Back to Show
Deep Look
These Silk-Swinging Caterpillars Will Ruin Your Picnic
Season 8
Episode 1
California oak moth caterpillars eat all the leaves on an oak, leaving a brown skeleton. Then they rappel down on a strand of silk, twirling and swinging. If you were enjoying the shade, good luck getting out of their way. For the oak, the caterpillars are a bigger deal –– will the tree survive?
Support Provided By
Season
3:49
Green lacewings vibrate their bodies and sing to each other!
23:22
These bees are dedicated chefs! They make honey...and bread, bring you cherries, almonds and more!
5:00
These plants spend their whole life getting in just the right position.
19:31
Mosquitoes, ticks, lice, kissing bugs and tsetse flies are all looking to grab a bite ... of you.
4:32
Burying beetles haul mouse carcasses into the dirt and prep them to start a family.
3:47
Wandering salamanders can skydive in the branches of the tallest trees in the world.
4:45
The petroleum fly and their larvae thrive in the natural asphalt at the La Brea Tar Pits.
5:15
Six-rayed sea stars make great moms, caressing and protecting their babies for months!
4:12
House flies deploy a specialized organ called the ptilinum to break out of their pupa!
6:15
Stingless bees don’t have stingers. So, how do they keep honey thieves away?
5:16
After cochineals die, their legacy lives on in the brilliant red hue produced by their hemolymph!
3:44
Those rows of orange cluster under a fern leaf are spores waiting to be catapulted away.