Woman stumped by bizarre 'death spiral' discovery in backyard
One expert believes the caterpillars may have been marching to their demise.
A woman filmed the bizarre moment a congregation of caterpillars got themselves trapped in a "death spiral" in her backyard.
Alyssa Baker filmed hundreds of the insects following one another in an endless loop and shared it online, asking other insect enthusiasts what the hell was going on.
"I was just letting my dog outside in the backyard when I saw something moving on the sidewalk next to the garage on the edge of the grass," she told Yahoo News Australia of the strange discovery last week.
"There had to have been a hundred or more just running around each other reminding me so much of a mosh pit circle of death of the bug world. It looked pretty hardcore I didn’t want to disturb it."
Baker, who lives in Michigan in the US, filmed the video hoping to find out more from entomologists.
"It’s been very humid and higher temps, so much more mosquito activity and I thought maybe they were of that family but I’m not so sure on that one," she said.
Watch the footage:
Experts weigh in on strange insect behaviour
"It looks like they are in a death spiral," Dr Bryan Lessard, known as Bry the Fly Guy, told Yahoo News Australia. The entomologist, who authored Eyes on Flies said the caterpillars follow each other using chemical cues.
"It looks like they are confused and following each other instead. They might not break the cycle and do this until they die. Death spirals are quite common in ants but I've never seen them in caterpillars before."
Baker, who captured the moment hopes it was a "good sign" that when she checked a few hours later, the animals had gone.
Dr Andrew Mitchell, an entomologist from the Australian Museum explained the insects are known as processionary caterpillars. "It is a common name that is applied to a number of different unrelated species," he said.
"In Michigan it is likely to be a species of Malcosoma. In Europe you get pine processionary caterpillars and in Australia you get Ochrogaster lunifer,” he added. “The hairs are urticating (stinging) so one should avoid touching them".
Processionary caterpillars have been well known to make their way around Australian homes. One woman was horrified to find thousands of them at her front door while another ridiculously long procession was spotted in Alice Springs.
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