What is the woolly bear moth?
There is a moth in the Canadian Arctic that, until recently, was thought to live for 14 years as a larva – the arctic woolly bear moth. (Its development was filmed for the BBC series Frozen Planet.) The summers there are so short it can’t eat enough food to develop fully so needs to find a safe place over winter, usually under a rock. Over winter the caterpillar actually freezes, so it is not strictly in hibernation. When it eventually becomes an adult moth it will live for just a few days, or even less, but it’s still a remarkable creature.
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