Caterpillars might not be the first creature to pop into your head when you imagine venomous creatures, but this one has one of the most painful bites known to man. It’s not only highly venomous, but new research has revealed it evolved its venom with the help from some tiny, little friends.
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00If I asked you to close your eyes and picture a venomous creature, what would you come up
00:08with?
00:09One of these?
00:10Maybe even this?
00:11Well, according to researchers from the University of Queensland in Australia, this guy is not
00:15only highly venomous, but new research has revealed it evolved its venom with the help
00:19from some tiny little friends.
00:21This is a caterpillar, or the larva of what's commonly called the flannel moth.
00:25According to the new study, toxins from bacteria could be responsible for having aided the
00:29development of the creature's painful stings via a process called horizontal gene transfer.
00:35The caterpillars actually sting via venomous spurs hidden beneath their luxurious coats.
00:39According to the researchers, it's so painful it's been described as walking on hot coals
00:44or the worst pain a patient has ever experienced.
00:47While researchers were investigating why it was so painful, they noticed it was quite
00:51different from other venomous caterpillars.
00:53It works in a very similar way to bacterial toxin, binding to a cell's surface and eventually
00:57ripping holes in it.
00:58But the researchers concluding the bacteria must have passed it along, writing,
01:02The venom in these caterpillars has evolved via the transfer of genes from bacteria more
01:07than 400 million years ago.