They Actually Eat That + Creature Feature: Living Rocks.

Apologies for the lack of entries. There are two reasons for it: one, vacation in Minnesota and summer in general made a mess of my schedule; two,  I've had a hard time getting motivated. No more of that! This is probably the weirdest creature I've ever seen. Behold...

Source.

...the not-so-giant rock!

Yes, that rock is alive. It's called Pyura chilensis - "piure" for short in Spanish. It's part of the extremely weird group of creatures called tunicates/sea squirts- primitive vertebrates that are free-swimming when young, then become stationary blobs as adults. In this case, the blob looks like a giant rock and lives off the coast of Chile and Peru. As with all other mature tunicates, it is a filter feeder, feeding on any microorganisms that find their way into its rocky, yet surprisingly squishy insides before squirting that water back out.

Yeah, maybe it's time for a refresher on what a tunicate is. Tunicates, sea squirts, and sea salps are, collectively, the weirdest chordates in existence. They start life as free-swimming, tadpole-like creatures with brains, spines, and other very vertebrate traits. When they mature, however, they change entirely, eating their primitive spinal chord and becoming little more than jellyfish or sponges. In this case, the piura becomes a living rock as an adult. Can it have the "best camouflage ever" award? It pretty much ate its brain for it.

Like all tunicates, the living rock is a sequential hermaphrodite. It's born male, then becomes female as it gets older.When it's on the edge of becoming female, it releases both sperm and eggs into a messy cloud in the water. Yes, the living rock can effectively mate with itself if the need arises. Consider your mind blown.

You may have noticed that this is also a "They Actually Eat That" entry. Yes, the living rock is actually edible, and quite popular at that. Peoples in coastal Central and South America are in fact quite fond of eating this tunicate. It has also taken on some popularity in Sweden and Japan. I'm personally more surprised about Sweden than Japan in this instance. It's described as being "bitter and soapy," but supposedly goes great on rice or as fried tunicate meat. Whose idea it was to break apart a rock for food in the first place

There are, however, some concerns about eating piura. For whatever reason, piura meat contains an exceedingly high amount of vanadium- look it up on the periodic chart if you've never even heard of that metal (it probably was not on your chemistry exam). The concentration of vanadium in a single rocky tunicate is ten million times that of the surrounding seawater. Vanadium has been suspected of causing liver damage in high amounts. This has not stopped people from going along the coast and picking up living rocks underwater.

This entry was so weird and strange that I may just go ahead and do a tunicate theme week...hm.. 

Little Shop of Horrors: Burro Tail.

Remember how I said that there would be more weird plants now that summer has hit? I was right. Lo and behold, there was something very weird at a farmer's market in Frankfort. The lady at the stand called it "burro tail."

Burro tail is an odd one indeed. It's also called "donkey tail," but so are a few other things, so we'll still with "burro tail" or Sedum morganianum, thanks.  Like the chimeric "coral cactus" from earlier, it's a succulent, meaning that the plant's very wet on the inside as a means of surviving in dry climates. In this case, that means Ecuador and Mexico.

Burro tails are one type of trailing sedum - that is, they can get long. One of the most popular ways to present this houseplant is via hanging basket. As the plant grows, the "tails" drip down over the sides of the basket. These tails can get up to 24 inches - that's 2 feet- long. That's pretty impressive, especially after looking at its fleshy leaves.

This plant is weird in part because nobody is quite sure where it came from. Specifically, we aren't sure whether burro's tail is a domesticated subspecies of S. morganianum or a true cultivar. This is not weird compared to, say, Saliva divinorum, and there is no loss in fertility as would be expected of a hybrid, so at least it's stable regardless. It's a breedable plant, all right, but also sort of alien.

Y'know that advice I keep giving about how desert animals are easy to keep? That applies to plants, too. You can forget to water burro tails once or twice and they will do just fine. They also love sunlight, so keep succulents like this in a sunny spot with high temperatures. They're very hard to kill and look out of this world.

Ethics Week?: Sensitive Plant.

Well, OK. This month is probably going to be short a theme week. Luckily, it seems to have warped itself into a sort of "ethics week" devoted to making you think. That problem smoothed itself out. Enjoy...or don't, depending on whether you enjoy thinking or not.

One of the chief tenets of animal rights is that animals feel pain. They suffer just like humans, and as a rule, it's good to minimize suffering.  Animals used for meat lead particularly dreadful lives in factory farms unless stated otherwise. Again: Suffering = bad, especially since humans have consciences.

So what do we do if plants can feel pain?



Mimosa pudica is usually marketed as a "sensitive plant." Numerous other names are cited in the video. Outside of novelty marketing, it is native to tropical Central and South America. It has since been spread to every other place with that climate as well.

M. pudica exhibits rapid plant movement. Like something out of Avatar, those leaves fold inward when faced with any sort of stimulus. Just touching these plants is enough to make the leaves curl. The reaction to fire is particularly dramatic. Nobody knows exactly why the plant evolved this way, but the current theory is that it is some sort of predator deterrent.

M. pudica has uses beyond being fast. Chemicals in mimosa have been found to be helpful against larvae of the roundworm Strongyloides stercoralis, which causes abdominal pain and diarrhea in infected individuals. Aqueous solutions may also dull the effects of the chemicals found in the venom of the monocled cobra. Freakish and can cure snakebite? HM, I may have to invest in some.

Not all plants are as sensitive as Mimosa pudica. Does this mean that they can't feel like a sensitive plant? They probably can, but they do not react as quickly. Letting dogs vote sounds pretty ridiculous; will "let corn vote" be next? Honestly, their vote would outweigh the entire population of the United States and count for about as much!

Creature Feature: Macrotrema/Swamp Eels.

A lot of people will probably see me as crazy, immature, or both for secretly liking Yu-Gi-Oh! The game is a broken mess of OTK's and shiny cards that are way too hard to get, ZeXal scares me proper, and yet cool monsters are cool enough to keep me intrigued. Admittedly, now it's become a game of humans and dragons, but it used to have an amazing amount of monster variety. This one in particular got me thinking:



OK, I get the point that it's a fish, but what's a "macrotrema," anyways? YGO tends to pick on weird fish, but this one was so weird that I had to look it up. After I looked it up, I kept the card for a bit as a sort of "well, that was interesting" trophy.

It turns out there are several things with "macrotrema" in their names. Given that the card was called "big eel" in the Japanese game, however, I'm inclined to believe that the creators were going off of the Macrotrema eels native to Asia. There is only one species, Macrotrema caligans, but since it is horribly hard to find information on (seriously, most of the hits for "Macrotrema" are of the trading card), this entry will also cover some other members of Synbranchidae. They are also called "mud eels" and "swamp eels," hinting that it would be darn near impossible to find a real deep-sea Macrotrema. As the name "mud eel" would imply, this weird pink fish lives in the muddy beds of estuaries in Asia. The whole family Synbranchidae has members in Mexico, South America, Africa, and in Asia from India to China, making the Ganges River slightly creepier than it already was.

Not a Macrotrema. Still a swamp eel and probably close enough.

Swamp eels resemble worms with spinal cords more than any type of fish. They're pink, live in mud, and barely have fins as adults. As with most cave-dwelling animals, the eyes are small; when you live in mud, sight is not a big issue. They're even proper hermaphrodites, starting their lives as ladies and becoming male after four years. (For the record, a whole group of creatures, tunicates, does the same thing.)  In other words, they're weird even by eel standards, and eels are already darn weird.

Nobody is really sure how far swamp eels go back in the fossil record, but they probably resemble some of the first air-breathing fish that gave rise to amphibians. Although they start life with skin that takes in oxygen (sound familiar?) and fins, both of these features regress as the fish matures.  The throat of a swamp eel is adapted into a primitive, but efficient lung. Like mudskippers, swamp eels can even slither around on land if the soil is wet enough.

Since this entry wound up bleeding into Wednesday, I may as well say it: yes, this eel is edible. China, one of the few places infamous for eating anything,  uses swamp eels in stir-fries with garlic and soy sauce. Given its distribution, it is probably enjoyed in other parts of the world as well.

I'm not sure what to think about most peoples' knowledge of swamp eels coming from a single trading card. Konami didn't have accuracy in mind, but, to be honest, they made these not-lungfish look cooler than their real-life counterparts. The real Macrotrema and swamp eels in general are pretty neat animals, too.

Food Week: Tamales.

Confession: No matter how much I write about liking weird, exotic food, I cannot stand Mexican cuisine. Cumin does mot sit well with me. There's something about that culinary style, even without cumin, that just...bugs my taste buds.

Enter a food truck called Tamale Spaceship.  Out of sheer curiosity, I decided to try one...and had a hard time figuring out how to eat it. Even when I did finally figure it out, I was not particularly impressed. Maybe I was still doing it wrong.

For starters, the idea of wrapping food in leaves of any kind is weird to Americans. This is a shame; leaves are nature's convenient, recyclable wrapping and often less messy than plastic or wax paper in other ways. Point is, we aren't really used to seeing things wrapped in leaves, no matter how delicious they may be. It's pretty common elsewhere.

Tamales have been around since the ancient Mayans. They can be found from Mexico downwards as well as in Southeast Asia. They consist of meat, veggies, cheese, whatever you like, rolled into a dough called masa. Masa is a sort of starchy corn dough that tastes...like corn. The whole shabang is then boiled or fried in a corn leaf. Corn, corn, corn. Yep, there's a lot of corn in tamales. Sometimes, banana leaves are used instead, but when you have corn, use it.

That said, one of the thinfs I did wrong was trying to eat the thing with the leaf still on. Unlike Greek dolma or other leaf-wrapped yummies, you do take the leaf wrapper off of tamales. Not doing so means not enjoying them properly. I doubt the corn leaves will kill you, but it just plain won't taste as good with them on.

Unfortunately, I really can't recommend tamales outside of "try it if you like Mexican." If you like Mexican food already, then you'll probably think that tamales are really neat. If not, then avoid them; you probably won't be impressed. If you've never had Mexican, tamales are as good a dish as any to see if you like traditional Mexican cuisine. They're probably better than Taco Bell in any case.

Creature Feature: Red-Winged Blackbird.

So yeah. Yesterday consisted of 75 miles of country road, Gatorade, water, and lots and lots of bikes. I'm still a bit tired and sunburned from that, but regular updates to this blog will resume starting now.

That's a Red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus), which I saw in abundance in 75 miles' worth of farmland. (No,that is not my pic.)  The RWB ranges from Alaska to Guatemala, covering all of the U.S. down to Mexico. It is an omnivore, eating insects and seeds. Far from being on the endangered list, it is probably the most common and well-documented bird in North America.If you live in North America, you've probably already seen it. There are several subspecies, so your local blackbird may not match the pic above.

Just because the RWB is common doesn't mean it's not neat. The female and male Red-winged blackbird look absolutely nothing alike. The female almost looks like a very large sparrow - very brown with dark brown markings - in sharp contrast with the male's striking colors. One would not even think they were the same species at first glance. Point is, if you see a black bird with red shoulders, 1) it's probably a RWB, 2. it's a male for sure. Some just look brighter than others.

Let's talk about those cool feathers for a bit. The rings of red and yellow are properly called "epaulets" and vary in the amount of red and/or yellow with the subspecies. I'm thinking this little blackbird has monster potential- maybe as a Fire/Flying Pokemon with insane sexual dimorphism, but more likely a mechanical sunbird that either has the discs on fire or uses them as a frame for mechanical feathers. It's already got phoeniceus in the species name- perfect fodder is perfect.

Like most birds, RWB's also sing. Instead of being melodious, however, it sounds like a machine trying to make music. I can't picture an instrument playing its song. I really don't even know how to describe it, so please turn to the YT video below for a soundbyte. It's a very distinct call that, knowing birds, probably varies heavily with region and/or function.




Does being common stop birds like this from being cool? Nope! That song makes me turn my head any time I hear it. Plus, cardinals are cute, but a bit overrated; why aren't more states using this bird to show off? (I'm seriously tired. Really. This entry barely became a thing.)

"They Actually Eat That:" Lizards.

So, after my workout today, I caught a commercial for Geico car insurance. I love that little gecko. He has yet to sucker me into buying car insurance, but I still love him. Call me crazy, but I find lizards cute, especially when they're telling me how to save money.



Suddenly, I wondered: Would people in the modern day have the heart to eat such a creature? I could understand, say, China eating lizards (everything's on the menu there), but what about places that don't have such a knack for weird food?

Surprise, surprise. Lizard is actually a pretty popular food animal around the world. This is particularly so in places like Nicaragua, where eating lizards is so much a part of the culture that several species are threatened with extinction in the name of cuisine. They are believed to help people recover from illnesses. Oh, folk medicine, the species that will be lost because of you.

It turns out that Spain, of all places, has a thing for lizard cuisine. They make a dish with the ocellated lizard in Extremadura, Spain. It's called lagarto con tomate - lizard with tomatoes. It involves slicing up the lizards, frying them in olive oil, and then stewing them with tomatoes and onions. I hate to admit it, but this one actually sounds really good!



Let's not leave China out of this. I mean, really, it's not like we didn't see China coming, but they do eat lizards. Lizards, after all, are alive and plentiful in China. That's enough to put them on the menu. Granted, we in America are probably the weird ones for not eating lizards.

Sorry, but they sell us car insurance. Cutely. 

Creature Feature: Silky Anteater.

Since the giant sloth entry, I've realized something: Xenarthrans are actually very, very cool mammals. They're weird enough that science is tempted to classify them separately from everything else with a placenta. They have wicked-looking claws and funny dietary habits.

Oh, and some of them are so cute they could be magical girl pets that aren't Kyubey. Yes, I know about Kyubey.

 

Isn't it adorable? That's a Pygmy/Silky Anteater (Cyclopes didactylus). Silky anteaters are native from Mexico into northern South America. It is a nocturnal, arboreal creature (could've fooled me with the good photos). As per the name and general grouping, it feeds mostly on ants.

The Silky Anteater is the smallest anteater in the world. At most, it is a foot and a half (450 millimeters) long. It has a prehensile tail, soft fur, and other traits that make it look like it should be a stuffed animal. Other than its size, it thinks it's a bigger anteater. As the pic above shows, Silky Anteaters will stand on their hind legs and raise their claws when threatened, even though it looks silly coming from something so cute. Those claws can probably do damage to things that aren't ten times bigger, though.



At that size, the Silky Anteater has a lot of predators.  Harpy eagles, the largest eagles in the world, would love an anteater to go. The anteater thus spends most of its day curled up in the tops of trees, looking very much like a seed pod. Of course, when we do find them, we find this furball adorable.

And now, for the section you've all been waiting for...yes, you can keep anteaters as pets, Silky Anteaters included. This does not mean that an anteater is for everyone. They require a lot of attention, a snazzy enclosure, and, believe it or not, walks. Aside from ants (which can be lapped up on walks), anteaters like a variety of greens, including spinach, avocados, and thyme. They'll even eat blue cheese! Avoid sugar, however. Anteaters apparently love to play, so try finding some vids on YouTube if you think anteaters suit your fancy.

Mythbusters: El Chupacabra.

Imagine, for a minute, that you're a poor farmer in Chile. You have a nice little chicken coop outside your house that provides meat and eggs for your whole family, along with some surplus to share with the neighbors. Sure, you may not be the richest people in your town, but you do know where your food's coming from.

Then, one morning, your rooster doesn't crow. Wondering exactly what is going on with that lazy bird, you take a walk over to the chicken coop...only to find every single chicken dead on the ground. The bizarre thing? They have been completely drained of blood with only two circular wounds to show for it. Looks like Dracula's switched to white meat for some reason.

Image belongs to the internet. I have no idea who did this one first.

Well, Dracula or the creature above. That ugly mug belongs to el chupacabras, AKA the "goatsucker" or just "chupacabra." The name is a little bit misleading; although termed "goatsucker," most forms of livestock are fair game, goats and sheep included. It is said to range from Florida and Texas all the way down into Chile; hell, some would even say Maine has a chupacabra. Let us refresh your memory for a second: Maine is where every Stephen King novel ever takes place.

Part of the ambiguity of its range comes from the various descriptions of a chupacabra. The 'original' chupacabra was described as a half-human vampiric creature in the 1950's. This slowly evolved into not one, but two bestial forms: One is a sort of anthropomorphic, spiny lizard about a meter tall with red glowing eyes (literally straight out of Species) and the other is a hairless hellhound with a pronounced spine and, again, glowing eyes. Both are creatures that we would not want to encounter in a dark alley...or in our chicken coops!

The main unifying factor of a 'chupacabra' remains that, whatever it is, its calling card is leaving vampire marks on dead livestock.There are debates over whether the victims are completely drained of blood or not, but the two marks are always an indicator of a chupacabra as opposed to anything else. As long as nobody designs a chupacabra that sparkles, we have reason to believe that those marks are as similar to vampires as they get.

I've seen Chinese Cresteds that looked more like chupacabras..Pic belongs to NewsOne.

As with, oh, every cryptid this week except the big cats, chupacabras are one of those things that we are unsure of the existence of. We have caught numerous mutant or ill coyotes and dogs that are sometimes called "chupacabras." No word yet on the lizard-like creature. There have also been several fake chupacabras as seen in the initial mugshot.

Yes, that's Jackie Chan getting thrashed by a chupacabra-luchador.

Although the chupacabra does not receive as good of press as Nessie, it still remains one of the more popular cryptids. There have been several chupacabra movies, including titles such as Scooby-Doo and The Monster of Mexico and Chupacabra: Dark Seas. Monster-of-the-Week series love the chupacabra. Invader Zim's "paranormal investigator" Dib mentioned a chupacabra at one point ("but there's not a goat to feed on for miles"). The Jackie Chan Adventures chupacabra really takes the cake, combining the vampiric creature with some aspects of a werewolf. Neat way to avoid capture, goatsucker.

Creature Feature: Golden Toad.

Picture a toad for a minute. Chances are you just pictured a brown, lumpy little amphibian with warty skin. We are generally socialized that toads are the ugly ones used in witches' brews and that frogs are happy little fellows who sing in swamps.

But that doesn't mean they can't be friends!

 

Actually, there is no difference at all between a frog and a toad. The differences between the anurans we call frogs and toads are purely cosmetic. Only members of the genus Bufo are treated as "true toads." That's why we have toads that are pretty like the fire-bellied sort found in pet shops, as well as awesomely-colored specimens like this.



Yes, that is a toad. Or, rather, it was. This toad is no more. It has ceased to be. It used to live only in Monte Verde, Costa Rica, and went by the names Golden Toad (Bufo perigienes), Monte Verde toad, and a few other, more obscure names. It lived in exactly one part of one forest preserve.  It presumably ate insects like most other amphibians.

The most outstanding thing about the golden toad was, of course, its coloration. It has been described as being "Day-Glo" golden orange - certainly a treat for any researcher lucky enough to see one. The males had the bright gold, but the females had red and black coloration. Hey, for herpers, it's a relief when things are easy to sex.

Ultimate bachelor party.

Unfortunately, very little is known about this frog, toad, whatever. We have seen them mating and very little else. We think they spent most of their time underground, but have no confirmation. The population was short-lived, first being seen in 1966 and declining sharply over the next twenty or so years.The last of these amphibians was seen in 1989. Deforestation, climate change, and chytrid fungal infection are all cited as causes for the frog's extinction.

We've said it again and again:amphibians are important when it comes to environmental monitoring. Water purity in particular affects them big time. This representative just so happened to be a looker. It's a shame that more of us will not be able to encounter this awesomely-colored amphibian.

At least, that's what we think.

"They Actually Eat That:" Plantains.

(Apologies for the delay. I had a paper to write.) 

 So, it's time for another installment of "weird things Kuro found while shopping on Devon Avenue!" After doing an entry on Goya, the giant guinea pig, I came across these chips in Devon market. They're made of plantains, which are not usually found in North American cuisine.



But what exactly is a plantain, anyways?

A plantain (Musa) is kinda like a banana, only smaller and green. They are native to Indiaand Southeast Asia in general. However, they are popularly grown in the Caribbean and Africa as well. They are frequently used in Caribbean, African, Indian, and South American cuisine. Other areas such as the Philippines and some southern states use them as well. 

A plantain looks like a slender, green banana. If you manage to find ripe ones, they will actually be brown; don't let that throw you. They can usually be found in the fresh produce sections of most supermarkets.



Plantains and bananas are indeed closely related, but before you decide to try the other banana out of curiosity, there are a few key differences you should know. For starters, plantains cannot be eaten raw; they must be cooked regardless of what growth stage they are at. If cooking a banana sounds disgusting to you, plantains are a lot starchier than bananas. They are treated more like tubers (i.e. potatoes) when cooked. In short, they're almost vegetables.

Since the plantain is darn close to a potato, plantain chips are a rather popular snack food. They can also be cooked with a variety of spices. There are recipes for plantains from Ghana, Puerto Rico, and India. Yes, they have plantain curry. Pick your favorite way to eat 'em and dig in.

Creature Feature:...Gold Skulltula?

Confession: I am taking my sweet, sweet time with Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the 3DS. Almost to the end of the Shadow Temple, which is...I want to say the second to last. Then there will be mini-quests to do, simply because the game is set in a world almost as awesome as ours.

Just as a reminder, here's a real, live Gold Skulltula:



Kidding. The Gold Skulltulas in Zelda were clearly based off of Argiope savignyi. They can be found from Mexico to Bolivia. They are not necessarily gold; the golden female above was one of several color variations.  For those curious about the generic name, "Savigny" happened to be the last name of Marie Jules Cesar Savigny, the first person to describe the genus Argiope. He was a guy, by the way.

For those of you who do not know spiders, they can be classified in terms of how they weave their webs. Argiope spiders are particularly creative orb-weavers. A. savignyi can weave a number of patterns into its orb web. Among them are a cross-shape and disc-shape. Sometimes, these designs are combined into a super-pattern. The resulting web, regardless of pattern, is very sturdy...which results in one of the few things this spider is known for:



Yes, that is a bat in that spiderweb. Yes, the spider is being a vampire and slowly sucking out its inner juices. Gold Skulltul- I mean A. savignyi is one of the few invertebrate predators of bats. Specifically, they feed on the proboscis bat (Rhynchonycteris naso) - a strange critter in and of itself. These aren't even unhealthy bats - just unlucky bats who don't see the Argiope's web. They are successfully entangled within two hours. Again, pick your favorite; some wouldn't be rooting for the spider or the bat in this instance.

As a friendly reminder: Wild A. savignyi do not grant you magical items every time you kill ten of them. Do not carry a hookshot around in preparation. If you happen to think you have a hookshot at your belt, by the way, please see a therapist or look for "Zelda Addicts Anonymous."

Creature Feature: Velvet Worms.

Velvet worms have come up on this blog before. They are one of those obscure animals that biologists fawn over, but everyone else is nigh-oblivious to. Velvet worms are slowly growing in popularity in the pet trade, so you may well be seeing them soon, but for now, this will be an introductory post into their wonderful, weird world.

 

Velvet worms are small (10 cm max) invertebrates in the phylum Onychophora (lit. "claw-bearers"). (For those of you unfamiliar with scientific classification, velvet worms having their own phylum means that they're as big a group as arthropods. The phylum most of you are familiar with is probably Chordata - i.e. everything with a spinal cord.) They live in most tropical regions of the world, including (but not limited to) South America, Australia, and parts of Africa. (Yes, these guys are so weird and ubiquitous that even Australia could not make them any weirder.) They are nocturnal hunters that eat other, smaller invertebrates. They are a very big group of invertebrates themselves, so this will be one of my less complete entries.

Velvet worms do indeed look like something out of the Burgess Shale. Those little conical legs and antennae look an awful lot like yesterday's creature, which was as nightmare fuel-ish as Hallucigenia. The body structure of velvet worms has gone virtually unchanged for over 500 million years. Climate change aside, I would call that success.

On the biological side of things, it was once thought that velvet worms were a transition stage between annelid worms and modern day arthropods. Now, in part thanks to genetic testing (most likely), we know that they are actually somewhere between tardigrades (water bears) and insects. This still makes them invaluable to evolutionary science.



Along with being interesting as living fossils, velvet worms have one more creep factor: one of their favorite defenses is to shoot a string of glue into a predator's face. The same gluey string is used to ensnare prey as in the clip above. It even has nice little nozzles to use as miniature glue guns. Velvet worm used String Shot!

Oddly enough, velvet worms are social animals. They live in groups of 15 or more. Velvet worms found together are often closely related - especially the males, since the females are more aggressive (and even feed first!). The mating behavior varies with the species, but in short, the males put their spermatophores on their heads and look for a female that finds their headgear attractive. Their little invertebrate brains are complex enough for elaborate courtship and social interactions. Evolution has treated them very well.



This is just a small sampling of the weirdness that is velvet worms. Now I'm starting to want them as pets, too. Breathe, breathe...my menagerie is large enough. Expect a sequel entry regardless.

Creature Feature: Clearwing Butterfly.

Ah, butterflies. To most people, they're the epitome of innocence. In literature, they almost always symbolize change. There's nothing strange about most butterflies. Then, well, there are those...other...butterflies.

It may take you a bit to see precisely what is wrong with this butterfly. Then you realize that, woah, most butterflies have opaque wings. Congrats; you have just met your first clearwing/glasswing butterfly.

There are over 300 species and 43 genera of clearwing butterflies. No, they do not eat the flesh of small children, but dying flowers are fair game. They are native to the Amazon, a major biodiversity hotspot, as well as Mexico and Central America. We knew they were pretty, but there are videos on YouTube advertising them as the work of Jehovah.



As the name implies, the wings of clearwings lack the scales that makes other butterfly wings so colorful. Some clearwings have almost no scales on their wings; others have 'windows' of clear skin scattered between the scales like stained glass. If you think about it, no matter how good those scales are at camouflage, they will never be able to measure up to the ultimate camouflage of being transparent.

But wait, there's more! Along with being translucent, some clearwings (remember: this is a very big tribe) have a taste to them that is so bad that the scent is noticeable by humans. One scientist named Thomas Belt proved exactly how effective it was by feeding clearwings to almost everything that ate them - monkeys, spiders, birds, you name it - and every time, they were rejected. The secret was in the adult butterflies' diets. The chemicals from, I kid you not, dead plants and daisies are enough to repel most predators. Crazy.



Some species of clearwing, most notably Greta oto, have been observed mating in leks. This means that, just like certain birds and bats, the males 'fight' with each other. In any other type of butterfly, this would be a sight to see. With clearwings, however, it must look a little less spectacular in the air. Then again, it would probably be the only time one could ever see fairies fight.

Creature Feature: Proboscis Bat.

Today is Super Bowl Sunday. Joy; this blog would have absolutely nothing to do with such a 'holiday' except maybe putting up a few interesting, rarely-seen swine. So, without further ado, here is something completely unrelated to football: A bat.



The proboscis bat (Rhynchonycteris naso) is native to Central and South America. It eats insects like most microbats. It is, however, eaten by the spider Argiope savignyi, so pick who you would root for in a fight wisely. They are usually seen near water in large groups.



Proboscis bats are so named for their long noses. Strange faces are not unknown in the bat world, but these mostly involve huge ears for better sonar reception. It's rare to have a bat with a face that looks like a tapir. I have not seen any information on why (the better to smell you with, my dear mosquito?) but if any bat-lovers can provide, I will gladly update this entry.

As if the nose was not enough, proboscis bats also have strange, wavy stripes down their backs. These stripes serve no known purpose other than to make too-curious bat enthusiasts scratch their heads. They could be for mating, but those stripes might not show up on sonar. Camouflage is the most likely possibility, seeing as they would make the little bat look a tiny bit more like a scrap of bark. Weirdly, these bats can be seen clinging to rocks in perfect single file- your mileage may vary on whether or not this disrupts their camouflage.

When night falls, the colony of proboscis bats flies up from that strange position and over a body of water. They feed at the same spot every night; it is always around water and Rainforest travelers should thank these bats; they're helping to keep the mosquitoes at bay. 

Creature Feature: Glass Frogs.

There are some areas in which being a frog must suck. Besides the sensitivity to pollutants in the environment,  a very interesting puberty, and having many things want to eat them, frogs also have the misfortune of being what science calls "model organisms." Basically, if a scientist wants to test something on a lesser vertebrate, it will probably be either a frog or a mouse. (Rabbits and pigs are common favorites, too.) Frogs are also extremely common in college biology labs, with nearly everybody cutting open at least one frog in their academic career.

Please do not touch my innards -  Kermit.

The frogs have protested: They have evolved skin that is as clear as crystal so that, if you want to see how their bodies work, all you have to do is turn them over. No knife required. You can see the systems in action without performing crazy vivisections! Seriously, this critter is a living biology model.

Pay attention. This'll be on the quiz.

There are a number of glass frogs native to Mexico and Central and South America. They form the family Centrolenidae, which consists entirely of small (5-7 cm) treefrogs with translucent bodies. In short, there are a lot of these guys, and therefore plenty of biology models if you should ever want to venture into the rainforest.

The translucent skin on these frogs serves as the best camouflage ever. There are few better ways to blend in with something than to have skin colored just enough that it does not show bones. That is, unless the frog gets turned over - then it's like showing a predator one of those revolving dessert tables. Fair enough.

 

Glass frogs also have some interesting egg-laying habits. Instead of laying their eggs in water, some species lay their eggs on leaves that are near water. Since there are a million things that eat frog eggs, the eggs on leaves have a slightly better chance of survival. (Hey, at least they aren't supermoms like the pipa toads.) They are also among the few frogs that give parental care to their eggs before they hatch. Males have been found protectively sprawled over their eggs...which looks a little odd.



As with all frogs, glass frogs are indicators of environmental toxins.  Some species are endangered; others are of least concern.  There are some people captive breeding glass frogs, so, if you really want to see one up close, go for a specimen that won't hurt the natural ecology. Here are some handy tips for keeping and identifying your very own glass frogs- sweet. Regardless of which glass frog you find, enjoy looking at it while it's still around!

(Y'know what? I've been doing too many frogs. Next week will be frog and toad week. Period. Any suggestions can go down below.)

Creature Feature: Electric Ant.

A lot of people in the United States are freaking out about Burmese Pythons in Florida. While escaped giant snakes often make the news anyways, the problem in Florida is that a lot of them escaped and are breeding. This puts the native alligator population in considerable danger. It doesn't help that these particular snakes now have a reputation for being man-eaters after one devoured somebody's daughter.  Thing is, even with these points, there are always damaging invasive species wherever humans travel...and they don't have to be very big to cause a lot of damage.

 

The ant above is called the electric ant or little fire ant (Wasmannia auropunctata). As both common names imply, these ants sting like a bitch. They have a distinctly brassy color so that, should you see them on your food, you know to run the eff away. They are native to Central and South America. Ants are among the few species besides humans that wage war, but this ant takes the term "invasive species" to a whole new level.

See, along with Central and South America, these ants can be found in New Caledonia, Australia, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, the Galapagos, Africa, Israel, North America, and everywhere else where things do not freeze over. Presumably, this includes Hell. Wherever they land, they wreak unholy havoc on the local wildlife. Take, for example, this charming excerpt concerning what they do to Galapagos tortoises:

"...it eats the hatchlings of tortoises and attacks the eyes and cloacae of the adult tortoises. It is considered to be perhaps the greatest ant species threat in the Pacific region."

In English: It eats the tortoises' babies. As if that was not nuts enough, it goes for the eyes, the most vulnerable part of any animal, and the tortoises' junk. Your furry pets are definitely not safe, either - these ants will consistently go for the eyes and junk. Research is currently being done to see if these ants are affecting the eyes of Floridians or not, but given that the ants seem to be dicks, we would not be surprised. Even native ants - you know, the kinds of ants that HAVE queens and small armies - cannot usually fight these guys off. Hooo boy.



Did we mention that even the workers can reproduce in this species? No? Well, both male and female electric ants are capable of clonal, parthenogenic reproduction. All it takes is one ant hitchhiking to wreak havoc. Still worried about those massive pythons?

Creature Feature: Howler Monkey.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking. Enough with the creepy stuff - show us some cute and fuzzy! We haven't had any wild fuzzy things in a while. Maybe a monkey would be nice.

Wait a minute. Have we EVER done a monkey, here? We've done lemurs and a few other primates, but never an actual monkey. So, for those of you who like monkeys, here you go:



A Howler monkey is any particularly loud member of the genus Alouatta. They range from southern Mexico to northern Argentina, so they are prime mascot candidates for any and all rainforest conservation programs. They eat mostly leaves, but have been known to raid chicken coops as well. They sleep 5 hours a day, but for those other nine hours...hoooo boy.

Howler monkeys are the loudest land animal. Their guttural vocalizations, rightfully called "howls," can carry for up to three kilometers. Not only do they have loose skin around their throats to amplify their calls, but their hyoid bone (a bone that, for us, is between the chin and the thryoid gland) vibrates extra. Howler monkeys are the only mammals to have hyoid bones like this; birds and dinosaurs did/do, too.

I AM HERE. YOU ARE NOT. DEAL WITH IT.

The actual purpose of these howls is foggy. The current theory is that the males of howlers are super-territorial, so the howl keeps other males out. It may also protect the male's mates (with howlers having a 1:4 male-female ratio).  Until we get a translator for howler monkey, we will not know for sure.

Howler monkeys have a few other neat things going for them besides their voices. Like humans, howler monkeys can see the RGB spectrum. The howler monkey was a deity to the ancient Mayans, who considered it the patron animal of writers and artists. We would have said "patron animal of rock stars," but that works, too.

Creature Feature: Harpy Eagle.

Is anyone else annoyed by bald eagles being the only eagles ever portrayed in art? I have respect for the birds - nothing wrong with them as birds - but it feels like, whenever any source mentions an eagle, screenwriters immediately find a baldie for the role. If you want an ubiquitous eagle, look for a golden eagle. Clash of the Titans had a bald eagle, and that was set in Greece. Greece, not America, the only place where bald eagles actually live. No, I will not get over how terrible that movie was no less than five seconds in. 

Anyways.

Eagles are majestic birds, bald or not. They are usually considered the kings of the skies and are are often associated with divinities. Many such tales come from places without bald eagles, movie producers. Spread your wings a little.

 

Queen among kings is the Harpy Eagle (Harpia harpyja). This impressive bird is native to the rainforest areas of Mexico, Central America, and South America.

Yes, speak of the devil: the bird is named after the hybrid bird-women that tormented King Phineas by eating his food and befouling the rest. They were also tormentors in Hades, a tradition which carried on in Dante's Inferno. Ask the right person and being tortured by naked bird-women sounds like heaven instead of hell, but to each his own.

Eons ago, you could have been that rabbit. Just sayin'.

Harpy Eagles are impressive birds, even if they are not as freakish as their mythical namesake. The Harpy Eagle bears the title of the largest and heaviest eagle in the world. As with most raptors, females are larger than males, allowing different sexes to catch different prey. The heaviest recorded female, a captive specimen named "Jezebel," weighed 12.3 kg (27 pounds). Trust us, this is pretty heavy for a flying bird, and a heavy bird can catch heavy prey.

Big birds need big prey. The rainforests of Central and South America have plenty of larger animals in the form of sloths, monkeys, kinkajous, and other tree-dwelling mammals. Larger monkeys are also fair game. Just so one can appreciate HOW deadly these eagles can be, here is what happened to an unwary sloth:


Suddenly staying in the trees does NOT sound like a good idea.

Yeah. It is totally relevant that "harpy" translates to "snatcher" in Greek.

On a note only tangentially related to Greek mythology, the Harpy Eagle was the basis for Fawkes, the phoenix from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. You probably did not recognize the phoenix without his red CGI and pheasant tail feathers. Finally, the largest eagle in the world got its due.

 

"They Actually Eat That:" Frogs.

"Frogs and snails and puppy dog tails..." That's what little boys are made of. We've done dog. We've done snails. Real-life Hypnotoad up there is not happy that frogs are, unfortunately, also fairly common food items around the world. No, we are not talking about a stupid dare in college to eat the frog on the bio dissection table. Frogs are haut cuisine in many, many places.

Frogs are often described as "tasting like chicken" (just like everything else) simply because they are closer to chickens than mammals on the evolutionary playing field. The meat of cold-blooded animals is also such that frog legs sometimes death-twitch while in the pan (or just with a little salt).



Eating frogs, particularly frog legs, has a link with French culture. If the French have touched a place, it has frog legs on the menu. Vietnam? Yep. Louisiana? Sure. France? Mais oui!



Several other places have frogs as food without French influence. China (surprised?) and Indonesia are also large consumers of frog meat. In China, frog legs are stir-fried; in Indonesia, frog legs are used in a soup called Swikee. Hell, most of the frogs eaten in France today were farmed in Indonesia.

Eating frogs has also been recorded in India, Spain, Greece, and a few places in California. In short, frogs are eaten just about everywhere in some way, shape or form. Maybe Kermit was right: It's not easy being a green frog.


Only Gaga wears them as clothing. We're pretty sure about that.


Next week: Just to prove that NOTHING is off the menu...dragons. And fortune-telling.