Creatonotos gandis: the scariest butterfly we have ever seen (9 photos)

Some people believe that life on our planet appeared thanks to the experiments of super-intelligent extraterrestrial beings. And you know, I didn’t believe it until I met this incredible thing!





What the hell is this?! A butterfly with hairy tentacles? An octobab? A babonog? What galaxy is it from? Meet it, friends. This is a creature that no one would ever want to see in their closet: the creatonotos gandis, the Baphomet moth, or the Australian terrible moth.



Why are you afraid of butterflies? They are so cute! Also butterflies:

It is impossible to notice such "beauty" only if you are blind: the wingspan of the terrible Australian moth is up to 4 centimeters. For comparison: the dimensions of the usual gray moth are 3-4 times smaller. But we are not here to discuss wings, right? Tentacles! They grow on the abdomen. Strange hairy and very long appendages sometimes larger than the insect itself.





Good day, would you like to talk about our god, Cthulhu?

It would seem that butterflies and tentacles are incompatible in principle. Not only do the additional appendages kill all the aerodynamics, but they also attract attention to themselves. People in horror swing their slippers at the messenger of Cthulhu, who landed on their window. Insectivorous animals look at the juicy growths with appetite, like an appetizer to the main course, because they are unfamiliar with Lovecraftian horrors. So what's the secret?



By the way, without these things the moth looks absolutely harmless!

Because the woolly tentacles are foldable! And also because without them the moths might not have survived to this day. Because the appendages on the abdomen are not for intimidation or beauty: they serve an exclusively practical love function.



Men of any species are the same: they put their achievements on display and wait for someone to come to them!

Scientifically, the things are called coremata - a special organ of males of some species of butterflies. In their normal state, they are "rolled up" and hidden inside the abdomen. But everything changes when the male smells the scent of a beautiful female. An adult creatonotos moth flies to the call of love and begins its creepy performance. The tentacles fill with hemolymph - an analogue of our blood in insects. The processes straighten out and increase in size. Through the pores on the coremata, an intensive secretion of liquid occurs... Hussars, be silent! They secrete pheromones! What did you think?



I won't give you a bouquet of flowers. But I will give you a bouquet of stunning aromas!

The hairs on the tentacles help to disperse the scent of a male ready for love around the area. Moreover, aromatherapy works not only on ladies - an explosive mixture of pheromones shows all the moths in the area who's the daddy here. If the creatonotosisiha likes the scent of a male, she flies to her lover like a moth to the light and mates with him.



Are you on a date or what? Why haven't you shaved?!

It's interesting that size matters in the butterfly world. Not all males have large, hairy and fragrant coremata. The success of the future Don Juan depends on his diet in childhood. If, as a caterpillar, he actively leaned on coffee and alfalfa, which contain toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids, in adulthood his tentacles will grow long and fragrant.



The caterpillars look like part of the coremata. They are just as thick, long and hairy.

Part of the poison that the insect ate as a larva is converted into pheromones. A successful macho secretes up to 400 micrograms of hydroxydanaide. The more of this substance the male sprays, the more attractive he becomes in the eyes of the opposite sex. It is not about the exquisite perfume tastes of the females. It is about the safety of the offspring. Part of the toxic compounds that the suitor disperses is transmitted to his lady during mating. And this, in turn, guarantees the birth of poisonous caterpillars.



Yeah, with such coremats you definitely won't get anywhere...

You can watch the unusual mating ritual with the protrusion of tentacles in Southeast Asia and, of course, in Australia. Babkopods live in forests and gardens, like ordinary cabbage butterflies in our gardens. Only they fly out to look for love at night. So that the curious can experience the performance with all the shades of horror!