... instead of 2 steps.


That's why caterpillars move collectively because "to speed up". As the caterpillar in the upper row moves above the moving caterpillar in the lower stage, you can speed up just as you walk on the escalator.