Nature’s Secret Knock: How Some Caterpillars Use Mimicry to Sneak into Ant Colonies!

Full Episode description

The insect world is full of sneaky disguises, secret signals, and copycat creatures… In this wild episode of Wow in the World, Mindy and Guy Raz uncover one of the strangest examples of mimicry in insects ever discovered, and the even stranger example of insect mimicry from Dennis’s childhood! From caterpillars pretending to be baby ants to baby dolls pretending to be Dennises… mimicry has never been so bizarre!

Dennis and Baby Dennis are in the middle of a full-blown mustached meltdown after Baby Dennis mysteriously locks Dennis out of his own home. Or, as Gramma G-Force keeps reminding everyone… his mother’s home. As Dennis pounds on the door demanding to be let back inside, Baby Dennis insists that only the “real Dennis” knows the secret code. Uh oh.

What starts as a neighborhood argument quickly turns into a science mystery involving possible identity theft, ant colonies, sneaky caterpillars, and one very dramatic puppet! In this episode, kids and families can dive deep into the fascinating world of gossamer-winged butterfly caterpillars—tiny tricksters that use insect mimicry to survive by fooling entire ant colonies into believing they’re part of the family. These caterpillars don’t look like ants at all, but somehow they convince ants to carry them into their nests, feed them, protect them, and sometimes even prioritize them over their own babies! How? By harnessing the art of insect mimicry.

You can watch the WOW of this episode right now on our YouTube channel, WowTube! Find your favorite Tinkercast podcast episodes, experiments with Mindy, original music with Dennis and so much more at youtube.com/@tinkercast.

✨ Don’t miss the chance to explore even further with Wow in the World:

Grownups can visit https://bit.ly/4pU76WO to join the World Organization of Wowzers (WOW) and unlock exclusive activities, birthday cards, quarterly mailings, first dibs at events, and a welcome kit with an autographed photo of Mindy & Guy Raz! Plus, Grownups help support our podcast and our mission to create content and experiences that connect laughter to learning, curiosity to innovation and kids to the WOWs in their world!

This episode of Wow in the World is perfect for kids and families who love insects, biology, mimicry in nature, and big WOWs of science!

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.