Today's Animal Fact of the Week is that tiger moth caterpillars hear with their hair. I don't want a picture of this thing haunting my blog but you can click here to see one. Tiger moth caterpillars are deaf and blind, but they have long hairs that can sense vibration.
They can only hear one note, middle C, because that's the note their predators' wings make as they swoop toward them. Their predators are parasitic moths, and I'm not going to tell you about them because it's way too gross. Fine, if you really insist on knowing: the wasps lay eggs under the caterpillars' skin which hatch inside them and take over their bodies before eating them alive!
additional reading:
Alien Empire (first line: "Imagine being eaten alive - from the inside out!")
Zombie caterpillars controlled by voodoo wasps
If you shave a tiger moth caterpillar it won't be able to hear anymore. Who would shave a caterpillar? A horse probably. Horses are terrible people.
So far, my hair has no known talents.
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