Creature Feature: Mexican Jumping Beans.

In Texas, every souvenir shop has something made out of a weird, dead animal. Hotlix are everywhere. Quite a few places had longhorn cow skulls. Leather exists there- very good leather. One of the most bizarre, however, just so happens to be quite common: the Mexican jumping beans. 

The beans actually 'jump' thanks to the larva of a moth called Cydia deshaisiana, or the "Mexican jumping bean moth." As per the name, they are native to Mexico and the southwestern United States. There are actually a number of shrubs, and a number of moths, that can make "jumping beans," but for now we will focus on the kind sold in random tourist junk shops.

The larval moth spends its entire life in the seed capsule (not bean) of a Sebastiana plant. An adult  C. deshiasana lays an egg on the seed, and the larva burrows in shortly after. If the seed is cracked, the little creature uses silk to repair it. The bean, if nothing else, is a source of food and shelter all at once. Not a bad home if you happen to be a caterpillar.

The "jumping" in jumping beans happens when the larva has eaten all of the inside of the bean. Then, for no explicable reason, they begin pulling silk around the inside of the bean, causing it to roll and fidget if not jump. They jump as an attempt to regulate their body temperatures - it's hot down south!

 Of course, the jumping bean larva cannot stay inside the bean forever. It pupates inside bean, meaning that the frail adult moth will have a hard time getting out. To escape, the larva forms a "trap door" in the bean- a small, round hole that it can push its way out of. This small hole is sometimes marketed as well, even though it defies the point of a jumping bean.

The adult moth is a small, gray, unimpressive creature. It's one of those bugs that reaches maturity only to mate; it doesn't even have jaws. In the span of a few days, it must mate, find an immature Sebastiana seed, and lay eggs. Thus the cycle of touristy crap begins again...but look on the bright side: other, related moths do this to seeds we actually eat.

"They Actually Eat That:" Silkworms.

It's official: China (with trade partners in Korea) is the king of strange food. Sure, everything in America is processed to hell, but they have zombie jellyfish salad. Nothing says "we're willing to turn ANYTHING into food" quite like zombie jellyfish salad. (Disclaimer: I've had jellyfish salad. It was interesting.)  Silkworms have also got to be pretty high on the list of creepy foods for most people.

The world's only domesticated moth has been caught by China's habit of eating anything that so much as twitches. These little silkworms are sold at night markets as fast food and in supermarkets boiled and canned. They can be found roasted, fried, or just boiled. Hey, want worms with that?




Actually, this is one of the more practical, yet still weird, things China eats. After silk is made, there are a lot of half-metamorphosed larvae left to deal with. The silk-making process requires that one boils the cocoons anyways; half of the cooking is done to make qipao and other lovely silk items regardless of whether the boiled insects were eaten or not. May as well make use of those bodies!

So, what does silkworm taste like? Most foreigners mention the strange smell before the taste, but after they pluck up the courage to put one in their mouths, the insects are tolerable. One person visiting Shanghai described the taste as being similar to lobster brain. I have also seen someone saying they'd be "better with a little crunch to them. " It's probably an acquired taste; once you can stomach the little buggers, they really aren't that bad. Should you be in China or Korea, give silkworm a try.



Why eat the worms? Why not eat them? Insects are little sacks of protein, and these particular sacks are farmed en masse anyways. Bon appetit!

Bio-Art: Tara Galanti's Flying Silk Moths.

As I said waaayyy back when in my silkworm entry, silkworms make cattle look good in terms of how well they can survive in the wild. They can't fly, are really, really slow, and do not even eat without human assistance. The most they can do is occasionally interbreed with their wild counterparts. It's a pretty sad life, especially since so many silkworms die young.

Well, except the silkworms in Tera Galanti's "Wings" project.  The silk moths there are capable of flying farther than, say, the moths found in China. They have been deliberately bred to fly instead of produce silk. Although their flight is not monarch butterfly-level inspiring, it is still very cool to see some of the moths retaining wild characteristics after generations of breeding without it.

Tera Galanti originally began breeding silkworms to get over her fear of moths. After a moth distracted her into a traffic accident, she eventually decided to confront her fear in the form of breeding the silk moth- the world's only thoroughly domesticated moth. Even before her project,  she noticed that a few of her moths were capable of fluttering. Flying moths were the next logical step.

The moths were selectively bred by first isolating the cocoons. Then, she made sure that the females were all high up, guaranteeing that only the males who could get that high would make babies. She also put them in cute little setups like this. Feel free to click around there, by the way.

The next step in the project would naturally be releasing the moths outside. Where would such moths go after being unable to fly for so long? Who knows! The question is the same for domestic chickens bred to fly, and, in an extreme case, Heck aurochs. How would nature react to suddenly having these old species back? (Note: The Indian Jungle Fowl is darn close to a chicken, and it's not dead yet.) We don't know, but it would be fun to find out.

Creature Feature: Silkworms.

After all the bashing I do at China's expense, one would think that there was nothing good about the place. It's poor, communist, censors its interwebs, and eats anything that moves. A lot of our stuff comes from China, so maybe we have no right to complain. Tofu is awesome, too.

Also, China invented silk. Since some of us are allergic to wool and nylon took a few centuries to invent, we should be eternally grateful that cute little caterpillars make soft nests for themselves while they metamorphose. Then we're rude enough to interrupt them while they're changing.


(By the way, the worms can also be food.)

Silk is created by a fully captive-bred moth called Bombyx mori, or the domesticated silkmoth. About 5,000 years ago, people in China figured out that the cocoons of certain moths (specifiaclly Bombyx mandarina) could be woven into thread just like sheep wool. After presumably figuring out how moths reproduced, the little bugs were domesticated to hell and back.

Silk has been around in China since at least the 27th century B.C. Legend has it that silk was discovered when a silkworm cocoon dropped into the teacup of Lei Zu, the wife of the Yellow Emperor. After figuring out that the thread could be woven and a larva was making it, the Chinese began cultivating the little worms to be extra-fertile and have soft, plushy cocoons. The Chinese guarded the little maggots well until the 500's A.D. when a Byzantine missionary smuggled a few out. Whoops.



The silkworm is the most genetically altered domesticated animal. Domesticated silkworms make cows look competent. A cow, if turned loose, can still become feral if it is not executed for being a still-living hamburger. These silkworms are so bred down that the adult moths cannot fly. (A certain artist has succeeded in bringing back their wings, but her spot will be after the (book) Dr. Moreau.) The most they can do is breed with their extant relatives into strange hybrid moths. Otherwise, they are entirely dependent on humans for survival.



Besides China, silkworm breeding has also taken wing (ha ha) in South Africa. The silkworms there are hardier than the Chinese silkworms because they are treated as pets. The exposure to different conditions make them welcome additions to the silkworm gene pool, which can be decimated by disease at any given time. There are over 400 strains of silkworms, however, and science is always creating more. There will always be plenty of cocoons for everybody...except the worms, of course.

Creature Feature: Vampire Moths.

"I'd come back as a butterfly."

"Why?"

"Because nobody ever suspects the butterfly. Mwahahaha!" - Bart Simpson.

Indeed, who would suspect a butterfly of doing anything sinister? Moths are slightly more suspicious and annoying, but still nothing to worry about unless you have a precious wool sweater. All of Lepidoptera seems pretty innocent; even the moth with a skull on its back is harmless. They are hardly frightening creatures.

Oh, wait. Except that moth.

Moths of the genus Calyptra have a sinister secret hiding beneath that demure, brown coloration: Their proboscises have evolved to become sharp enough to pierce mammalian flesh. While pulsating their bifurcated mouth parts into a mammal's (that means your) body, they slowly suck up some vital fluid. (By the way, the case is opposite with these moths and mosquitoes; the males bite.) Expect the bite to hurt for 2-3 hours after the moth has left. They are not disease vectors like mosquitoes, so you will definitely live to say that you got bitten by a vampire moth.

 

Nobody is sure exactly how these moths became dusty, fluttering nosferatu, but the current theory is that related moths first evolved those strange mouth parts to suck fruits juice out of fruit. Sucking human blood is just an extension of that talent. Umm, wow, science; does this mean that we should all start fearing vegans?


Yes. No good can come of an image like this.

Oh, and by the way, Calyptra moths are native to southeast Asia, Japan, China, the Urals, and southern Europe...or they were. They have now spread as far as Finland; a few have also been spotted in Sweden, a little further West. If this keeps up, they will get to America and have terrible literature written about them within the next few decades.

At least they don't sparkle.


Tomorrow: The parts of the pig that you never thought would have a use DO have a use; also, see how awesome pigs used to be!

Creature Feature: Comet Moth.

Wow. This is the first thing I've done from Madagascar, isn't it? Expect a lot more; that little island is/was home to a million unique species that all deserve a moment in the spotlight. Most of you are probably well-aware of lemurs - the primates that look kind of like crosses between monkeys and raccoons. Perhaps a few of you also know of fossas, Dumeril's boas, and day geckos. Yes, the little Geico gecko has some cousins on an island dangling beneath the African continent.

Just like us, he refuses to talk about his in-laws. Shame; that could be a GREAT conservation plug!

Why, of all things, did I decide to pick on a moth? A friend of mine wanted me to identify a strange brown moth from the Amazon region. This led to a crash course in Lepidoptera, the order containing butterflies and moths. I want to say that I have narrowed it into the order Saturniidae, but cannot say for sure. I still have not found what it really is, but am definitely not giving up.

This moth was found in the course of my search. The moth in question had the tails typical of American luna moths, so that was one of the places I looked. I had no idea that the luna moth was related to so many other moth species that I had taken a liking to in my bug-studying days, and encountered quite a few new favorites (including, of all things, a moth with bright pink and yellow coloration. Sparklemoth!).

So, if this moth looks an awful lot like one you may have seen near your hometown, it should come as no surprise. Besides the name 'comet moth,' Argema mittrei is also called the 'African moon moth.' It is one of the largest moths in the world, with male moths sporting a wingspan of 20 centimeters and tails of 15. Males are larger and brighter than females.

Both sexes look pretty damn trippy, but the male is up top.

Sadly, the comet/African moon moth is highly endangered. The caterpillars of the comet moth feed only on fresh eucalyptus leaves, so deforestation is a big problem. Furthermore, their cocoons are not solid, but meshed to keep the metamorphosing caterpillars from drowning in their humid rain forest climate. As soon as the moth emerges, it has to go mate; it has a short lifespan of 4-5 days, and is only fertile the first day out of the cocoon.

Here's a moth that we do not want to exterminate. Appreciate its beauty while it lasts!