EcuadorMegadiverso

This Ensign Wasps, in the family Evaniidae, was filmed in the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador. The black abdomen (metasoma) moves up and down as if signalling with a flag, which gave rise to the common name ensign wasp. They are completely harmless to humans and actually are beneficial since they lay an egg in the egg cases of cockroaches and the hatched wasp larva feeds on the roach eggs.

These leafcutter ants filmed near Puyo in the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador carry leaves to their colony's fungus garden. The wingless worker ants are females. Each ant can carry up to 50 times its own body weight. This is equivalent to a man carrying a van over his head! Leafcutter ants cut foliage into pieces. Since they cannot digest plants themselves they carry them to their underground colonies, where they grind up the material and inoculate it with a fungus. The harvested fungus is then used as a food source for the ant colony. Therefore leafcutter ants are also called fungus-growing ants. By the way there are more than 1 million ants for each human on Earth and the total mass of all the ants is roughly equal to the mass of all the people on Earth. Ecuador is one of 17 megadiverse countries, it actually has the highest biodiversity per square kilometer of any nation, with over 1660 species of birds, some 4000 species of butterflies and thousands of colorful moths, more than 500 amphibians, as well as a unique flora with e.g. over 4300 species of orchids. See more amazing videos from Ecuador at https://rumble.com/user/EcuadorMegadiverso

This Caterpillar filmed near Mindo in Ecuador looks like a feather which presumably gives it an advantage in the struggle for survival since predators such as birds will not perceive it as food. There are more than 3500 species of butterflies and some 10000 of moths in Ecuador and their larvae have evolved different strategies to escape predators. Some hide in the vegetation due to camouflage coloration, others resemble a stick or moss or mimic bird droppings. Bagworms build cases out of silk and materials such as leafs, wood and soil as camouflage, such as this Pagoda bagworm: https://rumble.com/v48got. Other caterpillars on the contrary are highly colorful (aposematic coloration) to warn potential predators that they are unpalatable or even toxic or have venomous spines. Some caterpillars expose fake eyes to deter predators, such as this snake mimic caterpillar from Ecuador: https://rumble.com/v311ab. But this is an exceptional case of a caterpillar disguised as a feather. It even makes steps back as it moves as if it was agitated by the wind!

Jumping spiders are the largest family of spiders. They do not build a web to trap insects, but jump on their prey and grab it with the jaws. They still produce silk for safety lines while jumping and also to build a tent as shelter from bad weather and to sleep at night. As most spiders they have four pairs of eyes, which give them a 360-degree view of the world. Their large frontal eyes are build like telescopes and provide them with very sharp vision. A mobile retina allows them to scan the object they are looking at.

A curious video has emerged showcasing the caterpillar larvae of bagworm moth hauling its camouflage on its back. Apparently they construct cases out of silk and materials such as leaves, wood and soil as camouflage from predators. It is incredible that each bagworm makes a case particular to its species, in this case of a Pagoda bagworm the camouflage resembles a Chinese temple. The bagworm extends its head and thorax from the mobile case to devour the leaves of host plants. They also pupate inside their house and adult males take flight to find a mate, while emerged female moths are wingless. Without leaving their bag they are fertilized by a male moth through the tip of the pagoda. The female lays her eggs inside the bag and seals it with saliva, then leaves its home and dies. Caterpillars are <a href="https://rumble.com/v31l8c-must-see-amazing-caterpillar-looks-has-an-incredible-camouflage.html" target="_blank">masters of disguise</a>, they retreat inside their protective mobile shelter on their back to avoid predators. Have you ever bumped into a brown leaf-cocoon object while walking along pavements or on overhead bridges? They usually appear to be tiny and non-existent until you felt something sticky on your face or hands when you knocked into their silky threads holding the cocoons. Bagworm moths are of the Order Lepidoptera, same as the butterflies and family Psychidae. The distinctive feature of bagworms is that their larvae are remarkable architects, building mobile cases made of environmental materials, in this example, the leaves, to hide themselves in. Thus, within each case hides a tiny <a href="https://rumble.com/v3107e-a-colorful-caterpillar-looking-for-a-way.html" target="_blank">caterpillar</a>. For the pagoda bagworm, it scrapes the chlorophyll off the leaf before incising cleanly around the area consumed, creating a circular wound. The excised leaf piece is then added to its protective casing.

This hairy and brightly coloured caterpillar of a Lappet moth (Lasiocampidae) was filmed in the cloud forest near Mindo, Ecuador. The adult moths of Lasiocampidae do not feed and therefore live for one or two weeks only. There are about 3500 species of butterflies and perhaps 10000 of moths in Ecuador, which is one of the most biodiverse countries on Earth.

Jumping spiders do not build a web to trap insects, but jump on their prey and grab it with the jaws. They still produce silk for safety lines while jumping and also to build a tent as shelter from bad weather and to sleep at night. As most spiders they have four pairs of eyes, which give them a 360-degree view of the world. Their large frontal eyes are build like telescopes and provide them with very sharp vision. A mobile retina allows them to scan the object they are looking at. They might look huge, nasty and vicious, but they are actually unbelievably tiny! The body length of jumping spiders generally range from 1 to 25 mm (0.04–0.98 in). That can easily be acknowledged if you take into account the size of the veins on the leaves in the video. These minuscule buggers can be found almost anywhere. Tropical forests harbor the most species, but they are also found in temperate forests, scrub lands, deserts, intertidal zones, and mountainous regions. Euophrys omnisuperstesis the species reported to have been collected at the highest elevation, on the slopes of Mount Everest. What’s most amazing about these <a href="https://rumble.com/v3adi2-ball-of-baby-spiders.html" target="_blank">tiny spiders</a> is their field of vision. Jumping spiders have four pairs of eyes; three secondary pairs that are fixed and a principal pair that is movable. The posterior median eyes (PME) are vestigial in many species, but in some primitive sub-families they are comparable in size with the other secondary eyes and help to detect motion. While unable to form images, it is suspected that the reduced pair of eyes has a role similar to that of insect ocelli by receiving light from the sky. The photoreceptors in the other secondary pairs are almost exclusively greensensitive, but the PME have two visual pigments different from that in all the other eyes, sensitive to blue and UV-light. The posterior lateral eyes (PLE) are wide-angle motion detectors which sense motions from the side and behind. Combined with the other eyes, it gives the spider a near 360-degree view of the world.

This cute little beetle is about 6 mm in length and probably belongs to the genus Chlamisus in the leaf beetle family Chrysomelidae, Cryptocephalinae. Purple is a rare occurring color in nature. This is an example of the enormous richness and beauty of tropical nature. There are millions of different insect species on earth, but most of them remain to be discovered.

An orchid bee collects perfume from a flower called Stanhopea Florida, which are orchids that do not produce nectar to attract pollinators, but fragrances which are collected by male orchid bees (Euglossini) in order to seduce females. This video shows a bee collecting perfume with brushes on its forelegs and transferring it in flight via the middle legs to cavities on the enlarged hind legs. From Jardín Botánico "Las Orquídeas" in Puyo, Ecuador.

This Harvestman from the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador looks like a bunny with long ears. Its scientific name is Metagryne bicolumnata, from the family of Cosmetidae, in the order of Opiliones, colloquially known as Harvestmen or daddy longlegs. Though superficially similar to spiders they are not closely related to spiders order Araneae, but belong to the same class of Arachnida. Contrary to a common belief Harvestman do not have venom glands and are absolutely harmless. Harvestmen have been around for at least 400 million years and lived even before the dinosaurs. Ecuador is one of 17 megadiverse countries, it actually has the highest biodiversity per square kilometer of any nation, with over 1660 species of birds, some 4000 species of butterflies and thousands of colorful moths, more than 500 amphibians, as well as a unique flora with e.g. over 4300 species of orchids. Watching this bizarre looking “Bunny Harvestman” one cannot help but wonder if a mad scientist has grafted a rabbit's head onto an octet of spindly spider legs. Hilarious! This strange-looking <a href="https://rumble.com/viral/v1227092-bunny-lays-back-and-enjoys-a-bath.html" target="_blank">bunny</a>-spider was filmed on July 11 2017 by Andreas Kay. Surprisingly, the members of the Arachnid class are not classified as <a href="https://rumble.com/v3mrbd-huge-spider-terrifies-tough-farmer.html" target="_blank">spiders</a> even though they have eight legs. Footage shows that this curious creature has a dark body with a pair of eye spots situated on its back midway between its true eyes and the awkward “bunny ears” rise above from the edge of its abdomen. Crazy! Maybe the eye spots and ear-like protuberances are meant to fool predators into thinking the creature is larger than it really is. Kay snapped this bizarre creature while exploring the Amazon rainforest of eastern Ecuador. It was first described in 1959 by German arachnid specialist Carl Friedrich Roewer and left scientists amazed!

This leafcutter ant filmed at the Tamandua Ecolodge & Reserve in the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador carries the corolla tube of an Ericaceae flower to its colony's fungus garden. The wingless worker ants are females. Each ant can carry up to 50 times its own body weight. This is equivalent to a man carrying a van over his head! Leafcutter ants cut foliage into pieces and occasionally collect flowers as seen here. Since they cannot digest plants themselves they carry them to their underground colonies, where they grind up the material and inoculate it with a fungus. The harvested fungus is then used as a food source for the ant colony. Therefore leafcutter ants are also called fungus-growing ants. By the way there are more than 1 million ants for each human on Earth and the total mass of all the ants is roughly equal to the mass of all the people on Earth. Ecuador is one of 17 megadiverse countries, it actually has the highest biodiversity per square kilometer of any nation, with over 1660 species of birds, some 4000 species of butterflies and thousands of colorful moths, more than 500 amphibians, as well as a unique flora with e.g. over 4300 species of orchids.

When this caterpillar in Ecuador is threatened it expands its underside, mimicking a snake head with black eyes! It will also strike like a snake to deter predators! A considerable number of representatives of the animal world are true masters of disguise. For example, the butterfly caterpillar Hemeroplanes Triptolemus has an excellent protective mechanism. In case of danger, it clings to its hind legs to a twig, expands its underside and mimics a snake’s head with large black eyes! It will also strike like a snake to deter predators! This caterpillar can be found in the tropical forests of Central America, although the species has also been seen in the northern part of South America (Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana). Caterpillars spend most of their time on trees thriving on a strictly vegetarian diet and it is positioned on the bottom of the food chain. In order to preserve the species, the <a href="https://rumble.com/v35r1n-5307179.html" target="_blank">caterpillar</a> snake has developed an excellent <a href="https://rumble.com/v4zt6r-protective-mother-bear-climbs-tree-to-keep-closer-eye-on-her-cubs.html" target="_blank">protective</a> mechanism, which allows it to reincarnate into a rattlesnake. At the time of danger, it clings to the back of the tree with its hind legs and lifts the upper part of its body. Then this cunning creature swells and its uplifted part acquires a triangular shape resembling the head of a snake with large eyes and shiny scales. For greater persuasiveness, it even begins to slightly rock "back and forth", imitating, in this way, the readiness of the snake to attack. All these tricks force the enemy to retreat. But, like all caterpillars, after a while, the caterpillar snake will reincarnate into a butterfly. It's a pity that nature’s actor of this magnitude gets to disappear so unpoetically.

Nature is absolutely amazing. There is so many unique and interesting creatures that you could almost never get bored of learning about them all. Some of the most unique creatures in the wild are insects. There are trillions of insects in the world so find unique ones are not that very hard. It seems that the caterpillar in this video is one such insect! When this caterpillar in Ecuador is threatened it expands its underside, mimicking a snake head with black eyes! It will also <a href="https://rumble.com/v31hvv-snake-caterpillar.html" target="_blank">strike like a snake to deter predators</a>! It really does look like a snake! If you are walking through this insects habitat and saw it doing this, there is no mistake that you would think that it is a snake at first! Evolution sure is amazing! What did you think of this video? Have you ever seen an animal like this before? What <a href="https://rumble.com/v31l8c-must-see-amazing-caterpillar-looks-has-an-incredible-camouflage.html" target="_blank">unusual animals</a> have you seen? We would love to hear what you think so please do not hesitate to leave a comment down in the comments section! Please share this video with your family and friends as it is sure to interest them just as much as it interested you! This is one video that no one should ever have to miss out on!