Hot Fuzz

Today on the show, HOT FUZZ! We're taking about fluffy animals who manage hairdoos without *hair* persay, that's right, these are furries without the fur, critters that look really pettable (but you probably shouldn't). How do you get fuzzy without being mammalian? Joining me today is friend of the show, friend to all animals and host of Just the Zoo of Us, Ellen Weatherford! 

Footnotes

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to Creature future production of iHeartRadio. I'm your host
of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology and evolutionary biology,
and today on the show Hot Fuzz, we're talking about
wuffy animals who manage cairdoos without hair per se. That's right.
These are furries without the fur, critters that look really petible,

(00:28):
but you probably shouldn't. So how do you get fuzzy
without being mammalian? Discover this and more as we answer
the age old question are moth's just tiny flying bunnies
to Joining me today is Friend of the Show, Friend
to All Animals, and hosts of Just the Zoo of Us,
as well as Spellbound and gag Ellen Weatherford.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Welcome, what's up? Hello, let's go. I probably just clipped
my mic, but that's okay.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
All right, we're getting mad hyped for fluff on this show.
We're talking fuzzy guys, and these aren't mammals, so it's
not technically fur, but boy, they're bringing it. They're bringing
the fluff. Look in like the sort of Paris Hilton wearing.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Was it?

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Like? I think it was fake fur? Maybe it's real
for I'm not really sure, but it's very Paris Hilton.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yeah, the like a like a fluffy boa for a moment. Yeah,
the the like gothic, sort of like widowed, like standing
in the doorway with a glass of wine, answering the door,
like very suspiciously. Yeah, going my husband, No idea where
he was that evening.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
My husband's been missing for a you would you like
to see my rose garden? It's been nice and in
the shape of a single funeral plot.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Always with that cigarette that's like a foot Yeah, the
one on the cigarette holder that she has, and she
kind of like makes little shapes.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
In the air with it, Like, of course I didn't
murder my husband. I'm too busy planting roses in the
shape of a human body outside.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
I have no idea where who was that evening? For
the questions, no one.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
Eh, how I hated him and would have benefited financially
from his death.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
So that's that's what the vibes of these crabs are.
I'm gonna say. So we're first, we're going crab Ellen.
You ready for crab?

Speaker 2 (02:38):
I have never been more ready for crabs.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
It's crab times. We've talked about crabs on the show.
How the Universe the arc of the universe is long,
but it bends towards crab. These crabs are perhaps my
favorite crab now that I've learned what they are. These
are fuffy crabs with sponge chats.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Now, the image you've provided for me is putting a
lot of work in. There's a lot of heavy lifting
being done by this image, and so it's so good
the word picture. Okay, So the lower crab, the lower
image is a crab with arms outstretched, sort of like

(03:22):
if a crab could t pose. It's in sort of
like a has arms sort of straight out in front
of it, like it is perhaps like Superman flying through
the Airman. Yeah. And the arms on this thing, first
of all absurdly long, yeah, stretch armstrong looking dude, and

(03:42):
covered in like what what looks to me like an
eighties fringe, sort of like how you would expect maybe
like a jacket from the eighties, or I think even
like Ken in the Barbie movie had a jacket with
this sort of leg like a fluffy fringe. So that
fringe is just kind of running all down the arms
and also a little bit on the legs as well.

(04:03):
And the upper image has a crab from the front
where the crab is also decked out in this fluff.
This fluff looks a little bit more like hair. It
looks a little bit more like like a hairstyle. But
it does have a great big lump on top of
a great big brown sort of mass, just plopped right

(04:24):
on top of the old mogan.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
A lovely crabby lump. So, yes, these are We're going
to talk about both of them. Let's first talk about
the one with the fluff and the lumps. So this
is Lamark Dromia beagle. It is a spies. Yeah, it's
Lamark Dromia beagle. It's a say species of crab that

(04:48):
has two amazing things going for it. It wears a
completely vegan fur coat and then a not exactly vegan
hat made from a living sea sponge.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
That's an animal product for sure, Yeah, it's it is.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
I guess it's still technically an animal product if it's alive, right, Like, uh.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
Now, I think there's a suffering component to be considered here,
Like I think it has to be, like because I
don't know if the animals not suffering, is that is
that vegan friendly?

Speaker 1 (05:18):
You know? Like because in this situation, the sponge is fine,
it's alive, it's getting a free piggyback ride. It is
technically a hat though, so I don't know if I
would call it a vegan hat. But it's also not.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Like being exploited.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
It's being It is in a way being exploited for
both fashion and also to protect it from potential predators.
But as far as I understand it, the sponge is
okay and possibly but it's great. The sponge is doing
just fine, possibly benefiting from it. I don't know how

(05:53):
strong the evidence is of the sponge benefiting, but it
does get a free move around, and it maybe has
more access to filter feeding options and gets distributed in
a way. So I would say that this is much
more likely symbiosis than exploitation.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
It is everything's coming up, sponge, everything great for this.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
It's kind of like if mister Crabs had like a
super seventies beard and hairstyle and like war SpongeBob as
a hat. And I'm sure there's already art online of
that that you don't want to look at, So yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
Don't look up mister Crabs and SpongeBob Fani.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
Yeah, don't, Yeah, just don't. Mister Crab's wearing SpongeBob. Not
a good idea, don't do it, sad search, bad search,
and then yeah. But this crab, called the Lamark Dromia
beagle is not called that because it looks like a
little fluffy puppy crab, even though that certainly certainly helps.

(06:57):
It is also named after Darwin's O the Beagle, and
also the other less celebrated evolutionary biologist Lamarck, who came
up with some not exactly right theories of evolution that
were helpful nonetheless in getting as closer to evidence based truth.
He was not as wacky and like goofy as I

(07:17):
think we learned sort of in middle school. He actually
did come up with some pretty good ideas, but you know,
not always completely right there, but fun but fun but
fun and also not completely wrong. Now that we know
about epigenetics, so la mark, the ideas that you could
get some traits that you pass on through sort of
your environment, the way in which he conceptualized it not correct.

(07:43):
You can't like gain muscles or something that you pass
on to your child necessarily, but there are epigenetics, so
that that idea that the environment can affect your the
structure of your DNA when it comes to your gam
mets potentially correct and it's it's a but yeah, he

(08:03):
that's not why he thought that, so he was still
pan wrong.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
Anyways, he was ahead of his time, that's all. We
were ready for him. We were ready.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
He was a time traveler, and he was like, I
believe if you have a swool giraffe, it's gonna have
a baby's pool giraffe. Because he didn't really understand what
was going on. So, uh, this crab was discovered in
Western Australia in twenty twenty two. So this is a
recent discovery.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
Uh, wake up, babe, wake up new crab. Just trup
you fluffy crab.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
Just dropped in Australia. Are you surprised? It's Australia and
all the cool stuff they really do. So Uh, it's
only about nine millimeters wide, so it's it's pretty little.
That's probably why it hasn't been discovered before. There's just
so many different crabs.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
It is covered in golden fur and it's a sponge crab,
meaning it wears that sponge on its back. There are
many species of sponge crabs, most of them are not
fluffy like this though, so sponge crabs have specifically adapted
tiny hook like back claws back legs that they use
to hold sponges onto their backs, which provide them camouflage

(09:13):
and protect protection from predators, especially when they choose species
of sponges which have toxic compounds in them that definitely
yuck a predators yum. Also, the texture the mouth feel
of sponges aren't very gone.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
I've heard that. I talked to a biologist who worked
with freshwater sponges, and she mentioned that if you were
to kind of like you know, I don't know, squeeze
or like, you know, feel the texture of a sponge,
it would feel very gritty because they're made of a
lot of like silica, Yeah, a lot of like glass
like structures, so it would be very it would be

(09:52):
like just kind of crunching on fiberglass. I guess.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
Yeah. It's like when you see insulation as a kid
and you're like, that looks like hot and candy, and
then you stick all your mouth and then boom, you've
got mess with thelma.

Speaker 2 (10:05):
Childhood is a series of discoveries about like the differences
between something looking tasty and being tasty.

Speaker 1 (10:12):
I still contend that those little white crusty things in
dirt are pretty good. They tasted pretty good. They're like
some kind of fertilizer. Don't eat them, they're bad.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
Squad rise up.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yeah, I like you dirt.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
It's it's it's the little egg pieces from the Wingspan
game for me. Yeah, just I want to put them
in my mouth.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
I do appreciate it now when restaurants make sort of
like a dirt crumble around ice cream, because I'm like, yes.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
That's exactly what I want to think, thank you. So yeah,
don't eat sponges, don't eat sponges, and don't eat dirt.

Speaker 1 (10:48):
I'm gonna say you can get I do.

Speaker 2 (10:51):
I feel like I've heard a lot of I've heard
a lot about crabs putting other sessile creatures just right
on their old noggin. I feel like this is a thing.
Crabs are really.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
Yes, like pom pom crabs sessile. It means anything that
basically latches itself onto a rock and they're like, I'm
good for the rest of their life and they just
sit there like sn Enemies say like sea squirts do that,
sponges do that, coral they're all sessile. Uh And yeah,

(11:21):
there are a lot of crabs that make you say
of that, like the pom pom crabs that they hold
little sea an enemies on their little front claus like
boxing gloves, and it's this like symbiotic relationship. It's actually
one of the only cases in nature where an animal
like helps another an like a separate species helps another

(11:41):
species with reproduction. Obviously flowers and pollinators, that's the symbiosis
before these crabs they because they pull apart sn enemies.
That helps them reproduce because basically they split and then
they butt into two unique individuals. So they take one
sea an enemy, pull it apart. Now it's two semies,

(12:04):
and they wear them on their little arms like boxing gloves.

Speaker 2 (12:07):
And then this it's an infinite glitch.

Speaker 1 (12:09):
It really is. And they feed them and it's it's
like having a sentient pair of gloves. Uh. And these ones,
well they're maybe sentient is possibly overstated there for sea enemies,
but yes, so sponge crabs, they wear sponges on their hats.
I highly recommend uh you look up sponge crabs online.
I'll have the picture of the fluffy one. But there's

(12:32):
so many different flavors of these guys and I love
all of them. They're all like they're like the little
goblins of the sea or elves of the sea. Like
they all have like creative little hats made out of sponges.
It's incredible.

Speaker 2 (12:47):
You can't go wrong.

Speaker 1 (12:48):
They're like great, they like sea cobalds. I love them
so uh yeah, they also look so grumpy. They you
mean my head alone, don't you dog me? Don't you
do me here by head? Ever again?

Speaker 2 (13:07):
I do like how often crabs come upon an animal
just sitting there minding its own business, and you're coming
with me. Let's go, let's ride.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
We're rolling a damn jen.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
You're going. I like the crab character my sponge.

Speaker 1 (13:33):
Road little boot lega some sea moon can. I can
only do this for so long before my throat gives out.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
I love this little guy.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
He's amazing. I love sponge crabs are incredible.

Speaker 2 (13:51):
You didn't tell me you had another guest booked for
this episode. That's incredible, snake sponge crab.

Speaker 1 (14:02):
So the reason it has fluff, well, it was discovered
in twenty twenty two. So the basic answer is we
don't know. Nobody really knows yet, but the guess is
that it might help them camouflage better. It might make
their outline more indistinct. So like when a predator comes up,
it's like, this thing is covered in a sponge and

(14:24):
it's furry. I don't know what's going on here, and
the spongecrab is like heye, Kevin. So this is an
interesting thing. So I would suspect that because it's a
recent discovery that we will get more information about, Like
why does it have these these hairs? These are it's

(14:44):
not fur exactly, these are you know, hair like protrusions.
These are filaments that they have all over their bodies.
That I mean, it really does just look like fluff,
like soft fluff, but it's super super cute. So the
other example of a fluffy uh crustacean is the Yeti crab,

(15:09):
which is the other picture you pointed out, that one
with the really long arms with the fringe like kin
in the Barbie movie. It's sort of this. It's a
it's an eggshell white. It's very classy looking, uh crustacean.
Uh and uh. I keep calling it a crustacean because
weirdly enough, this is not a crab. Uh. Yeah, it's

(15:31):
it's yet not yet well, it's in there there.

Speaker 3 (15:36):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
Yeah, this is yet another victim of carsonization who has
gone I shouldn't say victim, another beneficiary of carsonization. Yeah,
this is the Yeti crab. And it's called a Yeti
crab because it looks like a crab, but technically it
is not a real crab. Uh. It's in its own
family of weird hairy arm decapods. Like it's just its

(15:58):
own thing.

Speaker 2 (15:59):
Uh it is it is, Yeah, pioneer.

Speaker 1 (16:02):
It's Kineff all right. So it's found in the depths
of the South Pacific Ocean on the ocean four at
about two thousand, two hundred meters below, so that's like
seven thousand, two hundred feet. It's deep down in there,
and it's about five inches long. Its arms are like
most of its body length. They are blind, and their

(16:26):
hair filaments are actually covered in bacteria. And this bacteria
the idea is that this bacteria may help detoxify water
that comes from thermal vents, like they have their own
little like Britta water system on their arms.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
That's so cool.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
Yeah, So it's it's really fascinating. And the reason I
bring them up is because I suspect we'll find some
kind of interesting quality about the the Beagle the Beagle
crabs in terms of what they use that hair for.
It could be just for camouflage, but I wouldn't be
surprised if there was. If we found some interesting bacterial

(17:07):
growth in there, that could be another example of symbiosis
in addition to the sponge hat. Because these crabs are
just they're all about making friends and bringing them on
a road trip.

Speaker 2 (17:18):
Just it's the more the merrier with crab exactly.

Speaker 1 (17:22):
Well, we are going to take a quick break and
when we get back, Ellen is going to drop some
dope moth facts on me.

Speaker 2 (17:29):
Mouths. All right, we are back.

Speaker 1 (17:35):
It's moth time.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
It's moth time. It's real moth hours. I hope you're
listening to this at night, because that would be real
moth hours. Yeah, there's a isn't there a Star Wars
person named moth mon Mathma.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
Mon Mathma, Is he a mothman? I would love that ona.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
Unfortunately they're not brave enough to put moth doesn't he.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
Doesn't have just like a moth. He's you know, they really.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
Well, mon Mathma is a woman.

Speaker 1 (18:02):
Okay, it's mon Mathma mom Yathma.

Speaker 2 (18:06):
Yeah, yeah, have fun trying to say that wars on Mathma.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
Oh, she's just a lady. That's disappointing. She should have
had big moth eyes at least, and like.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
Cre more moth elements, I feel it, really they.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
Really drop the ball on that, and I really want
mothman to be cast in movies more.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
You know, we need more roles for cryptid actors.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
We do need more roles for cryptid Cryptid representation, I
think is a good idea. So so let's let's talk
about moths. Uh, they're basically fluffy butterflies.

Speaker 2 (18:43):
I'm gonna say butterflies exactly. You switched to night mode, right, Yeah,
So Lepidopterans or the family of the moths and the butterflies,
and the butterflies are the ones that are more active
in the day, so they're bright and colorful, and then
the moths are usually the ones that are more active
at night, and so they tend to be fluffy. Now,
most moths are to some degree fluffy, Like the body,

(19:08):
the sort of abdomen and thorax area will be fluffy
to some degree, and some moths really lean into the
fluff where they'll have fluff all over their legs and
even on their wings a little bit. But so before
I get into some examples of of my favorite fluffy moths,
I wanted to look at what makes moths fluffy? Like

(19:30):
why are they?

Speaker 1 (19:31):
I mean, it's fluff, Ellen, It's just fluff.

Speaker 2 (19:35):
It's so often during like while doing like research for this,
I was like, what does it matter? What the difference?

Speaker 1 (19:42):
Like, it's flocking. You dip you dip him in hot
mod podge and then you flock them.

Speaker 2 (19:49):
It's like functionally, you know, it works so similarly to
hair or feathers or things like that. So for for
moths and for butterflies also, their coating is made up
of lots and lots of tiny, tiny elongated scales. So
even what looks like hair on their body, those are
just long, skinny scales. And I think sort of a

(20:12):
key difference between like the scales and how like hair
would be is that they are they're not just growing
out of like the exoskeleton or the cuticle. They're attached
by a pedicel, which is like a like a little
stalk that they're like attached by it, and they're attached
pretty loosely, so they come off very easily. So if
you've ever don't do this. But if you've ever touched

(20:34):
the wings of a moth or a butterfly, either one,
you may look at your fingers afterwards and find that
there's like a powder fudge, a little residue. Yeah, there's
just a little something on your fingers. And those are
detached scales, right, So the scales come off very very easily.
They just just like a nudge, we'll detach those scales.
Which there's a reason for that, which I'll get into

(20:54):
in just a second. But basically, for months they have
really leaned into these long, fluffy scales all over their body,
not just like the ones on the wings that give
them colors.

Speaker 1 (21:04):
So are they like a dandelion where if you pick
up one of these guys and blow hard enough, all
of that fluff is just gonna come off because it's
so loosely attached.

Speaker 2 (21:12):
I feel like you'd have to blow really hard for that.

Speaker 1 (21:15):
But get out, my heart driver.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
Put one of these dudes in one of those like
wind tunnels.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
Oh, the poor little babies, don't they're too cute.

Speaker 2 (21:25):
Don't do that, they are cute.

Speaker 1 (21:27):
I don't want tunnel.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
I don't want anything bad to happen to a moth ever, I.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
Know, I know, just sit them in one of those
like G force training units for sending off astronauts.

Speaker 2 (21:41):
That does seem like something some board scientists with with
like a spare grant.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
Yeah, it's a little proboscous, like waggling behind them.

Speaker 2 (21:50):
With the moths they got those fluffy antennas would just
be like spirally like like a dog with its head
out the window. So cute, They're so cute and so okay.
So there's a few different reasons why moths have this fluff,
which can be all over their body even like they
can even have like fluffy wings, which is pretty interesting

(22:11):
to see. Oh. But so moths are typically nocturnal. They're
out at night and during the nighttime temperatures are cooler.
It is a lot colder than it is during the daytime.
So fluff can help insulate them against the colder nighttime temperatures.
So there's like insulation. That's like a normal thing that
things have fluff for. Another thing which you touched on

(22:34):
for the fluffy crabs is having a fuzzy outline because
moths spend a lot of time at rest, so they'll
spend a lot of time just laying on the side
of a tree or you know, on a branch or
something like that, and having a fuzzy outline breaks up
their silhouette and it can make it really difficult to
see them when they're at rest. It's a lot easy.
It's a lot more difficult to make out that shape

(22:56):
if it's a blurry shape, and it can make predators
just like miss them entirely, which is cool. Another reason
for the fluff is that those scales fall off very
very easily. Like I mentioned that, you could just yank
them right off, so it makes them slippery. So if
they get, for example, like caught in a spider web, right, yeah,
they can just sort of like scotch tape themselves right

(23:18):
off that thing and leave all their scales behind and
lets the rest of them off li free.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
It's the classic move like if say, you know someone's
got you buy your jacket, you just slip out of
your jacket.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
I'm not saying a Scooby Doo move.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
It's a Scooby Doo move. I'm saying I'm not encouraging
people to use this move, you know, to say get
out of doing righteous crimes. But you know, if you
were doing a righteous crime and someone grabbed you by
the jacket. If you slip out of your jacket.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
Jackets are always doing righteous crimes.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
If the jacket don't fit, you must have quit. I'm
not a tire.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
That's a real Cinderella crime right there. You leave your
jacket behind, and they have to like gokay, all of
the princesses checking to see whose jacket is.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
Whose dope bath denim jacket is this?

Speaker 2 (24:08):
They have to try it on everybody to.

Speaker 1 (24:10):
Say, yeah, I've got a panther patch on it.

Speaker 2 (24:15):
They're just checking to see who's cool. Yea jacket I
just wanted to know. So they can pull the scooby
Doo move to get out of spider webs. But also
if something grabs them, like if a predator grabs them,
they can sometimes just slip right out because of those scales.
But another reason for the fluff, which I think is
pretty interesting, is that it dampens sound and it can

(24:39):
reduce echo, which is very important if you're an insect
who flies around at night, because who else flies around
at night and eats insects? Bats? You sound to find you.

Speaker 1 (24:50):
This is so interesting because it's a technique use for
podcasts recording. I'm just like a like I put, I
have fluffy right here, I have fluffy things. I have
a fluffy mic phone. Can you do this? Yeah? Yeah,
we're just like moths. And it's to help reduce echo
and stuff in the room so that the podcast sounds

(25:12):
nicer hopefully, hope you'll like it. Uh And so yeah,
that's that's you know, I hadn't really thought about that,
to be honest with you, but yeah, that completely makes sense.
The ways that moths try to evade that sound detection.
What better way than scattering sound off your body, because
that's the way the fluff works in recording studios is

(25:33):
that it like scatters the sound. It doesn't, it does.

Speaker 2 (25:36):
It's not that it absorbs the.

Speaker 1 (25:37):
Sound, that it scatters it in multiple directions so that
you never you no longer have this like sharp hard echo.

Speaker 2 (25:46):
Yeah. And and this was actually a pretty recent like development.
So the paper I was reading about this is called
Thoracic scales of moths as a stealth coating against.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
Banter title bangers.

Speaker 2 (25:59):
Really cool, like every cool word. It's just borassic scales
and stealth coding against scales. Really cool. Title that was
by Thomas r. Neil and that was in the Journal
of the Royal Society Interface and that was in February

(26:20):
of twenty twenty, so not you know, this is pretty
pretty recent stuff. And basically, so there's there's kind of
two different bat evasion methods that that moths can use,
and this is one of them. One of them is
just being really really fluffy to kind of bounce that
sound like away from them, and then the other So
those are for what's called death moths, but other moths

(26:43):
can actually hear, like they have a very very simple
but very very sensitive like ear drum like structure that
can actually pick up like ultrasonic sounds. So some types
of moths can just hear the bats and then if
they hear the calls, they'll just leave. But a lot
of moths are relying on that fluff to get away
from bats, which I think is just super cool. So

(27:07):
there are a few moths that I feel like are
really doing this very well. I feel like are sort
of exemplifying the fluff. My favorite is the rosy maple moth.

Speaker 1 (27:18):
I am looking this up because yes, I knew it.
I knew it so good. I call this the sorbe moth.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
Yes, it does look like just the little like a
little pink lemonade.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
It's so, it's a delicious looking little little guy, just
fluffy with right back to right, yeah, right. This is
how I interface with the world. It's bright pink and
bright yellow. I remember these guys from yes the Autoba
on Society Field Guide to North American Insects and Spiders,
And I remember seeing this like sorbet moth and being like, whoa,

(27:56):
why am I not? Why isn't this in school? Why
aren't they teaching this in school? I'm learning about I'm
learning about like the Civil War, which is important, but
this is also important. The fact that there's a bright
yellow and pink moth that looks like, uh like some
sorbet and is amazing. It looks like it doesn't look real.

Speaker 2 (28:16):
Guys like this is have a lot more entomologists if
we were more forward with that in I.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
Really think so this was this was a This was
sort of a pivotal moment in my childhood. Was seeing
this moth was like, this is actually we live in
we live in a fantasy world.

Speaker 2 (28:31):
It's real the wait bug.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
Wait, wait a minute, I like bug.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
Wait? I don't like bugs.

Speaker 1 (28:41):
Good bug is good.

Speaker 2 (28:45):
Yeah. So these moths are bright pink and yellow. A
lot of times people who take pictures of them will
kind of bump the saturation on it to kind of
lean into it, like you don't even have to, you know,
I mean, it's it's cute, but like they just naturally
are this like very very bright pink and yellow. And
so since I've never seen one in the wild, so
I am just going off of pictures, But the every

(29:06):
time I see a picture of them, I think, why,
why would like bright pink and yellow doesn't seem to
me like stealthy, like subtle, you know nature coloring. It
doesn't seem like a good camouflage color to me, until
until I saw pictures of the seeds of their host trees,
maple seeds, like red maple seeds. Do a quick Google

(29:29):
search for red maple s Yes.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
Wow, yeah, that's it's so you are so right. It
looks because it's kind of a greenish yellow and it's
those wing like seeds the kind that like when they
it's the two kind of wings.

Speaker 2 (29:44):
With the little seeds pod samara.

Speaker 1 (29:47):
And then when you like let it go, that structure
lets them twirl in the wind. So they disperse better.

Speaker 2 (29:53):
Very whimsical, super whimsical.

Speaker 1 (29:55):
They it looks just like I totally see it. In fact,
there's like a rosy maple moth image on top of
these seed pods, and it totally blends in. That is fantastic.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
Yeah, like they they you wouldn't, they wouldn't blend in
outside of that context. But when they're like in their
element with like their host seeds, like it's perfect.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
And you can and you can remember it with this
handy neumonic device, which is uh, pink and yellow kills
a fellow yellow and pink makes you stink.

Speaker 2 (30:30):
I thought you were gonna say, makes you think hmmm,
see you.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
Know, there you go. Anyways, I hate useless mnemonic devices
about color order on snakes, is my point. It's never helpful.
I'm always confused. Uh so that's incredible, Yeah, no, it completely.
I mean Also, these maple seed pods are beautiful, man.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
I just want to put those in my mouth too. Yeah,
a lot of delectable looking stacks.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
I would rather put the seed pods in my mouth
than the adorable because I do feel like the mouthfeel
would be worse for the moth. Also, it's cute and alive,
and I don't wanna. I don't wanna get it hurt.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
Get that call it a dimorphous expression, I get that
cute aggression.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
That's oh yeah, scralert.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
So rosy maple moth, extremely extremely cute. The next moth
that I really wanted to highlight is has leaned super
far into the fluff, but more so as a caterpillar,
and that is the Southern flannel moth, which their caterpillars
are also called asp caterpillar.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
Yeah. Sometimes, of course it's Southern flannel because she's wearing
the ug boot all over her body.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
She's got very Yeah, it's very Stanley Tumblr.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
Yeah, it's Stanley Tumblr. Basic girl boots, Yeah, yeah, which
there's nothing wrong with you know what, I know people
call it basic. There's nothing wrong with being comfortable.

Speaker 2 (32:02):
I love like basic. Just I love a Stanley tumbler,
I love an ug boot, I love a pumpkin spice latte. Yeah,
I love it. It's great. There's a reason there is.
There's so many people like it.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
Because flannel is comfortable, and fluffy boots are comfortable, and
pumpkin spice tastes very good. Like personally, I don't wear
that style but every time I see someone wearing it,
it's like I would I would be in those clothes
because they look very comfortable.

Speaker 2 (32:34):
It's nice. It's very the Southern flannel moss. So as
a caterpillar, the caterpillars are so fluffy that you actually
can't even see the body under.

Speaker 1 (32:44):
No, it's just pure fluffs, like a it looks like a.

Speaker 2 (32:47):
Wig on the ground. Yeah, tiny, tiny little two pegs
on the ground.

Speaker 1 (32:51):
It does look like a certain American authoritarian leader did, like, yeah,
hair fall off and on the ground.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
A very obvious comparison.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
There is a very obvious comparison to a certain American
authoritarian leader that you know, like I don't want the
Musk's future groc to like get me into the grock
Rey education camps. But yes, it does definitely look like that,
but cuter.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
The caterpillar has a better stock.

Speaker 1 (33:20):
Way better way, fuller. It looks richter.

Speaker 2 (33:25):
The caterpillar looks style.

Speaker 1 (33:27):
It's like what a certain American authoritarian leader wishes his
hair look like. But in reality it's nothing. It's got
He's got nothing on these caterpillars.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
The profile picture versus the tag.

Speaker 1 (33:39):
Yeah, yeah, it's like one of those AI images that
they make with the really buff Donald Trump with the
cool hair, and it's like in the yeah, kissing Amnion,
I've seen that, but even the even I mean the
the caterpillar is for sure super fluffy, but the adult

(34:00):
has it going on when it comes to like the
sort of color coordination, Dude, like.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
It's still hitting, it's got sitting.

Speaker 1 (34:06):
Because it's like the caterpillar is more uniform. But then
the adult has this beautiful sort of it's got a
bit of that camel color on its back, its wings
are tipped in white.

Speaker 2 (34:18):
It's got allow it's it.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
It seriously does it's little, it's got the and it's
got the sort of little black boots fashion going on.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
You know.

Speaker 1 (34:27):
It's like it's like a tope sweater with like black boots.
You know that look right, Like it's an incredible look.
It's beautiful. It does look like a toasted marshmallow. But
you know what, it also kind of looks like to
me bird poop, which I'm saying not to be insulting, because.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
That what they're going for.

Speaker 1 (34:49):
I think they might in some ways be going for
a little bit of bird poop because it does have
like the black when whenever there's sort of like black
white and sort of brown mixed together, you could get
a little bit a bird poop vibes from it, which
I don't. I think it's really cute. I'm gonna say.

Speaker 2 (35:05):
It's apothetically bird poop.

Speaker 1 (35:07):
It's aesthetically pleasing. I'm just saying to something that might
be a predator who's taking a quick glance around, it
might just be like, that's bird poop and move on.

Speaker 2 (35:16):
Yeah. So the thing about the caterpillars is that they
are very very fluffy and very very cute and also
very very very venomous. So those those fluffy hairs are
hiding in like amidst the fluffy soft hairs are sharp
venomous spines. It's diabolical, Yeah, And all it takes is

(35:39):
just kind of brushing up against one. Like you don't
have to like grab it or harass it or anything.
You can just kind of like brush up against one.
And those spines can, you know, really inject a lot
of venom. Usually it's not the sort of thing that
kills people, but people regularly have to go to the
er from these little caterpillars. And I've even heard of
I think it was an, Texas that one year, I

(36:02):
think it was one fall they had a particularly bad
outbreak of these caterpillars and kids being the.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
Way that they are fluffy, it looks it's fluffy.

Speaker 2 (36:11):
It's it's unusual, right, Yeah, it's something if you can't
see the body, right, so it's hard to see, you
tell what it is immediately. Kids are curious, kids are tactile,
kids are sensory seeking. Yeah, so they see these little
things and they just grab I.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
Had one hundred percent do that as a child, by
the way, so yeah, I had to be My mom
had to come get me from school one time because
they grabbed a cactus off of a teacher's desk, like
one of those fluffy cactuses.

Speaker 2 (36:37):
I just grabbed it with my whole hand. Of course,
of course, yeah, my mom had to bring me home.

Speaker 1 (36:41):
I was constantly picking up bugs. I probably shouldn't have,
but like, yeah, I mean that is a good rule
of thumb, is that. Yeah, fluffy caterpillars. I know, like
there are some that are safe to pick up, but
unless you really know which ones those are, there's a
really good chance that at the very least those are
gonna be irdicating hairs. They're gonna be like really irritating. Uh,

(37:05):
and then on the other end of the spectrum, you
might have to go to the hospital.

Speaker 2 (37:10):
Like nothing, it can't be good.

Speaker 1 (37:12):
It isn't You're probably not gonna be good.

Speaker 2 (37:15):
Like you you're not gonna pick up a caterpillar and
suddenly you're like super buff and strong and can jump
ten feet in the air. Like it's not gonna.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
Help, but you when you say that, like that's specifically now,
I wonder if maybe you do, and I kind of
want to try.

Speaker 2 (37:29):
It maybe the like have I not been living up
to my full potential?

Speaker 1 (37:34):
Like right, I feel like I feel like.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
I haven't tried to pick up anything really heavy.

Speaker 1 (37:38):
I feel like when you specifically make a warning about that,
I'm like, all right, you're hiding something from me, just
like the raw milk. You're hiding the raw milk and
the fluffy caterpillars, And I'm gonna have a bowl of
raw milk and touch some caterpillars.

Speaker 2 (37:53):
There's only one way to know. No, the the adult
moth is harmless. The adult moth can't do anything. They
lose like the venomous spine, everything that the adult moth.
They're still fluffy, they're not venomous.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
They're to find them and pet them. Then that's it.
Gotta find for you, you adult moths. I'm gonna pet
all of you.

Speaker 2 (38:14):
Then, So the venom of the southern flannel moth caterpillar
and being like really fluffy but also don't touch it.
Uh makes a lot of people make that same conclusion
about wooly bears, which are also a tiny, little, very
very very fluffy caterpillar. If bushy, black and red fluffy
sort of hairs on them also not hair, technically hairs,

(38:35):
they're like sea tea. I guess those are not venomous. Now,
people with like sensitive skin might react to them, but
that's probably just like either an allergic or like a
you know, just like some sort of dermal logical reaction. Yeah,
that is not very common. They're probably fine, but still,
like you said, you know, air on the side of

(38:55):
caution and just leave the caterpillars alone.

Speaker 1 (38:57):
Probably, yeah, yeah, unless you're like it, unless you're like
a professional caterpillar whisperer and you're like, I know this caterpillar,
we're buds.

Speaker 2 (39:05):
And yeah, me and this caterpillar go way back, right, well,
probably not that far back. Because I don't live that long.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
Well, you know, it's you know, it's whole life life.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
There was one more fluffy moth that I wanted to
touch on, and it's you're gonna have to go for
a ride on this because it's called called I'm putting
in air quotes the Venezuelan poodle moth.

Speaker 1 (39:31):
Oh yeah, I you know what I think. I'm I'm
actually aware of this one because I have seen it,
like a feltered version of it that people think is real. Yes,
so like this is the one where where people so
like people, so people think it's a there's two camps,
or probably more than two camps. There's a few camps

(39:51):
of people where it's like some people are like, it's real,
And here's a photo of it being felt of a
feltered version of it that looks super adorable and someone's
holding and it's pretty large, and people think that's the
photo of it, and it's like, well, that is not real.
That is a felted version. Then there are those who
have realized that that's a fake photo and they're like, so,

(40:12):
then this does not exist. It is not a real insect.
And then there's those who know the Secrets of the Universe,
like Ellen Weatherford.

Speaker 2 (40:23):
Yeah, so the it is a real moth, but the
Venezuela the poodle moth is a very informal name. It's not.
So what makes us even weirder is that it's an
unidentified species. Like it was just photographed one time in
Venezuela by a zoologist named doctor Arthur Anker. He posted

(40:44):
the photo on flicker, like it's on his Flicker account,
you can go see it, and he just titled it
poodle moth. Nobody knows like this, it doesn't seem to
belong to any like known species of moth. Nobody has
ever like idd it to a species, and so everyone
just called it the poodle moth because it's white and
fluffy and really really cute.

Speaker 1 (41:04):
It's also it's also that it's fluff comes out in
like little tuffs like a poodle, right, you know how
like the poodle has the I forgot what that haircut
is called for the poodle, but it's the one where
you have the little like butt circles and little like
pom poms on its legs and then the tiny legs
stick out. And this photo, the one the sort of
famous photo of the real one. It's like that it's

(41:26):
got little tufts on its little legs and then it's
got little tiny feet sticking out. It is incredibly cute.

Speaker 2 (41:33):
It's very cute. So yeah, just it's just an unidentified
species of moth that it was. The guy called it
a poodle moth, and it was photographed in Venezuela, so
everyone called it the Venezuelan poodle moth. And then that
kind of gets like thrown around like it's like the
species name and it's not, I mean, right, because there
would be a common name anyway. But you know, it's

(41:54):
just it's just an informal name for an unidentified species.

Speaker 1 (41:57):
And it's not that there aren't other photos of fluffy
white moths that are found in Venezuela.

Speaker 2 (42:02):
There are.

Speaker 1 (42:03):
The point is that it's not it has not been
determined which species this belongs to or what exactly this
one is.

Speaker 2 (42:11):
There's a lot of fluffy white there's a lot of fluffy.

Speaker 1 (42:13):
White moths, and it's not so surprising to me that
we don't know exactly what it is because like in
Venezuela and in sort of especially like very like like
in South American rainforest areas, there's such a huge diversity
of animals and it's so like densely packed like with
different species, it's really hard to identify them all.

Speaker 2 (42:34):
Yeah, I believe it. Yeah. So the those are my
those are my heavy hitters. Those are my my big ones,
my big three in the family.

Speaker 1 (42:44):
Those are incredible, and I do love them. I kind
of like, you know, I feel like I want to be, uh,
sort of just have that be the person that walks
around the neighborhood with a bunch of moths on my
shoulders and be known as that, like as the moth.

Speaker 2 (43:05):
All you have to do is just carry a little lantern.

Speaker 1 (43:07):
Right, yeah, exactly, just walk around, you know. I had
a sphinx moth land on me once and refused to
let go, and I was chosen and it did it
did eventually die so like it wouldn't like I tried
to get it off of my shirt. I was hiking
and I tried to get it off my shirt, and
it really like as soon as I would kind of
pull it off, it would fly back on and like

(43:30):
it did this like death grip on my shirt. And
I was worried about crushing it because I couldn't like
pull it off. So then I like took it home,
took my shirt off, put it in a box and
put some flowers in it and put it outside. It
did die, so it it was I think it was
just kind of posed to though I think it had.

(43:54):
This is my theory is that it had already made
it and it saw me and it was like, dude,
I'm gonna die on you. Is that cool? Uh? So
like just like hung on to mean, just wanted somewhere
like you know, nice and comfortable to settle down for
its retirement.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
And so attracted to your inner light.

Speaker 1 (44:13):
My my, my inner mothiness, my appreciation for months. Anyways,
that was a magical experience and I really connected with
this moth and I feel like, uh we got to
be really good friends. And it did leave me in
its will, and it left me like a stick.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
It left you some dust.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
Yeah, some scaled us. We are going to take another
quick break and when we come back, we're going to
talk about some more blah blah blah. All right, we
are back and on exciting news coming out of Australia.
There news clearly gunning for like some Olympic metal in

(44:56):
country with the most fluffy arrapods because a new fluffy
beetle has been discovered in Australia. Actually kind of around
the time of the fluffy crab was discovered. I think
it was in twenty twenty one.

Speaker 2 (45:13):
This beetle is big news. I feel like beetles aren't
usually fluffy.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
Beetles are not typically fluffy. There are some beetles that
are fluffier than others. They have more bristles called setee
than your average beetle, and it happens. But this one
is particularly fluffy and is so. This is called the
ex Castra albo pilosa. It is a longhorned beetle which

(45:42):
was discovered in Australia and it is cute with very
long antinna as most longhorned beetles have. Because the name,
and it has black and red splotches, and of course
it is covered in tufts of fluffy white fur that

(46:03):
makes me want to pet it. Hold me back, keep
me from petting this beetle. It was found in Queensland, Australia,
by University of Queensland PhD biodiversity student James Tweed while camping.
At first he thought it was bird poop, which is
fair enough. You know, like it see it. I can

(46:25):
see it too. It's got the white splotchiness, the black
you know, it's it's kind of it's that classic mix
of white, brown and red where it's like, if it's
from a distance and you're just glancing, you could be
just like, yeah, bird poop, But up close it's very cute,
kind of like our flannel moth. Actually, in terms of
like from a distance, I bet that kind of looks
a little bit like bird Doodoo, and that might be intentional,

(46:47):
but then up close you're like, you know what you're
actually you're not bird Dodo. You're a cute little guy.

Speaker 4 (46:53):
Guy.

Speaker 2 (46:54):
It's a little guy. I if I saw this beetle
that you've provide a photo of, just like out and
about my first guess if I if it wasn't like
actively moving, would be that it had been overtaken by
a fungus. It is really interesting.

Speaker 1 (47:11):
Yeah, it looks.

Speaker 2 (47:12):
Like it's coded in a sort of like because I
used to work at a pet store and we had like,
you know, a bunch of fish tanks, and one of
the things we would have to look for on the
fish was like white fuzz because white fuzz was commonly
like a fungal infection. So I when I look at it,
that's that's what it looks like to me. Is it
looks like a white fungus.

Speaker 1 (47:33):
Yeah, it looks like a Cordyceps infection. We've talked about
Cops on the show. It's type of fungus that invades UH,
infests various arthropods. It's that's the fungus that if it
sounds familiar and you don't know where to place, it's
from the video game and TV show The Last of Us.
Obviously not scientifically accurate, but yes, it is a real

(47:54):
fungus that infects UH animals ophiol cord aceps UH. But
the this is actually not fungus. And it's interesting you
bring that up though, because we don't know yet what
the fluff is for. And one of the theories is
that it is meant for it to look like fungus,
such that predators or ants or anything that might hassle

(48:17):
this beetle will leave it alone, because you don't want
to mess with something that is infected with like a
contagious fungus. Potentially.

Speaker 2 (48:27):
Yeah, so when it gets fluffy, exactly, stuff that's white
and fluffy.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
Yeah, I definitely throw away my bread when it's fluffy.
So it is, uh, it is called it's about ten
millimeters long, so it's like, you know, it's a little guy.
And uh it is called extra castra albow pillowsa which

(48:52):
means from the camp covered in white hair, which is
It's an okay name, but I think he should have
named it. I think he should have named it. Sorry,
thought you were bird poop, but you're not. Uh my bad.
I uh yeah, sorry, I.

Speaker 2 (49:07):
Thought you were bird poop, then thought you were weird fungus.

Speaker 1 (49:10):
Yes, but yeah it is. It's a it's thought that, yeah,
the the these these bristles that look very soft and fluffy,
may be uh, some form of camouflage because it doesn't
seem like they're venomous or irritating or anything. So it's like,
maybe it's meant to look like fungus. Maybe it's meant
to look like bird doodoo. Maybe it's a little bit

(49:30):
of both. Maybe it's meant to look like fungus covered
bird doodoo. Either way, this beetle is very humble, trying
to present itself as not cute and edible. But I'm
gonna say, buddy, you're still cute, no matter how hard
you try.

Speaker 2 (49:46):
Yeah, you can't fool me. I know you're cute under there.

Speaker 1 (49:48):
You're beautiful because you don't know you're beautiful and you're
trying to look like fungus covered bird poop. Is the song? Yeah? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (49:59):
That? Wait? Was that direction?

Speaker 1 (50:00):
I don't know. I think the song was girl, You're
beautiful because you're trying to look like bird poop.

Speaker 2 (50:08):
That that's a quote directly from one direction.

Speaker 1 (50:12):
Yeah, yeah, I know it's I know their entire discography.

Speaker 2 (50:18):
I have a lot of songs about bird poop.

Speaker 1 (50:20):
You're just saying, all right, Ellen, how long do you
think would be the velvet ant?

Speaker 2 (50:25):
So short? I have one paragraph on velvet ants real quick.

Speaker 1 (50:29):
Let's let's let's cap off with this episode with uh
with something something small and probably not touchable.

Speaker 2 (50:39):
No, no, you don't want to touch these. It doesn't
stop a lot of people. People do it anyway, because
I think they just don't know. This is another one
of those things. It's like you find out about it
as an adult and you're like, oh my gosh, why
weren't we all told about this? They're velvet ants and
they are beautiful, lovely little guys. They are are not

(51:00):
actually ants. They are wingless wasps, which is like, okay,
what is an ant but a wingless wasp? I know,
like ants like evolved from wasps, right, they're like derived.

Speaker 1 (51:12):
Yeah, but you know you fo evolutionary history and they
have a common ancestor with with winged wasps.

Speaker 2 (51:22):
Yeah. But the velvet ants are like not even in
like the ant group. They are just wasps. They're not
social either, They're they're solitary. Now what velvet ants are
known for. First of all, they're fluffy. There's lots of
different types of velvet ants. The velvet ants where I
am from are red velvet ants. So they're red and
black and very pretty actually like this downy sort of

(51:47):
like like hair like structures covering their body.

Speaker 1 (51:50):
There. They are our widow who definitely didn't kill her husband,
uh with the red with the red going, yeah, yeah,
I would never kill my husband for his substantial inheritance.
This new four coat, I didn't buy it with my
dead husband substantial inheritance.

Speaker 2 (52:11):
Now, don't look too closely at the update to his
will submitted the day before he disappeared. Yeah, so the
red velvet ants are really really pretty. They're pretty well known.
They're called cow killers, although they probably don't actually kill.

Speaker 1 (52:28):
Never, I would never.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
They do have extremely painful stings. Yes, they were given
a three out of four on the Schmidt pain Index.

Speaker 1 (52:40):
Isn't that that guy who like stung himself?

Speaker 2 (52:44):
When they say the Schmidt pain Index, it's a guy.
It's a guy Schmidt. He's like, got stung himself. Yep,
that's smart insects.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
Yeah, no, we're not joking. We aren't joking. This is
not a bit. It's a it's a guy, a biologist
named He was like, I'm gonna rank the stings and
how much they suck. And he's stung himself and he
was like, that's a Nate.

Speaker 2 (53:09):
He's like, that's pretty bad.

Speaker 1 (53:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (53:12):
So they they got a pretty high ranking on that one,
not like the highest, but like about on par with
most other wasps. So do you have a very painful sting.
It's said to hurt for about thirty minutes or they're
somewhat common where I'm from in Florida. I saw them
in the wild in Florida. Once again. That problem with

(53:33):
like little kids where they see something like bright and
colorful and they don't know any better, and they just
grab it. So you know, that is kind of like
they can't fly, so they don't I think I remember,
like the ones that have wings don't have stingers, and
the ones that have stingers don't have wings, so like
it's either way, like just just don't don't mess with them, Yeah,

(53:53):
pull them up. They have a very painful sting. The
bright red and black coloration is thought to be aposomat.
That's a warning for predators of their very very painful sting.
There's also a type of velvet ant called the thistle
down velvet ant that is once again white and fluffy
and has these long, this long, bristly sort of white hair.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
I think are those found in southern California, because I
think I've seen some version of those as Yeah, I
think I've seen some version of those in southern California.
I don't know if it's that exact species, but I've
seen white velvet wasps or sorry, white velvet ants who
are wasps in southern California.

Speaker 2 (54:32):
And for a long time it was thought to be
like because they're mimicking a type of like seed pod,
like a fluffy, white type of like seed that is
found in that area. But there was a more there
was more recent research. Unfortunately I didn't write this one down,
but there was research within the last few years that
suggested that it's not that they're mimicking the seeds, is
that they're mimicking other velvet ants. And like they have

(54:55):
this mimicry ring where there's all these like wasps and
stinging insects that all kind of look like each other,
and they're all just kind of mimicking each other because
this has become a very effective signal of like we
are something that will hurt you very badly. So it's
like it's this like Mulerian micry ring.

Speaker 1 (55:14):
So essentially like when you have each other, when you
have like a knockoff of a show and then like
or or franchise, and then there's a knockoff of the knockoff,
and then there's like a big knockoff of the knockoff.

Speaker 2 (55:28):
Yeah, they're all they're all kind of mimicking each other,
but they do they do look like these little seed pods.
I just I can't think of why that would deter
a predator, you know, Like, I don't think there's anything
particularly wrong with that seed pod. Maybe it just makes
them not look like an ant.

Speaker 1 (55:42):
Yeah, I found the one. The one that's in southern
California is white and fluffy and it's called seconds velvet Ant.
Oh yeah, adorable.

Speaker 2 (55:51):
I do like the ones that are called thistle Down.
I like that because thistle Down sounds a lot like
the person from Bridgerton.

Speaker 1 (55:56):
It also just sounds fanciful, like a little fairy.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
Very cool name.

Speaker 1 (56:00):
My name is this Down and.

Speaker 2 (56:05):
Grand true wishes Dan you a lot of character there.

Speaker 1 (56:09):
You cry. It's hard not to. They're so fluffy. I
just want to like when something is fluffy. And I
do this with my dog, but I just I have
to give them a stupid little voice. So I'm constantly
like I'm constantly talking in the voice of my dog
to my husband. Uh. And I've gotten him to start
doing it. And it's a it's a it's a shared madness.

Speaker 2 (56:33):
We have always done that, like, you know, narrating the
internal dialogue of your pets. Yeah, thing, It's like we've
always done that, and we do it with our cat,
who's a monster. He's a goblin, he's the worst, and
we do it so often. We have a four year
old and the four year old has just started trying
to do that, like trying to be like his name

(56:55):
is Aki. The cat's name is Aki. Sorry, the four
year old name is not Aki. As the four year
old has started trying to be like Aki's like and
then like say what he thinks the cat would say
in that moment, but he didn't really get it at first,
so he would be like act, He's like.

Speaker 1 (57:08):
Yeah, ya, he is probably much more into what the
cat's actual thoughts than you guys.

Speaker 2 (57:16):
He probably would say that I.

Speaker 1 (57:17):
Think he's I think he's probably got a better beat
on this cat than you guys, because like what is
going through the cat's head probably yam yam, yam yao.

Speaker 2 (57:26):
You nailed it, dude. That is so him. That is
so classic cat.

Speaker 1 (57:31):
He's gonna be great at impressions as when he gets grows.

Speaker 2 (57:35):
Up, Aki's like.

Speaker 1 (57:40):
Fantastic.

Speaker 2 (57:42):
So I was. I did try. I earnestly tried to
look around to see if I could get like an
explanation as to why velvet ants in general tend to
be fuzzy. Could not find anything. Found absolutely nothing. It
doesn't seem like it's a question a lot of people
have asked, so if anyone knows a better answer, I

(58:02):
would love to hear it. I tried to come up
with a few guesses of my own. They don't live
in cold places, so I don't think it's for thermoregulation,
unless maybe they're like coming out at night, so I
don't I don't think. I don't know if it's for
heat retention. They aren't preyed on by bats, they don't
fly around, so I don't think it's for dampening sound.

(58:24):
They're relatives. The bees tend to be fluffy, but that's
more for pollen collection, so I don't think that that's
like what's going on here. The velvet ants don't collect pollen.
So my best thought that I could come up with
is maybe repelling water. Since they crawl around on the
ground and maybe would be crawling through like puddles or
you know, accidentally getting water. Maybe they're trying to repel

(58:46):
water off of their body. That was really the best
I could think of. I could not find much on
why velvet ants tend to be fuzzy.

Speaker 1 (58:54):
It could also be a part of their sort of warning, right,
like I'm pleasant to put in your mouth look at like,
because you know, even though the thing is something that's
like really fluff like poofy and fluffy in nature, like
especially an insect. Insect. Even though to human beings we're
like I want to pet you, it might be to

(59:17):
an animal that's thinking about putting it in its mouth,
like I don't want a mouthful of fluff like that.
It might also like the texture of it might because
I know that this is the case for plant hoppers,
Like they have these big waxy, fluffy tufts that they
wear and it's meant to be like, look, dude, this
looks nasty and it's not going to be fine to

(59:39):
put in your mouth, and then if something does try
to bite them, it's gonna get a mouthful of fluff
of the And perhaps this is the same case for
these velvet ants, Like something tries to bite it, it's
like the mouthful of fluff. Because even though it could
use its stinger to ward off predators, it's a valuable resource, right,

(01:00:01):
so it's better to like it might it might be
that it has like two defense mechanisms, right, like that
that color, the the texture and then also the stinger.
And yeah, I mean it could also like there could
be something about its environment, like maybe it helps it,
like as it's crawling through sand or something. Maybe the
bristles help it move better through the sand or so something,

(01:00:23):
or keeps like water from uh you know, getting through too.
It's cuticle. That's I think those are all all good,
all good ideas or fashion fashion. You know, it could
just look nice, just look cool.

Speaker 2 (01:00:36):
I know that the the Saharan silver ant is a
type of ant that lives in African deserts, and they
also have they're coated in hairs. They're not like fluffy.
I wouldn't call them fluffy because the hairs are more
like streamlined, but the hair is real selective. Yeah, and
they help like reflect light from the sun. So that

(01:00:58):
is a beautiful regulation in the other opposite direction keeping
them cool. But I didn't think that was applicable here
because the velvet ants, like hairs aren't reflective right in
the same way that the silver ants are, So I
don't think that's very applicable here. Just yeah, there's some
some interesting I guess room for room for research, I.

Speaker 1 (01:01:18):
Think, yeah, yeah, for sure. I feel like given that
some of them have really either really long bristles or
short ones, but really brightly colored, I feel like that
being like a warning of like I'm not palatable. You
don't want to eat? Ye feels the most right to me,
but I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:01:34):
I did just have a mental like image of putting
cotton balls in your mouth. If you've ever had to
do that, like it's.

Speaker 4 (01:01:41):
A good well I played the godfla. You come to
the you come to my daughter's wedding right after a.

Speaker 2 (01:01:58):
I've heard actors say that that's how they do it.
All Australian accent is believe that they like just pretend
they have cotton balls in their mouth.

Speaker 1 (01:02:04):
Well, I'm Australia. I'm not. I'm not hearing it. I
don't I don't get down. You come to my dollars
wearing in Australia.

Speaker 2 (01:02:14):
It's in there, it's in there. You got it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:17):
All right? Well, before we go, we got to play
a little game, a game called guess you squawk on
the Mystery Animal Sound game. The last last year we
had a Mystery Animal sound the last sound from twenty
twenty four, and this is the hint for that. Just
let him grab his winter coat and he's ready to

(01:02:39):
start caroling because this was done around when this time.
And then we had a bunch of interlude episodes and now, hey,
it's January twenty seventh. Man, I'm back. I'm back in business.
I guess it's probably later now because it's gonna get released.

Speaker 3 (01:02:53):
In a few days.

Speaker 1 (01:02:54):
But hey, we're back. More game, new year, new sounds.
Let's Oh. I love this. I love this little guy.
So you got any guesses?

Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
It's I see it in my mind's eye. I see it.
It's a little bird? Is it? Is it a ptarmigan?

Speaker 1 (01:03:15):
It is? Indeed? Good job?

Speaker 2 (01:03:17):
Oh nice? I like, I just was cracky. I was
showing my kids videos of them making this stupid little sound,
and my kids were very delighted by it. So the
timing could not have been better. I was just like
a couple weeks ago watching videos.

Speaker 1 (01:03:32):
Nice little nice.

Speaker 3 (01:03:35):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:03:35):
Yeah, so absolutely correct. This is a willow ptarmagin uh.
These are found in the cold parts of northern Europe, Alaska, Scandinavias,
Iberia in Canada, so they you know, they like the tundra.
They are very round birds. In the summer, they're brown.
They just kind of look like brown round birds. And

(01:03:56):
they're about fifteen inches or thirty eight centimeters tall, so
they're you know, they're they're a handful of bird and
they have this modeled brown and white plumage. Males actually
have this fantastic red flesh around the tops of their
eyes because they can work at baby and in the

(01:04:17):
winter they trade their brown coats for white plumage so
that they can blend in with the snowy background more.
And I mean they really fit for this fluffy episode
because their feet are super super fluffy. They're covered in
these protective feathers. They've got all if you look at
like their little tootsies. They've got all this fluffy, downy
feathering around their toes and then very thick leathery soles,

(01:04:42):
thick leathery soles on the bottoms of their feet to
stay warm on the tundras. So these are these are
like real snow birds. They have the same kind of
adaptations of say, like a snowhair or like a lynx,
which is I don't know if I find that wild
that you have, like it's this is these are birds.
These are dinosaurs and they have the same adaptations as say,

(01:05:05):
like an arctic fox or a snowhair.

Speaker 2 (01:05:08):
Let me copy your homework, just change it up a
little bit so yeah it doesn't notice.

Speaker 1 (01:05:14):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's it's yeah, it's it's fantastic.
Uh they're fluffy. And then the sound and the sound
they make is so goofy coming out of Would.

Speaker 2 (01:05:25):
You spell that sound like waddle like.

Speaker 1 (01:05:32):
Glaggle glaggles? How I would spell it. I feel that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:36):
We'll just we'll just not be putting them in any
comics where we have to be uh putting an automn.
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:05:42):
I feel like glaggling is a great sounding word, glaggle exactly.
All right? Onto uh onto the next oops, Nope, ignore that,
Onto the next mysteral sound. The hint is this, I
got some wild news for you guys. Fat bay all right, Ellen,

(01:06:12):
you got any guesses?

Speaker 2 (01:06:13):
What gosh? At first it sounded like a like a pig,
like a pig of copcon. And then it sounded like
a like a large frog, like.

Speaker 1 (01:06:28):
A Sorry, I was kind of gassy, I was. I
just drank a bunch of a bunch of soda.

Speaker 2 (01:06:37):
It sounds I think it's giving like like a bullfrog,
like large frog. That's what I'm gonna Say'm gonna say's
a large frog.

Speaker 1 (01:06:43):
All right, we got large frog. If you think you
know who is making that sound, you can write to
me at Creature Feature Pod at gmail dot com. You
can also write to me your questions, your comments, your observations,
or pictures of your adorable pets. Ellen, thank you so
much for joining me today. Where can people find you?

Speaker 2 (01:07:05):
Just the Zoo of Us is on the Maximum Fun Network.
You can listen to that where you get podcasts. Also,
my other podcast, which is not for kids, by the way,
is Spellbound and Gagged. Katie's been on talking about parasites.
You've also been on Just the Zoo of Us, so
I have.

Speaker 1 (01:07:21):
I've been in the Extended Ellen Universe.

Speaker 2 (01:07:24):
Yeah, you're in the Cinematic Universe.

Speaker 1 (01:07:25):
I'm in there. I've got my own wiki page.

Speaker 2 (01:07:28):
You're canon, You're in the fan wiki. So yeah, those
are places where you can listen to my boys. I'm
also on Blue Sky. I think that's probably the only
ski media I use regularly these days. Yeah, I'm skeating,
all skating everywhere, set on the rig.

Speaker 1 (01:07:47):
Yeah, uh well, you know what, I highly recommend those
shows and not just the ones I'm on. I do
recommend those two as well, because if.

Speaker 2 (01:07:58):
You want to really focus, if you really you.

Speaker 1 (01:08:00):
Want a full dose of Katie. But the whole shows
are great, definitely recommend, so do check those out. Guys,
thank you so much for listening. If you're enjoying the
show and you leave me a rating or review, you
that tangibury helps me. I'm gonna say that like I'm
not Scooby Doo, that tangibly helps me, And thank you

(01:08:23):
so much for listening. Thanks to the Space Cossics for
their super awesome song XO. Lumina Creature Feature is a
production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts like the one you
just heard, visit the iHeartRadio app. Apple podcasts are Hey.

Speaker 4 (01:08:36):
Guess what already listen to your favorite shows.

Speaker 1 (01:08:39):
I can't judge you. I'm not your mother. I can't
tell you what to do. But don't pet the velvety.
They don't want it, they don't need it, and they
will sting you until you're like, oh my god, that
Schmidt guy was right. This hurts real. This is twenty schmidtz.

Speaker 2 (01:08:55):
It hurts bad.

Speaker 1 (01:08:58):
See your next one. You need to see you next Wednesday.

Speaker 2 (01:09:04):
M m hm mm hmm