60. Death Adder and Hawk Moth

Time to go down under! Australia! Thanks to a fan request we are taking this episode's journey to the Australia outback! Death Adder and Hawk Moth.

One of Australia's most deadly snake, thanks to their neurotoxic venom. But don't worry as long as you respect this snake, and give it the space it deserves, and not touch it; you'll be fine. Mostly found in coastal regions of Australia this passive hunter isn't chasing you nor its prey down.  Looking similar to the United States viper, this native Australian is NOT  a viper. Nor an adder (you know like the puff adder of Africa). Nope. They're in their own family...they just look like those other snakes. And just because the Death Adder is a venomous snake it doesn't mean they don't positively affect us humans. Because they do. Scientist have been able to use their venom to create medicine!

What's a butterfly and what's a moth? What's the difference? You'll have to listen and find out. But what I can tell you now is HAWK MOTH! Its not a hawk. Its a moth. A big moth! As big as your cell phone. And unlike what you think, moths aren't boring, nor are all drab colored. Some, especially certain species of hawk moths, can be very colorful. Not only are moths much prettier then you may think but they are FANTASTIC pollinators. Do you like papaya? Thank a moth!

Scientific names
Common Death Adder: Acanthophis antarcticus
Desert Death Adder: Acanthophis pyrrhus
Smooth-scaled Death Adder: Acanthophis laevis
Pellucid Hawk Moth: Cephonodes hylas
Vine Snake Hawk Moth: Hippotion celerio
Double Headed Hawk Moth: Coequosa triangularis

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Transcript

Hey Weirdos and welcome to Weird Animal Facts Explicit a show dedicated to the weird, odd, unusually, gross and often times disturbing facts about animals. I’m Deidre and if you are only tuning in to this episode because of the animals we’ll be talking about you can thank Greg for that. He’s a die-hard weirdo fan from New Zealand currently living in Australia who requested some more animals from his neck of the woods. If you, there at home, would like to learn about a specific animal in my very own cooky way of education then reach out just like Greg, he sent me a DM on Instagram. But if you’re not one of those cool “insta” kids then look down in the show notes and pick your social media platform of choice.

OH also! If you’re listening on Spotify guess what: you can now rate the show! Its easy; all you do is go to the home page of Weird Animal Facts of Spotify (you know where they have all the episodes listen), scroll up to the top and you’ll see a star. Click it and then click five stars! I mean if that’s how you feel. Okay enough of me begging for likes let’s get to the animals!

Death Adder and Hawk Moth. 

Whoa. I’m confused. One animal doesn’t sound like an animal and the other sounds like two. What the hell are we talking about today? Snakes and moths. A death adder is a lazy chunky snake from Australia and the hawk moth is a giant ass moth. It’s giant? So then it wants to kill me; because everything in in Australia wants you dead! No, because if that was the case then no one would be living there. I don’t know anyone who lives in Australia. Greg lives there! As does the death adder and hawk moth. At least I think Greg still lives there. Hopefully nothing has murdered him since he last messaged me…

**Death Adder: It’s a snake! A deadly snake. Because its venomous. If you say poisonous, I’ll forgive you but there’s a difference and its how the toxic gets in to your body. Technically speaking poison, you have to bite and venom it bites you. So if you bit a death adder, you wouldn’t die. Well at least not from your bit as you biting the death adder would piss them off so then they’d bite you; injecting you with venom.

Disclaimer: do not bite live animals. Especially if they’ve got fast acting murder teeth.

For those of you poor unfortunately souls who have to live their life as though a deadly snake isn’t just lurking outside your bedroom door, you may be wondering how do I tell a death adder from any other snakes that could kill me? I don’t want to step on this fast striking snake and die because I can’t watch where I’m going. First you should always watch where you’re going. You don’t want to be that person who walks into that cute little pool at the mall because you were too busy swiping for a date on Tinder. 

For those familiar with snakes of the United States the death adder looks very similar to our vipers here. Such as the rattle snake: triangle shaped head with a short stout body. Their colors are even similar and I’d say their cryptic coloration is even better then our US rattle snakes. But a death adder is NOT a viper. They just happen to look like a North American rattle snake without the rattle. Wait it’s called a death adder and there’s a puff adder in Africa that I know is a viper. And since this is called a Death Adder, doesn’t that make it a viper too? You would think right? But its true what those flat Earthers say; scientist just want to fuck with us. 

Hi Deidre here; as a person with a bachelors in science and as a person with this bachelor of science who has worked and studied animal natural history and behavior for over a decade, I can confidently say that as I scientist myself, no: scientist don’t what to fuck with you. They want to save you and this planet. This coming from someone with a degree in BS. She’s a witch burn her!

So then why is this snake, that’s not really an adder, nor a viper, called a death adder. Its not an adder! It’s a subtracter of life. Not if you love it…from a distance. Its simple. Because it looks like an adder. 

Fun Fact: Puff adders and rattle snakes are both vipers because of the venom they have with more hemotoxic and necrotoxic, which works to damage circulatory system and muscle tissue. Meaning it’s the type of venom that separates vipers from our Australia death adder. 

Death adders are in a different family from the vipers. (Kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, speices) Vipers are in the family of viperidea. While our death adder is in the family of Elapids.

Fun Fact: Other members of the Elapids family include: king cobra, eastern brown snake, tiger snake, black mamba and the north American eastern coral snake.

The type of venom that the elapid family produces is a neurotoxin. So instead of destroy cells of the blood system, neurotoxin effects the nervous system. 

Fun Fact: Alcohol is also a neurotoxin! Because it effects your nerve cells. Don’t drink and drive kids.

So basically scientist named it the death adder because it looked like the adders they were familiar with. Kind of like how when I wear baggy beige clothes and no make or bra, people call me a boy. I’m not a boy, I just happen to have the chest and bone structure of one. I’m a woman, hear me roar!

Just like how I can dress less feminine at times to resemble a male, both the death adder and rattle snake have many physical similarities. Vertical pupils, chunky body, triangle shaped head and both  have beautiful colorful marking to help them blend in. But where say the diamond back rattle snake has diamond shapes on it back most death adders pattern appears to have ridged stripes the go around its body. 

Fun Fact: There are at least 8 death adder species in the world! And they say at least as there could be more, but it gets kind of hard to tell some of the species apart since their marking and pattern all look similar. In fact, some snake species are only differentiated by the number of scales they have on the top of their head. I love snakes but I never want to be close enough to a venomous one where I can count the tiny ass scales on their head. Even if I was wearing my glasses, that still too close.

Lucky for us in ‘Merica, 90% of our venomous snakes let us know they’ll fuck us up by following the advice of KC and the Sunshine Band and shake, shake, shake, shake their booty. Rattle snakes: they come with maracas on their ass. In the dancing defense of the death adder, they too shake their booty, just not to make noise. Where the rattle snake does it to tell others to back the fuck off; the death adder, like Cardi B, shakes their tail to entice others in.

Imagine: you’re a hungry little bird. And I said little bird, so we’re not talking about a big bird of prey. Or maybe you identify more with a small mammal or small lizard or frog, take your pick; you’re just going to die soon anyways. And you’re walking along the forests or woodlands floor of coastal Australia searching for a tasty worm to eat. But then; what’s this? A tiny wiggly worm that’s just perfectly peering out from beneath a somewhat non conspicuous pile of leaves. You must go get that wiggly worm and put it into your belly. But guess what, now you’re dead. Because underneath that pile of leave attached to the so-called wiggly worm you were about to eat was a death adder. Death Adder: they add death to your life. 

For that tiny Australian critter all this happened before they can even process it; the same way you didn’t see it coming nor could process that guy you met on Tinder two weeks ago telling you he want you to meet his mother.

I want you to do something for me. I want you to stop whatever you’re doing and just wait until you blink. Because in your one blink a death adder can strike twice. That’s how fucking fast they are! And this striking behavior all starts just like all relationships, with a caudal. 

Coddle: To treat with extreme or excessive care or kindness.

No, no, not that coddle. Its C-A-U-D-A-L.

Caudal: Of, relating to, or being a tail. 

It’s a tail. The caudal is a tail. So I guess you could say that the death add is coddling its victims into death via their caudal. Aw yes, it’s the death double caudaler! And the way the death adder wiggles its tail is kind of creepy and weird. Its like a worm. Its looks like it has a mind of its own. Imagine if we humans had an appendage that could move with the flexibility of the death adder’s tail…like if our fingers could wiggle creepily like that luring tail not…any other part of the male psyche for example…Anyways!

Why luring in your food? Most of the time when we think of snakes, we think of them racing across the substrate of the forest floor and attacking! Well, honestly, just like you, animals are lazy. But just because someone is lazy doesn’t mean they’re dumb. Instead of evolving to have the elite muscle to race down their food, they just sit and wait. That’s called and ambush predator or a passive hunter. But where the death adder lacks in endurance it makes up for in its sprint. Like we learned they are fast. Just in a very short burst. And that neurotoxic venom is worse. 

But if you live in Australia don’t worry as the death adder isn’t even the deadliest snake in the country. It barely even made the top ten. Crickey! Is that supposed to make me feel better? The reason they aren’t on the top of the list like their cousins the brown snakes and taipans is because it’s said that even though they can be unknowing hiding in the leaf litter near your next step, they are reluctant to bite unless touched…but I wouldn’t test this theory. That safety thing to do when you see any snake or even any wildlife is to leave it the fuck alone. Just like American’s have a right to shoot you if you trespass, I’d say wildlife has a right to defend itself if you chose to fuck with it. 

Respect nature man! This includes, native species such as not introducing invasive species! 

Invasive species: non-native to the ecosystem under consideration and whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm.

Cane toads! They aren’t from Australia, not natively at least. Back in the 1930s some dough bag decided that it was a good idea to bring this giant toxic toad from its native Hawaii to Queensland. Why? Money of course! The sugar cane was getting eating and destroyed by beetles. So this dough bag thought, what eats beetles? Toads! They’ve got toads in Hawaii that eats the beetles so to protect their profits of sugar cane so let’s just bring these big ass ugly boys here. But guess what; it didn’t work because these hungry fucks ate everything but the beetles.... Now from those 100 individuals there are over 200 million that are fucking up Australia’s wonderful unique ecosystem.

So why are we talking about this invasive toad when we’ve been talking about this amazing tough venomous killer that is the death adder? It’s a venomous snake, its tough! It can just eat the cane toads to extinction…right…it can do that right? Oh my god what’s happening to the death adder?! 

Bad news folks, ever since the introduction of the cane toad not only are native Australian species like crocodiles, reptiles, amphibian and birds being negatively affected so is the death adder. Its just a murderous snake who cares? The people of Australia do! 

Here’s a funny thing about the world. Everything effects something else. It’s called an ecosystem. Where plants, animals and all living organisms work together to create and maintain life. 

Think of it like you’re streaming your favor movie on Netflix when all of a sudden, the audio is off. You start to hear the words a few moments before the lips of the characters start to move. This is annoying (that’s the cane toad). Now imagine if it just kept getting worse from there. The color is off. Now they’re speaking Spanish but for the wrong movie. The subtitles come on but there in Russian. Normally when spiderman is red he’s now green and now the saturation is getting lower but the contrast is getting brighter. The shadows appear like something out of the Ring. Now its too dark to see anything, so you reach for your remote to try and fix it but now you hear that YouTube video you were watching about how to floss as the screen looks like it just turned in to the sun. Before you know it, you hear that old dial up sound from the nineties. Did you just find a worm hole and travel through space and time? Before finally everything goes black and silence. 

This is what the cane toad is doing the ecosystem of Australia. And for the death adder, and many other native species they can’t compete. Just like you frustratedly yelling at your TV to work in a helpless desperate attempt to do anything the native wildlife can understand your suffering…but in a more literal life and death way because they can’t just call up the internet company nor a priest to vanquish this demon. They’ve tried.

For the death adder who is an important member of the food chain of the once perfectly working ecosystem of Australia, they are dying off. You’d think their venom would save them and they could just eat the toads! They have big enough mouths plus death adders are known for eating giant ass ugly things. But the cane toad is toxic. And studies have found that half of the death adders to eat a cane toad…died. Not only that but these stupid cane toads are more attracted to the death adder’s caudaling lure then many of the native frogs. So that means there’s a higher chance for a death adder to eat a toxic cane toad then a non-toxic native critter. But what about their venom? It is true that a venomous strike from a death adder to a cane toad is fatal, so the death adder bite does kill the toad, but there’s a 50% chance that upon eating that toad, that snake will die. The main reason why this is so dangerous to the death adder is because even if they happen to kill that cane toad and survive, that’s only one less cane toad in Australia. And cane toads have lots and I mean LOTS of babies (up to 30,000 eggs twice a year). So the rate of death adders, who as a snake maybe eats but once a week, to the rate of the number of new cane toad tadpoles that are in the world is ridiculously out numbered. 

Its not the venomous snakes we should fear it’s the invasive cane toads! Australians have been living in harmony with death adders and the dozen other deadly snakes that call their country home for centuries! And none has done as much damage as this ugly ass toad. You’d think something from Hawaii would be prettier. 

What is pretty what scientist are creating with their venom. Medicine. Death adder venom is being used to help patients who suffer from cancer or stroke. Other snake venom has helped us to develop other drugs such as enalapril which treats high blood pressure, eptifibatide and tirofiban used to prevent blood clots or heart attacks. So you see even though venomous snakes can be scary, especially if you come across one in the wild, they are very important to not just the ecosystem they are a part of, but also in helping to keep us humans alive!

Scientific Names are hard: if you thought I had a hard time saying those medicine then get ready for this. My roommate Emily gives me the scientific names of the animals we talk about which I do not read aloud until now. If a bite from venomous animal doesn’t kill me, then attempting to read these Latin words will.

Common Death Adder: Acanthophis antarcticus
Desert Death Adder: Acanthophis pyrrhus
Smooth-scaled Death Adder: Acanthophis laevis

**Hawk Moth: Is it a hawk? Is it a moth? What is it? It’s a moth…. A moth? Really? We’re talking about a moth? We just talked about the badass death adder now we’re talking about an insignificant moth?! Insignificant?! You shut your mouth! Moths are the goth fluffy butterflies of this world! And you should LOVE them as much and if not more then butterflies. Especially the hawk moth.  Aren’t moths just nighttime butterflies? NO! Well… it depends on who you talk to. Some people will say that moths and butterflies are pretty much the same. However, if you look closely, you’ll see that yes, there is a difference. They aren’t the same thing! 

Fun Fact: Moths and butterflies are both in the same order of: lepidoptera (kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species). So think of the moth to butterfly relationship, taxonomy speaking, like us humans to gorillas. Just like how moths and butterflies share the same order, so do we with primates…because we’re a primate. That’s right you are an animal!!! And that’s something to be excited about.

The reason why we diurnal humans have always been so fond of butterflies is because most butterflies are also diurnal, while most moths are nocturnal. Think about other nocturnal animals: opossums, bats, rats, cockroaches, coyote, owl. These so-called demons of the night aren’t demons at all. They are just misunderstood because we humans are attracted to the light…which according to that meme, so are moths… my point is because we humans have always been daytime critters and can see better with some light in the air that’s what has been studied the most, therefore we have more information on it. And as we know, the more you learn and understand something the less scary it is. Yeah, but are moths scary? There’s Mothman in Virginia and those moths that flutter out of that old wardrobe in the attic and scare the shit out of you. So yes, moths can be scary. But also beautiful. Such as the hawk moth.

Fun Fact: There are over 160,000 species of moths in the world and for the moths we are focusing on today: the hawk moth, there are around 850 hawk moths in the world. But since we are sticking to the Australian theme, let’s get nitty gritty, as there are 65 hawk moth species in Australian.

Before we get into the details of just what a hawk moth is let’s first learn what a moth is and why its not a butterfly. Time to learn! The main difference is that moths are stockier, and it isn’t just that furry body that’s to blame. Moths just tend to be a bit wider than the ideal Hollywood body of the butterfly. Speaking of fluffy, their antenna can also appear to have what looks like hair on it, while the butterfly is thin and freshly waxed looking. But let’s say you’re terrified of flying things and don’t want to get too close; well you can still tell the difference between a moth and butterfly by their wings. While perched, a butterfly will generally hold their wings together like your hands preying at church. While a moth will sit with wings opens. But if that critter is flying butterflies can actually flap their two sets of wings independently of one another. Oh yeah, butterflies have four wings by the way, not two. A forewing and hindwing on either side. While the moth can only flap their wings in perfect unison. And the reason why moths are able to flap their wings together is because of something called a frenulum.

Fun Fact: If you google ‘frenulum’ the first result reads: Frenulum. The frenulum is where your foreskin meets the underside of your penis. 

Unfortunately, the frenulum of the moth is not attached to their penis, but does function similar as to connect. The frenulum connects the forewings to the hindwings and that’s why the moth’s wings flap together. But really it just looks like moths only have one set of wings.

Another difference is that a moth actually makes a cocoon. Butterflies don’t do this! But of course, you would already know this if you listened to episode 15 about butterflies.

So now since we can tell the difference between a butterfly and a moth, let’s dive deep into the hawk moth. What is it? And why it is such a BIG deal? Imagine a moth, but one that can have a wing span as long as your cell phone is tall. That’s right! Hawk moth’s wingspan can range anywhere from 40 to 190 mm (and for you American’s I’m sorry for not giving you the American measurement, but since this is an episode of Australian animals, I thought it was only polite to use the measurements they use in Australia).

Hawk moths are huge! But not the largest moth species in the world; that title belongs to the Hercules moth who is in a different family from our Hawk moths of today. 

Fun Fact: the Hercules moth, who is also from Australia and can have a wingspan of 27 cm. That’s 10 inches in case your American brain can’t do the math.

You maybe wonder: why aren’t you talking about the largest moth species if it’s found in Australia and this is an Australian episode? Well, its because of the one thing that hawk moths are known for: pollination. Um lots of things pollinate. Including all moths. True! But the various species of hawk moths have some amazing adaptions that help them to stand alone…or hover alone.

First, let’s start at the beginning. An egg. Once hatched they are then larva. But as a caterpillar they are unique because they have horns!! And are often time referred to as hornworms…but they aren’t worms. And their horns can vary significantly depending on the species. As can their overall look.

The pellucid hawk mother caterpillar is a lime green with a soft flexible horn as a tail. Why? We aren’t exactly sure, but the thought is so to 1) look bigger when rearing up to a predator and 2) since that horn is on the ass it’s probably better to get bit in the ass verses the face.

The double headed hawk moth caterpillar is a similar green as the pellucid with lemon yellow stripes across the side and is covered in what looks to be spikes and has an orange head that looks like an ass, while its real butt appears to have eyes. But aren’t eyes; just black dots on either side. 

The vine hawk moth caterpillar can come in a variety of colors from lime green, brown to red, and yes it too has a horn for a tail. As for the head, it appears to have very, large, cartoon like eyes, that are actually just its pattern, that way it looks like a snake. Not a very big snake, but still a snake! That’s looking directly into your soul!!

Once these beautiful swell caterpillars emerge from their cocoon, well, they are no longer caterpillars and are now moths. Moth is such a boring word if you really think about it. Especially compared to butterflies. Did you know that there are nearly 10 times as many moth species in the world then there are butterflies? Not only that but in the great debate of which came first; the moth or butterfly; it’s the moth who is said to have been around for the last 190 million years. While butterflies are rather recent: 60 million years. So if you ask me, moths have way more going for them. Okay, sure, I’ll accept that moths are older. But just like old people they are boring and drab. Butterflies are lit! Have you seen their colors? Have you seen moth’s colors?

Remember that pellucid moth caterpillar we talked about: with the lime green and horn on its ass; well when that dude metamorphosizes to its final Pokémon evolution stage it looks so cool! And it has color. Imagine the fat finger of Shrek only with a short layer of hair, that’s that same lime green color. In the middle of its abdomen there’s a dark maroon stripe that’s still hair like and below that stripe, near their cute mothy booty its more of a yellow-green color. But that amazing design of the pellucid hawk moth doesn’t stop there as they have invisible wings! Okay so they aren’t really invisible, but to look it because even though the outline of the structure of the wing is boarded with black, the wing itself is clear. Giving the pellucid hawk moth the nick name of glass-winged butterfly. 

And these ‘glass’ wings are amazing! I mean why have glass wings? Well you remember Harry Potter right? If the first book he get this really cool cloak that he just drabs over his body and proof he’s gone! Well, the see through wings of the pellucid hawk moth are transparent so that as they fly and flap their wings they are 50% less reflective then other moths with non-see through wings. Meaning they are less likely to be seen comparted to other flying critters the same size, meaning less likely chance of getting eaten! Isn’t nature cool?

Fun Fact: The Pellucid Hawk moth is a diurnal species. Like duh. I mean why else would they develop clear wings to keep down their shine if there wasn’t any light around to keep from reflecting.

Earlier I did say that hawk moths are best known for the pollination. And yes I know lots of animals are known for being pollinators: butterflies, bats, bees, birds, beetles… a lot of the letter B, I’m just now realizing. But moths, are also great pollinators. However, the reason for hawk moths being so well known for pollinating is because…well actually thinking about they aren’t that well known, because they don’t pollinate anything that we human really consider that important. 

Birds help pollinate bananas, wasps help pollinate mangos, figs and macadamia nut, bats pollinate agave (which gives us tequila), honey bees pollinate almonds, apples, kiwi, pears, and raspberries, bumble bees give us tomatoes, blackberries, pumpkins, cherries and other bees pollinate a shit ton of other edible food for us! But what about moths? The truth is moths aren’t really seen as desirable because they don’t pollinate much of food what we eat, the way bees do. 

Fun Fact: There are some moth species that pollinate papaya! So if you like papaya, thank a moth.

The majority of moths actually pollinate flowers. But they pollinate very specific flowers that other pollinators can’t get into. 

Proboscis: any various elongated or extensible tubular processes of the oral region of an invertebrate.

We’ve talking about proboscis a few times on this podcast, but the hawk moth’s proboscis, or their tongue, if you’re just now turning in is extralong. Think of those flowers that are longer with their nectar deep inside (like an orchid or petunia for example). In order for a pollinator to get it they are going to need a longer proboscis. And the only animal with such a proboscis is the hawk moth. Some hawk moth’s proboscis can be nearly twice the length of their body. And they are already pretty dang long to begin with! And because of that long tongue having to reach all the way into that deep flower, that hawk moth is going to have to stick around a bit longer just so that their proboscis can reach that tasty juice inside. Instead of landing, since there probably isn’t anything around to land on, they hover. That’s right like a humming bird! In fact, many hawk moths get mistaken for humming birds because of this hovering feature!

For those of you who are only out for number one maybe wondering why should I care about a moth when they only pollinate flowers. I don’t like pretty things, I only want what is directly effecting me like my bat tequila! You see the thing about moths is that they aren’t just moths, they are a part of something bigger (I knew it, moths are trying to take over the world!). No. They’re part of the ecosystem, just like you, just like bees, butterflies, reptiles, mammals, birds, fish, and yes all plants. 

Let me break this down for you. If we loss all of the moths you maybe thinking that all we would lose would be the flowers they pollinate and the papaya. But without the over 160,000 species of moths in the world, many animals would lose their food source. Like bats for instance (so there goes your tequila). Not only that but many invertebrate species that the majority of plants rely on to help keep them healthy and even pollenate will lay their eggs on these plants the moths keep alive, or will lay them under the leaf litter, so then there goes virtually every plant that you love and need to keep you and out society alive. So you see, even though when you see just a single moth, that one moth represents so much more. Moths, you could say, are what is holding this fragile world together….Plus they give us pretty shit and when I’m having a bad day I feel better after seeing something pretty, so they also help with mental health! Yay for moths! And yay for the big fluffy hawk moths!

Scientific names are hard:

Pellucid Hawk Moth: Cephonodes hylas
Vine Snake Hawk Moth: Hippotion celerio
Double Headed Hawk Moth: Coequosa triangularis

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For those of you not from Australia, I hope now you see that Australia is more than just the home of the hunky Chris Harmsworth, more then animals you think just want to murder you, and more than just a giant island in the southern hemisphere. Like every place in the entire world, Australia is its own amazingly weird ecosystem where the animals, plants and people have learned to live in harmony with one another, from the large beautiful moths with a very important job, to venom of what was once seen as an aimless killer. Every plant and animal have an important role to play; including you. So, know its time to ask yourself: what role do I want to play in this ecosystem of life? Let me in the comments of this episode’s Instagram post. And even though we have a life saving job to play we can still manage to stay weird.