As in, why did certain animals evolve to become very vulnerable for a short amount of time just to change a lot?
In: Biology
A lot of what it takes to find a mate makes the animal extremely conspicuous. Think about it: they are brightly colored, they scream loud enough to be heard for miles, and they have to be big enough to fight off rivals which makes them too big to hide from predators. Butterflies are colorful, bright, and fly around in the air where there’s nowhere to hide. And, flying takes a lot of energy.
Getting big enough or poisonous enough or whatever strategy the adult will employ to survive takes time. During that time, the animal can be the opposite of conspicuous. Caterpillars often match their environment to camouflage, or pretend to be something scary, or whatever. They spend all that time munching on leaves, building up energy reserves, and do all of their business of *living*. Then, when the time is best, they can completely change their body plan away from something that’s good at *surviving and eating* and become something better at *finding a mate and mating*.
Always worth keeping in mind that evolution isn’t always the best solution or even one of the top solutions.
That being said, a common theory (Brink, Roos, and deickmann 2019) of why metamorphosis is of benefit to some species is that the juveniles and adults do not compete for the same resources.
In nature you need to be very very cost efficient.
In our modern lifes we might exercise just to get relaxed but in nature such expenses might be deadly.
Having an extra arm might be good but it costs you too much in evolutionary stand point.
You have added mass and tissue you need to feed. So it is better to not have it.
Metamorphosis is strategy of “i will have it when i need it”
During metamorphosis many trade-offs are made. To beacome suitable for next step in their life cycle.
For example luna moth just yeets out digestive system when they mature and goes all in to mate. When you look at it they crawl around to eat as much as they can and turn into flying mode to reach out to find a mate.
They got rid of the cost of wings ( energy cost, bigger target) when developping and has flying reach wjen they go out to find mate.
Evolution is game of trial and error. Much more species had loose the game compared to the ones are still playing.
Metamorphosis is a strategy allows them to find better fitting solutions.
Another example of tadpoles to frogs.
Having an aquatic birth system allows more offsprings even in colder or drier climates. When you think about life is easier in aquatic environment and it is harder in land. So they use easy kickstar with that change.
Total niche seperation between the parent and larva becomes possible.
Beetles and butterflies show this most but even cicadas are doing it. A butterfly eats nectar and caterpillars eat leaves, they will never fight for food with their parents or outcompete each other. Most beetlegrubs eat decaying wood or plant roots. Most adult beetles eat pollen or other above ground food again seperating the parents and childs foodsources. They will also not be subject to the same predators.
Avoiding competition makes the possible population higher.
I understand what you guys are talking about but I’m talking about metamorphosis specifically. Why do they have to become so vulnerable?
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