Fattest Animal

This cutworm moth (Family Noctuidae) is the fattest animal in the world. In just two summer months of feasting on flower nectar, the migratory moths balloon from 20% to 80% body fat (1). Storing this much energy has a price though – no romance. Migratory moths put reproduction on hold to save up energy for their journey.

Thanks to all that fat, cutworm moths are a major food item for grizzly bears in the summer (2).

It got me wondering: These moths delay reproduction so they can migrate, but putting on fat makes them more delicious. Why not just stay put and make some babies instead? Since their migration is basically east-west, major temperature/seasonal shifts don’t require the move*. Local plants (food) don’t require the move either **. Parasites might. Army cutworm moths are highly parasitized. Moths with parasites stay in the Rocky Mountains longer, growing larger and fatter. So the bears may do the whole population of moths a favor by culling those with parasites.

* Altitude is a factor in temperature and season. But if moths stayed near the mountains, they could stay put moving up and down in altitude without flying a few hundred miles to and from the plains.

** Larvae eat a wide range of leaves and stems. Adults suck up flower nectar. So a large number of larvae may reduce some food for the adults.

1. Kevan, PG and DM Kendall. 1997. Liquid Assets for Fat Bankers: Summer Nectarivory by Migratory Moth in the Rocky Mountains, Colorado, U.S.A. Arctic and Alpine Research 29(4):478-482
2. French, SP, MG French and RR Knight. 1992. Bears: Their Biology and Management. p 389.

The Greenhouse

This map project (for the corpse flower bloom event) has fertilized my love of greenhouses and my admiration for the people who make them blossom.

Greenhouses remind me of libraries – and I adore libraries. If you’ve read Susan Orlean’s The Library Book, you understand that a library is like a wise, old, introverted friend. Not a know-it-all braggart, out to prove something. But someone who willingly helps answer any question you have, as long as you ask and take the time to listen to the answer.

Greenhouses also hold and conserve vast amounts of knowledge. They’re quiet, helpful, and friendly – like the people who work there. There’s even a couple of books about them, though not nearly as popular as The Library Book.

In 1980, an expert in greenhouse history (van den Muijzenberg) estimated that greenhouses enclosed 75,000 acres (~30,000 hectares). A quarter of those greenhouses stood in the Netherlands. The earliest documented “greenhouse” used oiled cloth, rather than glass, to keep cucumber plants growing year-round in Rome.

I think I’ll have a cucumber salad to celebrate.

A Poinsettia by any other name… the cuetlaxochitl

Politics was different in the early 1800s. You didn’t even have to run for office to be elected. Joel Poinsett’s friends nominated him to the South Carolina House of Representatives, and he won. By that time, he’d already completed years of travel through Europe, Russia, the Middle East, and South America where he’d met with foreign ministers, consuls, an empress, and many other political figures.

Within a few years, Poinsett became a U.S. congressman and then the first foreign minister in Mexico. That’s where he saw that plant that would later carry his name. He sent cuttings back to his greenhouses in Charleston and introduced the United States to a beautiful Mexican plant. Unfortunately, Poinsett got in a bit of trouble over his political views in Mexico (the word “poinsettismo” was coined as a result of his intrusive meddling) and was recalled from his post. Poinsett went on to cofound the National Institute for the Promotion of Science and the Useful Arts, later known as the Smithsonian Institution.(1)

Of course, the Poinsettia was well-known in Mexico long before Joel Poinsett. The plant is called cuetlaxochitl (pronounce), and grows as a shrub in Mexico City. The blood-red bracts are symbolic of sacrifices and creation.(2)

1. To learn more about Joel Poinsett, read “Joel R. Poinsett: Versatile American” by J. F. Rippy
2. Lots of interesting information about Poinsettias can be found at http://extension.illinois.edu/poinsettia/

Where Art & Biology go to Shop

Thanks to everyone who’s encouraged me to set up a shop for the illustrations found on this blog and on A-wing and A-way – it’s now OPEN!

Welcome to RedNewtGallery on Etsy!

p.s. If you see any artwork on either blog you’d like posted in the Shop, just comment below and I’ll add it ASAP. For instance, the illustration from my most popular blog post (Penis Bones) is not currently on the site. Hope you can see why! Haha!

Wildflower Stories: The Final Chapter (Horsenettle)

Plants are masterful chemists when it comes to defending themselves. Turns out, some plants build fortifications too. And these armories may even store deadly microbes for use as biological weapons.

Major defensive structures of plants include thorns, spines and prickles. Did you know they’re different? Thorns, officially, grow from the stem or shoot of the plant. They’re like miniature, pointy branches. Hawthorns and lemon trees, for example, have thorns. Spines grow from leaf tissues. Some leaves develop spinous points; some leaves fully convert into spines (like on cacti). Prickles grow from the plant’s outer surface of cells (the epidermis). Since the epidermis is found all over a plant, prickles can pop out of anywhere. “Thorns” on roses are actually prickles. And the spikes growing all over the leaves of this horsenettle (Solanum carolinense) are… prickles.

But these defensive structures may be more prickly (or thorny?) than we ever imagined. Preliminary research indicates that harmful (even deadly) microorganisms inhabit thorns, spines or prickles and cause further injury to herbivores who dare to challenge the awesome power of plants (1).

1. Halpern M, Raats D, Lev-Yadun S. The Potential Anti-Herbivory Role of Microorganisms on Plant Thorns. Plant Signaling & Behavior. 2007;2(6):503-504.