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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This summer, as you cool your bare feet in a stream somewhere in California — or almost anywhere in the world, really — you might feel a painful nip. The menacing culprit: a giant water bug.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lurking just below the surface of that flowing creek or refreshing pond, these bugs resemble enormous aquatic ticks, with googly eyes and praying mantis arms. And although they won’t seek you out for an attack, they also won’t hesitate to take a defensive bite if you get too close, earning them the nickname “toe-biters.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1979488\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1979488 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/DL909_giant_water_bugs_label.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Several species of giant water bugs lurk in ponds and streams throughout California, like this \u003cem>Abedus indentatus.\u003c/em> \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They puncture the skin with dagger-like mouth parts, and have a bite known as one of the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.wemjournal.org/article/S1080-6032(10)00039-6/fulltext\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">most painful of any insect\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> — sharp and stinging like a wasp’s. You may not even get a chance to spot the offending insect before it dashes off, but you’ll undoubtedly be left with an indelible impression. And a swollen, throbbing toe.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Or, if you go chasing water bugs, like I did while researching this story, it could be your thumb that takes the hit. Ankle-deep in a cold stream near San Jose, I grabbed a submerged rock, flipped it over, and instantly felt a piercing jab. Sharp pain radiated out from the puncture site, marked with a red dot. I watched as my thumb swelled, gradually turning shades of blue and purple. The perpetrator and I locked eyes for only a second before it darted off like an aquatic bandit. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1979475\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1979475\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/DL909_giant_water_bugs_toebiter.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In some parts of the world, giant water bugs are nicknamed “toe-biters” due to their notoriously painful bites. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Giant water bugs are recognized around the world. In Brazil, they’re known as “escorpião d’água” (water scorpions). They prowl rice fields and other wetlands throughout Asia, where they’re \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.eatingthaifood.com/how-to-eat-a-giant-water-bug-maeng-da-thailand/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">considered a delicacy\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">: One Thai dish serves water bugs with wings removed and bodies pulverized. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“You get this kind of a green lumpy substance that looks like guacamole, but doesn’t taste like guacamole,” says Robert Sites, an entomologist at the University of Missouri. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sites describes the dish as quite tasty, with a nutty flavor. And it sometimes includes a useful prop. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“If you get one of the legs, you can use that as a toothpick,” he says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Several species live in California’s ponds and streams, and most measure about the length of your thumb. When park rangers in the Santa Monica Mountains found healthy populations of giant water bugs near popular swimming holes in 2018, they \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.newsweek.com/beware-giant-toe-biting-water-bugs-rangers-warn-1088848\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">warned the public\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to beware of their particularly unpleasant bites. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But our toes aren’t what water bugs are after. Giant water bugs prey on other aquatic insects, as well as animals as large as turtles, snakes and even ducklings — one naturalist in the 1800s even recorded one ambushing and devouring a woodpecker. Using their powerful, vice-grip legs, they subdue their victim before stabbing into it and injecting venom that liquefies the insides of their prey. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“They wait for everything to dissolve, and suck it back out,” says Chris Goforth, an entomologist and manager of citizen science at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. “Almost certainly, it’s still alive when it’s being eaten.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1979476\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1979476 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/DL909_giant_water_bugs_eat_fish.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A giant water bug injects a fish with paralyzing digestive enzymes before slurping out the liquefied insides. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Despite their aggressive and predatory nature, giant water bugs might just be the most responsible fathers in the insect world. In some California species, dad will haul his eggs around piggyback style for weeks, until they hatch right off his back. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Parental care is unusual in itself,” says Sites, “but then actually attaching the eggs to the males — that’s another layer of complication.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1979477\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1979477 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/DL909_giant_water_bugs_eggs_eye_spots.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Male giant water bugs in the \u003cem>Abedus\u003c/em> genus, like this \u003cem>Abedus indentatus\u003c/em> in California, carry their eggs around piggyback style throughout their development. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After mating, a female climbs onto the male’s back to lay row after row of eggs, gluing each one with a gooey substance oozing from her reproductive glands. Mom’s work ends here, and she swims off to prowl the shadows for her next meal. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But for dads, their job has only started. Most insects leave their eggs defenseless, relying on sheer numbers to get some of them through to hatching. By carrying the eggs on their backs, giant water bug dads can dodge predators and keep an eye on their babies. They’ll carry these eggs for weeks, shuttling them to the surface for air like an insect minivan. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“They’ll just bob up and down, ever so slightly,” says Hope Klug, an ecologist at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. “With the movement, they’re making sure that each individual egg is getting some oxygen to help it develop.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After several weeks, the eggs have doubled in size and turned a milky white color. Suddenly, a pair of eyes is visible through each egg casing: The nymphs inside are getting ready to hatch. Within a few days, a transparent nymph pushes through, face first, unfolding its long limbs as it emerges. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1979478\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1979478 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/DL909_giant_water_bugs_egg_hatch.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A nymph emerges from its egg casing after weeks of being shuttled around on dad’s back. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Once it’s fully hatched, the nymph quickly swims away. If dad catches it, his instincts will kick in. Despite the weeks of careful parenting that he dedicated to ensuring the eggs’ survival, his offspring are now fair game as a tasty snack.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sabrina Mendoza-Espinoza, who cares for more than a dozen water bugs on display at the San Francisco Zoo, put it this way: “They’ll go after anything that moves.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Including their own children. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This summer, as you cool your bare feet in a stream somewhere in California — or almost anywhere in the world, really — you might feel a painful nip. The menacing culprit: a giant water bug.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lurking just below the surface of that flowing creek or refreshing pond, these bugs resemble enormous aquatic ticks, with googly eyes and praying mantis arms. And although they won’t seek you out for an attack, they also won’t hesitate to take a defensive bite if you get too close, earning them the nickname “toe-biters.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1979488\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1979488 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/DL909_giant_water_bugs_label.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Several species of giant water bugs lurk in ponds and streams throughout California, like this \u003cem>Abedus indentatus.\u003c/em> \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They puncture the skin with dagger-like mouth parts, and have a bite known as one of the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.wemjournal.org/article/S1080-6032(10)00039-6/fulltext\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">most painful of any insect\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> — sharp and stinging like a wasp’s. You may not even get a chance to spot the offending insect before it dashes off, but you’ll undoubtedly be left with an indelible impression. And a swollen, throbbing toe.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Or, if you go chasing water bugs, like I did while researching this story, it could be your thumb that takes the hit. Ankle-deep in a cold stream near San Jose, I grabbed a submerged rock, flipped it over, and instantly felt a piercing jab. Sharp pain radiated out from the puncture site, marked with a red dot. I watched as my thumb swelled, gradually turning shades of blue and purple. The perpetrator and I locked eyes for only a second before it darted off like an aquatic bandit. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1979475\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1979475\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/DL909_giant_water_bugs_toebiter.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In some parts of the world, giant water bugs are nicknamed “toe-biters” due to their notoriously painful bites. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Giant water bugs are recognized around the world. In Brazil, they’re known as “escorpião d’água” (water scorpions). They prowl rice fields and other wetlands throughout Asia, where they’re \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.eatingthaifood.com/how-to-eat-a-giant-water-bug-maeng-da-thailand/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">considered a delicacy\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">: One Thai dish serves water bugs with wings removed and bodies pulverized. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“You get this kind of a green lumpy substance that looks like guacamole, but doesn’t taste like guacamole,” says Robert Sites, an entomologist at the University of Missouri. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sites describes the dish as quite tasty, with a nutty flavor. And it sometimes includes a useful prop. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“If you get one of the legs, you can use that as a toothpick,” he says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Several species live in California’s ponds and streams, and most measure about the length of your thumb. When park rangers in the Santa Monica Mountains found healthy populations of giant water bugs near popular swimming holes in 2018, they \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.newsweek.com/beware-giant-toe-biting-water-bugs-rangers-warn-1088848\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">warned the public\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to beware of their particularly unpleasant bites. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But our toes aren’t what water bugs are after. Giant water bugs prey on other aquatic insects, as well as animals as large as turtles, snakes and even ducklings — one naturalist in the 1800s even recorded one ambushing and devouring a woodpecker. Using their powerful, vice-grip legs, they subdue their victim before stabbing into it and injecting venom that liquefies the insides of their prey. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“They wait for everything to dissolve, and suck it back out,” says Chris Goforth, an entomologist and manager of citizen science at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. “Almost certainly, it’s still alive when it’s being eaten.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1979476\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1979476 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/DL909_giant_water_bugs_eat_fish.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A giant water bug injects a fish with paralyzing digestive enzymes before slurping out the liquefied insides. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Despite their aggressive and predatory nature, giant water bugs might just be the most responsible fathers in the insect world. In some California species, dad will haul his eggs around piggyback style for weeks, until they hatch right off his back. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Parental care is unusual in itself,” says Sites, “but then actually attaching the eggs to the males — that’s another layer of complication.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1979477\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1979477 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/DL909_giant_water_bugs_eggs_eye_spots.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Male giant water bugs in the \u003cem>Abedus\u003c/em> genus, like this \u003cem>Abedus indentatus\u003c/em> in California, carry their eggs around piggyback style throughout their development. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After mating, a female climbs onto the male’s back to lay row after row of eggs, gluing each one with a gooey substance oozing from her reproductive glands. Mom’s work ends here, and she swims off to prowl the shadows for her next meal. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But for dads, their job has only started. Most insects leave their eggs defenseless, relying on sheer numbers to get some of them through to hatching. By carrying the eggs on their backs, giant water bug dads can dodge predators and keep an eye on their babies. They’ll carry these eggs for weeks, shuttling them to the surface for air like an insect minivan. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“They’ll just bob up and down, ever so slightly,” says Hope Klug, an ecologist at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. “With the movement, they’re making sure that each individual egg is getting some oxygen to help it develop.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After several weeks, the eggs have doubled in size and turned a milky white color. Suddenly, a pair of eyes is visible through each egg casing: The nymphs inside are getting ready to hatch. Within a few days, a transparent nymph pushes through, face first, unfolding its long limbs as it emerges. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1979478\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1979478 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/DL909_giant_water_bugs_egg_hatch.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A nymph emerges from its egg casing after weeks of being shuttled around on dad’s back. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Once it’s fully hatched, the nymph quickly swims away. If dad catches it, his instincts will kick in. Despite the weeks of careful parenting that he dedicated to ensuring the eggs’ survival, his offspring are now fair game as a tasty snack.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sabrina Mendoza-Espinoza, who cares for more than a dozen water bugs on display at the San Francisco Zoo, put it this way: “They’ll go after anything that moves.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Including their own children. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Those precious silk garments in your closet were made by the caterpillar of a fuzzy, white moth — thousands of them. Silkworms spin a cocoon with a single strand of silk up to 10 city blocks long. Humans have bred these insects into weaving machines that can no longer survive in the wild.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This fuzzy moth has wings, but it will never fly.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Why? Because we humans made it that way.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a domestic silk moth. It looks almost nothing like its wild cousin.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For 5,000 years humans have bred silk moths, changing the course of their evolution to be their own unique species. All because we covet their shimmering threads. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The silkworm — this moth’s caterpillar — spits out an extraordinary fiber. It’s ideal for making everything from satiny sheets to glamorous gowns to terrible ties. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But we don’t just love it for its looks. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Silk is one of nature’s strongest fibers. The thread is thinner than a human hair, but for its weight, it’s five times stronger than steel. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The silkworm begins its life snuggled in a tiny, translucent egg. The hungry caterpillar nibbles its way out. It’s raised on a farm where it can chomp and chomp and chomp. Here they’re feasting on ground-up mulberry leaves.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Each larva starts out smaller than the date on a penny and in just a few weeks it’s as long as your finger. Now this plump caterpillar can get to work on its next phase of life: making its cocoon. It secretes a liquid from a spinneret on its head. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As soon as the solution touches the air, it becomes a pliable fiber. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What we know as “silk” is a long, unbroken strand constructed primarily from two proteins. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The inside is fibroin — it’s the structural center. The outside is sericin — the glue binding it all together. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The larva spins raw silk for two to three days straight. The end result is a single string of silk, up to 10 city blocks long. This tiny shelter maintains just the right humidity and temperature for the caterpillar to transform into a moth. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Once the cushy casing is complete, farmers harvest the raw silk. For most silkworms in captivity, this is where their journey ends.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They die when manufacturers boil, steam, or dry them out in the sun. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Silk harvesters unspool the single thread of silk that makes up each cocoon. If they were to let the moth hatch, it would break the valuable thread.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It takes up to two thousand unbroken cocoons to make one silk dress.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">However, a few lucky pupae are allowed to continue developing, and become moths, so they can spawn the next generation.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After centuries under our watch these industrious weavers can’t fly, and their camouflage is gone, so they wouldn’t last long in the wild. They can hardly move. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Once outside the cocoon, a flightless male must seek out a female quickly because they only have a few days to live. So they now rely on us to make sure they find a mate and reproduce.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Silk production is a multibillion-dollar global industry. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And it’s not just for fashion and luxury.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Silk fabric is a natural insulator, yet it also allows air flow. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Silk is used in modern medicine to stitch together wounds, stabilize bones, and even replace tendons inside our bodies.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And so, our relationship with the humble silkworm continues — as it has for millennia — at least until we figure out how to make silk as well as it can.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But we don’t just love it for its looks. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Silk is one of nature’s strongest fibers. The thread is thinner than a human hair, but for its weight, it’s five times stronger than steel. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The silkworm begins its life snuggled in a tiny, translucent egg. The hungry caterpillar nibbles its way out. It’s raised on a farm where it can chomp and chomp and chomp. Here they’re feasting on ground-up mulberry leaves.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Each larva starts out smaller than the date on a penny and in just a few weeks it’s as long as your finger. Now this plump caterpillar can get to work on its next phase of life: making its cocoon. It secretes a liquid from a spinneret on its head. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As soon as the solution touches the air, it becomes a pliable fiber. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What we know as “silk” is a long, unbroken strand constructed primarily from two proteins. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The inside is fibroin — it’s the structural center. The outside is sericin — the glue binding it all together. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The larva spins raw silk for two to three days straight. The end result is a single string of silk, up to 10 city blocks long. This tiny shelter maintains just the right humidity and temperature for the caterpillar to transform into a moth. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Once the cushy casing is complete, farmers harvest the raw silk. For most silkworms in captivity, this is where their journey ends.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They die when manufacturers boil, steam, or dry them out in the sun. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Silk harvesters unspool the single thread of silk that makes up each cocoon. If they were to let the moth hatch, it would break the valuable thread.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It takes up to two thousand unbroken cocoons to make one silk dress.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">However, a few lucky pupae are allowed to continue developing, and become moths, so they can spawn the next generation.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After centuries under our watch these industrious weavers can’t fly, and their camouflage is gone, so they wouldn’t last long in the wild. They can hardly move. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Once outside the cocoon, a flightless male must seek out a female quickly because they only have a few days to live. So they now rely on us to make sure they find a mate and reproduce.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Silk production is a multibillion-dollar global industry. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And it’s not just for fashion and luxury.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Silk fabric is a natural insulator, yet it also allows air flow. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Silk is used in modern medicine to stitch together wounds, stabilize bones, and even replace tendons inside our bodies.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And so, our relationship with the humble silkworm continues — as it has for millennia — at least until we figure out how to make silk as well as it can.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003cem>Acorn barnacles might look like jagged little rocks at low tide, but they have a surprisingly wild sex life. These crusty little animals — related to crabs and shrimp — have the longest penis of any animal relative to their body size. It’s up to eight times the length of the barnacle itself!\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Finding a date is hard enough in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s especially tricky when you’re stuck to a rock in the middle of the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, acorn barnacles don’t get discouraged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These crusty little animals actually have a pretty wild sex life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At low tide each one is sealed up inside its own miniature fortress – shielded by a ring of armored plates. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two central plates press together to form a water-tight seal so they don’t dry out in the open air. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re ready and waiting for the tide to rise so they can get down to business. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But first they need to freshen up a bit. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The barnacle unfurls eight pairs of delicate feathery legs called cirri, which they use to absorb oxygen from the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legs filter out plankton and debris churned up by the waves, bringing the catch inside to the mouth\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They may not look like it from the outside, but beneath their shell, it’s easier to see that barnacles are crustaceans related to crabs and shrimp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a nice meal, it’s ready for some action. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The little barnacle lets loose the longest penis of any animal – relative to its body size of course – stretching up to eight times the length of the barnacle itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And this penis has skills. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It can taste and smell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the tip can feel around, probing to see which neighbors have ripe eggs inside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it finds what it’s looking for the barnacle delivers sperm to fertilize the eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barnacles aren’t exactly prudes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pretty much everyone is fair play. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because they’re all hermaphrodites, simultaneously male and female.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes it’s one-on-one, sometimes more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barnacles are nurturing parents, too. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They hold on to their fertilized eggs and protect them until they hatch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These cuties are their baby larvae called nauplii. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is the young barnacles’ chance for adventure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They roam the sea searching for food and growing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If they survive long enough the barnacle larvae mature into cyprids. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At this stage the barnacle doesn’t eat. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cyprid’s only mission is to find the ideal spot to glom onto before it starves. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having survived the trials of youth, the barnacle settles in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now it’s time to get to know the neighbors.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cem>Acorn barnacles might look like jagged little rocks at low tide, but they have a surprisingly wild sex life. These crusty little animals — related to crabs and shrimp — have the longest penis of any animal relative to their body size. It’s up to eight times the length of the barnacle itself!\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Finding a date is hard enough in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s especially tricky when you’re stuck to a rock in the middle of the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, acorn barnacles don’t get discouraged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These crusty little animals actually have a pretty wild sex life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At low tide each one is sealed up inside its own miniature fortress – shielded by a ring of armored plates. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two central plates press together to form a water-tight seal so they don’t dry out in the open air. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re ready and waiting for the tide to rise so they can get down to business. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But first they need to freshen up a bit. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The barnacle unfurls eight pairs of delicate feathery legs called cirri, which they use to absorb oxygen from the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legs filter out plankton and debris churned up by the waves, bringing the catch inside to the mouth\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They may not look like it from the outside, but beneath their shell, it’s easier to see that barnacles are crustaceans related to crabs and shrimp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a nice meal, it’s ready for some action. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The little barnacle lets loose the longest penis of any animal – relative to its body size of course – stretching up to eight times the length of the barnacle itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And this penis has skills. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It can taste and smell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the tip can feel around, probing to see which neighbors have ripe eggs inside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it finds what it’s looking for the barnacle delivers sperm to fertilize the eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barnacles aren’t exactly prudes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pretty much everyone is fair play. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because they’re all hermaphrodites, simultaneously male and female.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes it’s one-on-one, sometimes more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barnacles are nurturing parents, too. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They hold on to their fertilized eggs and protect them until they hatch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These cuties are their baby larvae called nauplii. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is the young barnacles’ chance for adventure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They roam the sea searching for food and growing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If they survive long enough the barnacle larvae mature into cyprids. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At this stage the barnacle doesn’t eat. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cyprid’s only mission is to find the ideal spot to glom onto before it starves. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having survived the trials of youth, the barnacle settles in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now it’s time to get to know the neighbors.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]The vinegaroon – also known as a whip scorpion – looks like a Frankenstein creation of monster body parts. But unlike true scorpions, it doesn’t use venom to defend itself from predators. Instead, it aims its tail at their face and sprays a blast of acid that reeks of – you guessed it – vinegar. Only \u003ci>this\u003c/i> weaponized vinegar is 16 times stronger than what’s in your salad.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Late at night, after a rain in Arizona’s high desert, a dark shape creeps out from its underground lair. It’s as big as your palm, and it’s hungry. And if it feels bothered …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OK, what just happened?? And seriously, what is this thing? A mutant land lobster?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I mean, it’s got claws like a scorpion. The mouth of a spider?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Antennae-like things coming out of its armpits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A long, skinny tail like a … RAT?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This surprising combo of monster body parts is a vinegaroon, also known as a whip scorpion. It’s in a group of animals called arachnids, that includes scorpions and spiders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it doesn’t sting like a scorpion, or hunt with a web like many spiders. A vinegaroon has its very own style.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This tail may look dangerous, but it’s actually a finely tuned sensor. It picks up vibrations and chemicals in the air, in this case, to stalk its prey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Up front, those antennae-looking things are actually specialized legs. They help the vinegaroon feel its way around. It’s basically blind. So it relies on touch and smell to close in on its meal. It will break through this cricket’s tough exoskeleton with its claws and bristly mouth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vinegaroon also uses these wicked claws to excavate its burrow. Adults and their young use the burrows for protection from predators, and to stay out of the scorching desert sun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vinegaroons and their ancestors have survived this way for hundreds of millions of years. So, what does it need that spray for? Researchers observe it by gently holding the animal with forceps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite those frightening looks, this surprising spritz is actually its strongest defense against anything that wants to eat them – like skunks, raccoons or coyotes. Even with poor eyesight, the vinegaroon sprays with incredible accuracy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inside, two pygidial glands, also known as “stink glands,” hold the foul fluid. The base of the tail is extremely flexible, and can aim the blast in any direction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Touché, skunk!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The instant it sprays, the gland openings appear as two retractable nozzles. An adult vinegaroon can shoot up to five times before it needs to let its stink glands fill up again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The spray reeks. That’s because the solution is mostly acetic acid, the same stuff in the vinegar in your salad dressing, except this cocktail is 16 times stronger. A blast of that to the face of a larger predator is like pepper spray.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the vinegaroon’s signature defense is unlikely to do any lasting damage, it will certainly leave a lasting impression.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003cem>The cage fungus looks and smells like decaying meat — on purpose. Its goopy lattice gives off a rotten odor that attracts flies, which help spread its spores far and wide. It’s like a bee to a flower, but way more macabre and putrid.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>What is that terrible smell?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Is it spoiled fruit? \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A rotten egg? \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A dead animal?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s actually coming from this cage fungus — and it’s in the absolute prime of its life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That horrible smell is part of an elaborate hoax to fake its own death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like most mushrooms, what you see is only a small part of the organism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vast majority is hidden below the surface — in an expansive network of miniscule threads called the mycelium.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cage fungus is saprobic — the mycelium eats dead and rotting wood, digesting the cellulose and returning nutrients to the soil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the weather is warm and wet and there’s plenty of wood around, the mycelium creates an “egg” — this brain-looking thing — that pops up above ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A white leathery membrane protects the egg as it grows and stretches. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until it cracks open. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The spongy lattice bursts outward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a few hours it looks — and smells — like a basket made of decaying flesh.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The interior surfaces of the lattice are coated in a sickly brown slime called gleba.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That horrendous odor emanates from those sticky globs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The open lattice shape helps the stench spread in the breeze.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But to a fly, that reek is irresistible. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It screams: rotting carcass! A delectable meal, or a place to lay their eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The gaps in the lattice are just the right size for the flies to pop in and out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They traipse around, gobbling up the goo. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The flies love it, but what’s in it for the fungus?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, the fungus needs something that the flies have — wings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While many mushrooms spread their spores by releasing them into the wind, the cage fungus gets the flies to do all the work \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As they feed, the flies unintentionally down millions of the fungus’ microscopic spores, hidden inside the dark slime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The gleba also clings to the flies’ feet. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the flies lift off, they take the spores with them, spreading them far and wide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After about a day the lattice starts to collapse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having successfully spread its spores, this is the end of its story — or is it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the conditions are right, the fungus will pop up more eggs year after year — continuing its deception for the sake of future generations.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]The Australian walking stick is a master of deception, but a twig is just one of its many disguises. Before it’s even born, it mimics a seed. In its youth it looks and acts like an ant. Only when it has grown up does it settle into its final, leafy form. Along the way, it fools predators at every turn.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Our story begins with a seed, an ant, and a leaf. Or does it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each one of these is a phase in the life of the same creature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Australian walking stick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deep in the forests of eastern Australia, a seed drops from the canopy above. Foraging ants carry it down to their underground burrow. They snack on the nutritious cap, leaving the rest intact.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this “seed” is a knockoff. It’s actually an Australian walking stick insect’s egg. Here it is next to a real seed the ants also brought into the nest. The delicious part of this real seed is called the “elaiosome,” and the same part on the egg is called the “capitulum.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s an evolutionary strategy to get that egg underground. Why? Ant nests are just the right humidity for the developing egg, and are well-protected from parasites and predators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several months later, the egg hatches underground, and a stick insect nymph emerges from the nest. It runs, looking for safety in the foliage above. It has taken on a new disguise: as a red-headed spider ant. Not only does it look a lot like the ant — it also moves like one.\u003cbr>\nAnd even strikes a pose like the ant, curling its abdomen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Looking and acting like an ant may save this nymph’s life. Predators tend to steer clear of ants. Ants swarm — sometimes they bite and sting — and most worker ants aren’t all that nutritious.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On top of that, red-headed spider ants taste like rotten coconut or bad cheese. These birds take a hard pass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Upon closer inspection, the disguise doesn’t really hold up. But hey — it gets the job done. And it doesn’t need to last long.\u003cbr>\nThe red on the Australian walking stick’s head fades in just a few days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nymph races upward, into the trees. After about a month, the insect begins to change yet again. It will molt six times as it perfects its final costume, as it grows into an adult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That frenetic ant energy gives way to a gentle swaying — like a leaf in the breeze. Nothing to see here, predators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The insects graze all day, mostly on eucalyptus leaves, plumping up and growing as long as your palm. Adults vary in color. Some even take on the green ruffled shape of a lichen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You might think it’d be hard to find each other with all this camouflage, but they communicate with pheromones, so no problem. Sometime after mating, the female lays her eggs, which fall to the forest floor, and the cycle begins again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fake seed and pretend ant phases are more than just protection from parasites and predators. Since adult Australian walking stick insects don’t actually walk much, they rely on seed-collecting ants to disperse their eggs throughout the forest. Then it’s up to their zippy, ant-impersonating offspring to help them spread out even further.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Australian walking stick insect has evolved so many looks, it almost seems like it’s having an identity crisis. But just because you can shape-shift from one form to another — and another — doesn’t mean you don’t know exactly what you are.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this “seed” is a knockoff. It’s actually an Australian walking stick insect’s egg. Here it is next to a real seed the ants also brought into the nest. The delicious part of this real seed is called the “elaiosome,” and the same part on the egg is called the “capitulum.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s an evolutionary strategy to get that egg underground. Why? Ant nests are just the right humidity for the developing egg, and are well-protected from parasites and predators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several months later, the egg hatches underground, and a stick insect nymph emerges from the nest. It runs, looking for safety in the foliage above. It has taken on a new disguise: as a red-headed spider ant. Not only does it look a lot like the ant — it also moves like one.\u003cbr>\nAnd even strikes a pose like the ant, curling its abdomen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Looking and acting like an ant may save this nymph’s life. Predators tend to steer clear of ants. Ants swarm — sometimes they bite and sting — and most worker ants aren’t all that nutritious.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On top of that, red-headed spider ants taste like rotten coconut or bad cheese. These birds take a hard pass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Upon closer inspection, the disguise doesn’t really hold up. But hey — it gets the job done. And it doesn’t need to last long.\u003cbr>\nThe red on the Australian walking stick’s head fades in just a few days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nymph races upward, into the trees. After about a month, the insect begins to change yet again. It will molt six times as it perfects its final costume, as it grows into an adult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That frenetic ant energy gives way to a gentle swaying — like a leaf in the breeze. Nothing to see here, predators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The insects graze all day, mostly on eucalyptus leaves, plumping up and growing as long as your palm. Adults vary in color. Some even take on the green ruffled shape of a lichen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You might think it’d be hard to find each other with all this camouflage, but they communicate with pheromones, so no problem. Sometime after mating, the female lays her eggs, which fall to the forest floor, and the cycle begins again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fake seed and pretend ant phases are more than just protection from parasites and predators. Since adult Australian walking stick insects don’t actually walk much, they rely on seed-collecting ants to disperse their eggs throughout the forest. Then it’s up to their zippy, ant-impersonating offspring to help them spread out even further.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Australian walking stick insect has evolved so many looks, it almost seems like it’s having an identity crisis. But just because you can shape-shift from one form to another — and another — doesn’t mean you don’t know exactly what you are.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003cem>They might look like harmless grasshoppers, but locusts have an appetite for destruction. When the conditions are right, they transform from mild-mannered loners into gregarious partiers. They swarm, causing chaos and suffering at the level of a biblical plague. So what sets them off?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>This might look like a harmless grasshopper, but under the right conditions it has an explosive dark side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a locust, with an appetite for destruction that can rise to the level of a biblical plague.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All locusts are grasshoppers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the only grasshoppers we call locusts are the ones that swarm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the time, locusts are mild-mannered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They stay put, and blend in to avoid predators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is their solitary phase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Locusts can live like this for generations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until something sets them off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the arid regions across the world where locusts make their homes, that trigger is often a hard rain, especially following a drought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That deluge makes plants flourish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The solitary locusts eat and eat, fueling up and making more locusts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As their numbers swell, they inadvertently bump into each other.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hairs on their back legs are particularly sensitive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that contact triggers a pulse of serotonin: a hormone that transforms them from loners into partiers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In just a few hours they can go from a solitarious phase to a gregarious phase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Molt by molt, the locusts change from a camouflage green to an in-your-face yellow and black.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bright colors help scare off predators by telling them the locusts taste bad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These transformed locusts have a huge appetite, and not just for food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pretty soon they’re surrounded by baby locusts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s when things start getting crowded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even a feast this big won’t last long with so many hungry guests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The restless young locusts start hopping and marching together, forming groups called bands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a locust outbreak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the locusts mature, they grow wings and take to the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The giant swarms number in the billions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They devour entire farms in hours, wiping out people’s livelihoods, and causing mass starvation and misery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Outbreaks like these can last for months or years, even decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It takes huge amounts of insecticides to knock back a full-on swarm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A better strategy is to catch minor outbreaks before they get massive, but they can be hard to spot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers at Arizona State University are looking into one way to defend against locust destruction by making land less inviting to some species.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They put locusts into wind tunnels to see how far the insects can fly based on what they eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’ve found some locusts thrive, and spread farthest, on a diet rich in carbohydrates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Land managers can make their crops and pasturelands richer in protein and lower in carbohydrates if they increase the amount of organic matter in the soil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Avoiding overgrazing helps, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those are expensive propositions and currently out of reach for many.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if we can keep working on ways to cut back on the carbs it might just help prevent a plague.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the time, locusts are mild-mannered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They stay put, and blend in to avoid predators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is their solitary phase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Locusts can live like this for generations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until something sets them off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the arid regions across the world where locusts make their homes, that trigger is often a hard rain, especially following a drought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That deluge makes plants flourish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The solitary locusts eat and eat, fueling up and making more locusts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As their numbers swell, they inadvertently bump into each other.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hairs on their back legs are particularly sensitive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that contact triggers a pulse of serotonin: a hormone that transforms them from loners into partiers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In just a few hours they can go from a solitarious phase to a gregarious phase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Molt by molt, the locusts change from a camouflage green to an in-your-face yellow and black.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bright colors help scare off predators by telling them the locusts taste bad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These transformed locusts have a huge appetite, and not just for food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pretty soon they’re surrounded by baby locusts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s when things start getting crowded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even a feast this big won’t last long with so many hungry guests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The restless young locusts start hopping and marching together, forming groups called bands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a locust outbreak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the locusts mature, they grow wings and take to the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The giant swarms number in the billions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They devour entire farms in hours, wiping out people’s livelihoods, and causing mass starvation and misery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Outbreaks like these can last for months or years, even decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It takes huge amounts of insecticides to knock back a full-on swarm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A better strategy is to catch minor outbreaks before they get massive, but they can be hard to spot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers at Arizona State University are looking into one way to defend against locust destruction by making land less inviting to some species.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They put locusts into wind tunnels to see how far the insects can fly based on what they eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’ve found some locusts thrive, and spread farthest, on a diet rich in carbohydrates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Land managers can make their crops and pasturelands richer in protein and lower in carbohydrates if they increase the amount of organic matter in the soil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Avoiding overgrazing helps, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those are expensive propositions and currently out of reach for many.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if we can keep working on ways to cut back on the carbs it might just help prevent a plague.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003cem>A kissing bug gorges on your blood. Then it poops on you. And that poop might contain the parasite that causes Chagas disease, which can be deadly. Without knowing it, millions of people have gotten the parasite in Latin America, where these insects live in many rural homes. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the saliva of some kissing bugs in the U.S. can give you a dangerous allergic reaction.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>This kissing bug isn’t going to give you a loving peck when it sticks you with that tucked-away proboscis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It could actually make you really sick, even kill you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It makes its move at night, while you’re sleeping. It likes your warm body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kissing bugs get their name because they often bite near the lips or eyes, but they’ll dig in anywhere you’ve left uncovered. 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You, on the other hand, are not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It injects saliva as it sucks your blood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s a scientist squeezing some out. The saliva has proteins that can give people a deadly allergic reaction called anaphylaxis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it gets much, much worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OK. This is super gross. After eating – sometimes while it’s eating – the bug poops. And that poop – and urine – might contain the parasite that causes Chagas disease. If the bug’s victim rubs these feces and urine into the bite wound or their eyes, the parasite can infect them. Years later, as many as one third of the people who got the parasite develop heart disease that can kill them, sometimes suddenly. Pregnant women can even pass the parasite onto their babies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Few contract the parasite in the U.S., even though kissing bugs live here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in Latin America, millions of people have become infected. There, kissing bugs are known by many different names: chinche besucona … chinche … pito … vinchuca … barbeiro. In rural areas, these kissing bug species live in people’s homes, in the cracks of the walls. And in animal coops. Spraying has helped bring down infections. But hundreds of thousands of people have left their home countries for the U.S., not knowing the bug gave them the parasite. A simple blood test can find it and medications can often kill it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the American Southwest, the bugs live in the nests of wild animals, like this pack rat den in Arizona, where biologists Anita and Chuck Kristensen collect them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chuck Kristensen (off camera): Kissing bug, kissing bug! Genuine kissing bug.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the most part, they feed on the pack rats. But in late spring and summer, the bugs sometimes travel from these nests into someone’s home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So sealing off your house, with screens on your windows – and even vents – is one way to keep out these stealthy bloodsuckers.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>ADDITIONAL RESOURCES\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kissing bugs in the US\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, kissing bugs – also known as conenose bugs – are most prevalent in the foothill areas surrounding the Central Valley and in the foothills and desert areas of Southern California. Find out \u003ca href=\"http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7455.html\">how you can keep kissing bugs out of your house\u003c/a> from the UC Integrated Pest Management Program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Entomologists at Texas A&M University have put together a website with photos of kissing bugs and a \u003ca href=\"https://kissingbug.tamu.edu/\">map showing where they live in the U.S.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Testing for Chagas disease\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most people with Chagas became infected with the parasite in rural areas of Mexico, Central America and South America. The disease is regularly transmitted in \u003ca href=\"http://www.infochagas.org/en/en-que-paises-hay-chagas\">21 countries\u003c/a>, among them Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. Transmission doesn’t occur in the Caribbean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the U.S., where kissing bugs very rarely transmit Chagas, researchers estimate that some 350,000 Latin American immigrants contracted the parasite in their home countries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A blood test can find the parasite and two medications, nifurtimox and benznidazole, can often kill it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Any immigrants from Latin America should probably be tested at least once,” said Dr. Caryn Bern, who studies Chagas at UCSF. She said that any health care provider can order a screening test through their usual lab system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since pregnant women can pass the parasite onto their babies, women from Latin America or whose own mothers grew up there should get tested. Bern recommended that women test before they become pregnant because these medications can’t be taken during pregnancy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Starting in 2007, nearly all blood banks in the U.S. started \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/chagas/gen_info/screening.html\">screening blood donations\u003c/a> for the parasite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://chagasus.org/\">Center of Excellence for Chagas Disease at the Olive View-UCLA Medical Center\u003c/a> in Sylmar, near Los Angeles, has additional guidelines on \u003ca href=\"https://chagasus.org/do-i-have-chagas/\">who should be tested for the parasite\u003c/a> and offers care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Pan American Health Organization has information on \u003ca href=\"https://www.paho.org/en/topics/chagas-disease\">the disease in Latin America\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has information on \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/chagas/index.html\">Chagas disease in the U.S. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s a list of \u003ca href=\"https://uschagasnetwork.org/providers\">doctors around the U.S. who have experience treating Chagas.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And \u003cstrong>for health care providers\u003c/strong> – and anyone else – who would like to learn more, the CDC offers \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/cme/chagas/course1.html\">an online course.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Health care providers with questions\u003c/strong> can contact the CDC for consultation on all aspects of Chagas disease: Division of Parasitic Diseases Public Inquiries line, 404-718-4745; for emergencies after business hours, 770-488-7100; email parasites@cdc.gov.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mal de Chagas\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>La Organización Panamericana de la Salud creó un video de dos minutos en español sobre \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/KmKoQFMICoU\">cómo se propaga el mal de Chagas en Latinoamérica\u003c/a>. Y también tiene \u003ca href=\"https://www.paho.org/es/temas/enfermedad-chagas\">información sobre la enfermedad. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kissing bug bites can cause anaphylaxis\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent University of Arizona study in Tucson and Bisbee, where kissing bugs commonly enter homes in the summer, found that \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31295438/\">10% of people who had been bitten by the bugs had developed anaphylaxis\u003c/a>, a severe allergic reaction brought on by proteins in the bugs’ saliva. Symptoms include difficulty breathing, which can cause death if the patient isn’t treated right away with medication.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"description": "A kissing bug gorges on your blood. Then it poops on you. And that poop might contain the parasite that causes Chagas disease, which can be deadly. Without knowing it, millions of people have gotten the parasite in Latin America, where these insects live in many rural homes. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the saliva of some kissing bugs in the U.S. can give you a dangerous allergic reaction.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cem>A kissing bug gorges on your blood. Then it poops on you. And that poop might contain the parasite that causes Chagas disease, which can be deadly. Without knowing it, millions of people have gotten the parasite in Latin America, where these insects live in many rural homes. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the saliva of some kissing bugs in the U.S. can give you a dangerous allergic reaction.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>This kissing bug isn’t going to give you a loving peck when it sticks you with that tucked-away proboscis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It could actually make you really sick, even kill you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It makes its move at night, while you’re sleeping. It likes your warm body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kissing bugs get their name because they often bite near the lips or eyes, but they’ll dig in anywhere you’ve left uncovered. A little anesthetic guarantees you won’t wake up while they feed on you for 10, 20, even 30 minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every kissing bug needs several huge meals during the year or two it lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As it gulps, its exoskeleton stretches like a balloon, to fit up to 12 times its weight in blood. This pliability is called plasticization. How it started. How it’s going.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All that hot liquid could stress an insect’s body and stunt its growth. So the kissing bug cools it down – inside its head. Your warm blood flows in. The cool insect blood, called hemolymph, absorbs the heat and releases it through the top of the bug’s long head.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this infrared video, you can see the blood cool down by more than 10 degrees Fahrenheit before it reaches the bug’s abdomen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So the bug is safe. You, on the other hand, are not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It injects saliva as it sucks your blood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s a scientist squeezing some out. The saliva has proteins that can give people a deadly allergic reaction called anaphylaxis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it gets much, much worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OK. This is super gross. After eating – sometimes while it’s eating – the bug poops. And that poop – and urine – might contain the parasite that causes Chagas disease. If the bug’s victim rubs these feces and urine into the bite wound or their eyes, the parasite can infect them. Years later, as many as one third of the people who got the parasite develop heart disease that can kill them, sometimes suddenly. Pregnant women can even pass the parasite onto their babies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Few contract the parasite in the U.S., even though kissing bugs live here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in Latin America, millions of people have become infected. There, kissing bugs are known by many different names: chinche besucona … chinche … pito … vinchuca … barbeiro. In rural areas, these kissing bug species live in people’s homes, in the cracks of the walls. And in animal coops. Spraying has helped bring down infections. But hundreds of thousands of people have left their home countries for the U.S., not knowing the bug gave them the parasite. A simple blood test can find it and medications can often kill it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the American Southwest, the bugs live in the nests of wild animals, like this pack rat den in Arizona, where biologists Anita and Chuck Kristensen collect them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chuck Kristensen (off camera): Kissing bug, kissing bug! Genuine kissing bug.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the most part, they feed on the pack rats. But in late spring and summer, the bugs sometimes travel from these nests into someone’s home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So sealing off your house, with screens on your windows – and even vents – is one way to keep out these stealthy bloodsuckers.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>ADDITIONAL RESOURCES\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kissing bugs in the US\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, kissing bugs – also known as conenose bugs – are most prevalent in the foothill areas surrounding the Central Valley and in the foothills and desert areas of Southern California. Find out \u003ca href=\"http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7455.html\">how you can keep kissing bugs out of your house\u003c/a> from the UC Integrated Pest Management Program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Entomologists at Texas A&M University have put together a website with photos of kissing bugs and a \u003ca href=\"https://kissingbug.tamu.edu/\">map showing where they live in the U.S.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Testing for Chagas disease\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most people with Chagas became infected with the parasite in rural areas of Mexico, Central America and South America. The disease is regularly transmitted in \u003ca href=\"http://www.infochagas.org/en/en-que-paises-hay-chagas\">21 countries\u003c/a>, among them Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. Transmission doesn’t occur in the Caribbean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the U.S., where kissing bugs very rarely transmit Chagas, researchers estimate that some 350,000 Latin American immigrants contracted the parasite in their home countries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A blood test can find the parasite and two medications, nifurtimox and benznidazole, can often kill it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Any immigrants from Latin America should probably be tested at least once,” said Dr. Caryn Bern, who studies Chagas at UCSF. She said that any health care provider can order a screening test through their usual lab system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since pregnant women can pass the parasite onto their babies, women from Latin America or whose own mothers grew up there should get tested. Bern recommended that women test before they become pregnant because these medications can’t be taken during pregnancy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Starting in 2007, nearly all blood banks in the U.S. started \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/chagas/gen_info/screening.html\">screening blood donations\u003c/a> for the parasite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://chagasus.org/\">Center of Excellence for Chagas Disease at the Olive View-UCLA Medical Center\u003c/a> in Sylmar, near Los Angeles, has additional guidelines on \u003ca href=\"https://chagasus.org/do-i-have-chagas/\">who should be tested for the parasite\u003c/a> and offers care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Pan American Health Organization has information on \u003ca href=\"https://www.paho.org/en/topics/chagas-disease\">the disease in Latin America\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has information on \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/chagas/index.html\">Chagas disease in the U.S. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s a list of \u003ca href=\"https://uschagasnetwork.org/providers\">doctors around the U.S. who have experience treating Chagas.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And \u003cstrong>for health care providers\u003c/strong> – and anyone else – who would like to learn more, the CDC offers \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/cme/chagas/course1.html\">an online course.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Health care providers with questions\u003c/strong> can contact the CDC for consultation on all aspects of Chagas disease: Division of Parasitic Diseases Public Inquiries line, 404-718-4745; for emergencies after business hours, 770-488-7100; email parasites@cdc.gov.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mal de Chagas\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>La Organización Panamericana de la Salud creó un video de dos minutos en español sobre \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/KmKoQFMICoU\">cómo se propaga el mal de Chagas en Latinoamérica\u003c/a>. Y también tiene \u003ca href=\"https://www.paho.org/es/temas/enfermedad-chagas\">información sobre la enfermedad. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kissing bug bites can cause anaphylaxis\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent University of Arizona study in Tucson and Bisbee, where kissing bugs commonly enter homes in the summer, found that \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31295438/\">10% of people who had been bitten by the bugs had developed anaphylaxis\u003c/a>, a severe allergic reaction brought on by proteins in the bugs’ saliva. Symptoms include difficulty breathing, which can cause death if the patient isn’t treated right away with medication.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On first impression, skeleton shrimp anatomy is confusing. These crustaceans use a funky assortment of body parts to move around like inchworms, feed on bits of sea garbage, stage boxing matches, and make lots of clingy babies.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">These cranky creatures are skeleton shrimp. And they’re always looking for a fight.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Their bodies are – on first impression – confusing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There’s no shortage of appendages: eighteen in total. And that’s all in a body a few centimeters or less. They belong to a group of animals called amphipods, \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">which in Latin, means “feet on all sides.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote]\u003cbr>\nADDITIONAL RESOURCES\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dive into more skeleton shrimp facts with these pages published by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/animals-a-to-z/skeleton-shrimp\">Monterey Bay Aquarium\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://ecology.wa.gov/Blog/Posts/October-2018/Eyes-Under-Puget-Sound-critter-of-the-month-%E2%80%94-the\">Washington State’s Department of Ecology\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://watermark.silverchair.com/jcb0673.pdf?token=AQECAHi208BE49Ooan9kkhW_Ercy7Dm3ZL_9Cf3qfKAc485ysgAAAsUwggLBBgkqhkiG9w0BBwagggKyMIICrgIBADCCAqcGCSqGSIb3DQEHATAeBglghkgBZQMEAS4wEQQMaA80RxtOUGeSYMZjAgEQgIICeHMVXuUDIjb83k6GRNk248fJX3cgFjtGM9n0c_MbTwYIbPabZg0Aqgf2cY6JrMkHdWnJLrH_J8dNoXGtnNhA_lSsWnSgWUglKv981XDFdnBEMjYf4oG6_HJJ8I3y3STaoz5PGE24IL-kEp74ANDsXh-804JeJawPzFvhH6yU29oKfVOUTilnMgu4BOfTDKbc4779D5Y42xDup0diyoqPcztHFbZHYdbrIsqNVmTbywBpGpUgYLmyJhhnPRYSL6bc5-zHo1XIFo9ll9ayeMUTSRVFPyaIkcOAPzynJVMCOE8RFoBi6XyzI9Ob5bCk1zWfardaXHxDGDzehRZ-NSDQUofXokg3WAAThaupyD_k__VI2YpLGLQwtrAUznFksnt1PQD-lP_q9uc7A4EmEu-MgxxCnG6fk9999CsuLZRPPSifEjlj3xv6mZXzpURzoGj2d7p8j1QRYYN-G5VLyIboJbgNiQCko9wJvr9Kb8TGmUEUHE3GMUuod7fnI_IpwTNPIP3ab1_wgt8KbtIferU0w3zJJEmtvxqjUd7_ItRTqJ-01FU-Xi2bU3akRqzr8ftSclMeKYQNrBwbe3n9PjCHzWUIKDn8ed7kMDA9zQzq6Rr7K-1iXGs9bBtzIuMHszENW-v-R45BahPaPkCsKKx1IrL2bXuiDi5QMheqal7o_nrd4DTPHI-FzkthQzfbO6g_z25mJFRdp-G8vRfPtULJ3WccLFZYn0VKucSgVR0_QtlJcA9g7aHy1F5CwvRb-AgwwgBqnGz5i5CiLPhR5sF9D2q4yijozBwn-f8wlfLNi4oOnIxNULtZSZcXtm5jEce_BPcteB3QyqcP\">This research paper\u003c/a> investigates the possibility and mechanism for venom delivery by some skeleton shrimp through their claws – also known as gnathopods. [/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Each set has a particular purpose: breathing, grasping, moving, fighting, feeling and feeding.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">These four paddle-shaped gills pull oxygen from the water. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Six rear legs anchor the shrimp. These limbs are prehensile, like a monkey’s tail, grasping onto seagrass, algae, fishing nets – you name it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This crustacean uses its front claws to inchworm around like a – well, like an inchworm. Good thing, since they’re not the most graceful swimmers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">These wicked-looking front claws are called gnathopods, which literally means “jaw feet.” Two are big and two are small. The bigger pair are perfect for fighting. It’s mostly the guys doing all the boxing. They’re competing for – you guessed it – the ladies. Sometimes their fights become deadly, and it might be from more than just the blows or sharp claws.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scientists are investigating whether some of the male shrimp are packing venom in those gnarly gnathopods. If that’s true, they likely deliver the venom through these microscopic pores on the tips of the claws.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But these shrimp have a softer side too. Literally. Right after the female molts, when her new exoskeleton is pliable, the much larger male takes a shot at love – or at least reproduction. That’s the best time for him to fertilize her eggs. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If the timing isn’t right for her, she socks him with a quick one-two. Once fertilized, the female keeps the developing eggs close, aerating them in her brood pouch. After a week or less they hatch. They’re real clingy. Yep, all those squirmy white things are hatchlings. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Let’s just say, mom doesn’t get a lot of “me” time.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And how about these accessories on their head? Each shrimp has four antennae. These two are for sensing. No surprise there. But these two are different, lined with comb-like setae, they sift food from the water. They scrape their feathery antennae with the smaller set of gnathopods and shove the bounty into their mouths. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Skeleton shrimp are not picky eaters. A lot of the time, they’re detritivores, which is a fancy way of saying they eat little bits of dead stuff. This is how these scrappy crustaceans play a crucial role in the food chain, as they busily break down detritus for smaller plants and animals.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And on the flip side, they themselves are tasty bundles of energy for fish and crabs.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the web of life, there’s a place for everyone. Even the most pugnacious, pesky and peculiar among us.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"description": "On first impression, skeleton shrimp anatomy is confusing. These crustaceans use a funky assortment of body parts to move around like inchworms, feed on bits of sea garbage, stage boxing matches, and make lots of clingy babies. TRANSCRIPT These cranky creatures are skeleton shrimp. And they’re always looking for a fight. Their bodies are – on first impression – confusing. There’s no shortage of appendages: eighteen in total. And that’s all in a body a few centimeters or less. They belong to a group of animals called amphipods, which in Latin, means “feet on all sides.” Each set has a particular",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On first impression, skeleton shrimp anatomy is confusing. These crustaceans use a funky assortment of body parts to move around like inchworms, feed on bits of sea garbage, stage boxing matches, and make lots of clingy babies.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">These cranky creatures are skeleton shrimp. And they’re always looking for a fight.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Their bodies are – on first impression – confusing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There’s no shortage of appendages: eighteen in total. And that’s all in a body a few centimeters or less. They belong to a group of animals called amphipods, \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">which in Latin, means “feet on all sides.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cbr>\nADDITIONAL RESOURCES\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dive into more skeleton shrimp facts with these pages published by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/animals-a-to-z/skeleton-shrimp\">Monterey Bay Aquarium\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://ecology.wa.gov/Blog/Posts/October-2018/Eyes-Under-Puget-Sound-critter-of-the-month-%E2%80%94-the\">Washington State’s Department of Ecology\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://watermark.silverchair.com/jcb0673.pdf?token=AQECAHi208BE49Ooan9kkhW_Ercy7Dm3ZL_9Cf3qfKAc485ysgAAAsUwggLBBgkqhkiG9w0BBwagggKyMIICrgIBADCCAqcGCSqGSIb3DQEHATAeBglghkgBZQMEAS4wEQQMaA80RxtOUGeSYMZjAgEQgIICeHMVXuUDIjb83k6GRNk248fJX3cgFjtGM9n0c_MbTwYIbPabZg0Aqgf2cY6JrMkHdWnJLrH_J8dNoXGtnNhA_lSsWnSgWUglKv981XDFdnBEMjYf4oG6_HJJ8I3y3STaoz5PGE24IL-kEp74ANDsXh-804JeJawPzFvhH6yU29oKfVOUTilnMgu4BOfTDKbc4779D5Y42xDup0diyoqPcztHFbZHYdbrIsqNVmTbywBpGpUgYLmyJhhnPRYSL6bc5-zHo1XIFo9ll9ayeMUTSRVFPyaIkcOAPzynJVMCOE8RFoBi6XyzI9Ob5bCk1zWfardaXHxDGDzehRZ-NSDQUofXokg3WAAThaupyD_k__VI2YpLGLQwtrAUznFksnt1PQD-lP_q9uc7A4EmEu-MgxxCnG6fk9999CsuLZRPPSifEjlj3xv6mZXzpURzoGj2d7p8j1QRYYN-G5VLyIboJbgNiQCko9wJvr9Kb8TGmUEUHE3GMUuod7fnI_IpwTNPIP3ab1_wgt8KbtIferU0w3zJJEmtvxqjUd7_ItRTqJ-01FU-Xi2bU3akRqzr8ftSclMeKYQNrBwbe3n9PjCHzWUIKDn8ed7kMDA9zQzq6Rr7K-1iXGs9bBtzIuMHszENW-v-R45BahPaPkCsKKx1IrL2bXuiDi5QMheqal7o_nrd4DTPHI-FzkthQzfbO6g_z25mJFRdp-G8vRfPtULJ3WccLFZYn0VKucSgVR0_QtlJcA9g7aHy1F5CwvRb-AgwwgBqnGz5i5CiLPhR5sF9D2q4yijozBwn-f8wlfLNi4oOnIxNULtZSZcXtm5jEce_BPcteB3QyqcP\">This research paper\u003c/a> investigates the possibility and mechanism for venom delivery by some skeleton shrimp through their claws – also known as gnathopods. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Each set has a particular purpose: breathing, grasping, moving, fighting, feeling and feeding.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">These four paddle-shaped gills pull oxygen from the water. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Six rear legs anchor the shrimp. These limbs are prehensile, like a monkey’s tail, grasping onto seagrass, algae, fishing nets – you name it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This crustacean uses its front claws to inchworm around like a – well, like an inchworm. Good thing, since they’re not the most graceful swimmers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">These wicked-looking front claws are called gnathopods, which literally means “jaw feet.” Two are big and two are small. The bigger pair are perfect for fighting. It’s mostly the guys doing all the boxing. They’re competing for – you guessed it – the ladies. Sometimes their fights become deadly, and it might be from more than just the blows or sharp claws.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scientists are investigating whether some of the male shrimp are packing venom in those gnarly gnathopods. If that’s true, they likely deliver the venom through these microscopic pores on the tips of the claws.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But these shrimp have a softer side too. Literally. Right after the female molts, when her new exoskeleton is pliable, the much larger male takes a shot at love – or at least reproduction. That’s the best time for him to fertilize her eggs. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If the timing isn’t right for her, she socks him with a quick one-two. Once fertilized, the female keeps the developing eggs close, aerating them in her brood pouch. After a week or less they hatch. They’re real clingy. Yep, all those squirmy white things are hatchlings. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Let’s just say, mom doesn’t get a lot of “me” time.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And how about these accessories on their head? Each shrimp has four antennae. These two are for sensing. No surprise there. But these two are different, lined with comb-like setae, they sift food from the water. They scrape their feathery antennae with the smaller set of gnathopods and shove the bounty into their mouths. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Skeleton shrimp are not picky eaters. A lot of the time, they’re detritivores, which is a fancy way of saying they eat little bits of dead stuff. This is how these scrappy crustaceans play a crucial role in the food chain, as they busily break down detritus for smaller plants and animals.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And on the flip side, they themselves are tasty bundles of energy for fish and crabs.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the web of life, there’s a place for everyone. Even the most pugnacious, pesky and peculiar among us.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003cem>Tadpole shrimp are neither tadpoles nor shrimp. They’re time-traveling crustaceans called triops. Their eggs can spend years – even decades – frozen in time, waiting to hatch. When California rice growers flood their fields, they create the perfect conditions for hordes of these ravenous creatures to awaken.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>This tadpole shrimp is coming for your rice. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hungry hordes of them find their way into the rice fields of California’s Central Valley and go to town munching on the young seedlings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But where did they come from, with the ocean so far away? \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A couple of weeks ago, this was just a dry dusty field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Turns out they were here all along. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re time travelers waiting for months, years, even decades in the sun-baked soil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each spring, when rice farmers flood their fields and scatter their seeds they inadvertently create the perfect conditions for billions of tadpole shrimp to awaken. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The eggs’ rugged outer shell, called the chorion, cracks open and the larva wiggles its way out of a translucent sac. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tadpole shrimp aren’t really tadpoles, they aren’t even shrimp, though they are crustaceans whose ancestors evolved in the sea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tiny larvae forage through the mud incessantly for any food they can dig up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re not picky. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as they grow, they really acquire a taste for rice plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They chomp away at the first tender roots and leaves just when the seedlings need them most.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without roots to hold them down, the young plants just float away. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if it loses its first leaves, a seedling can’t get enough energy to grow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As if that’s not enough, the throngs of tadpole shrimp stir up the mud, blocking out the sun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the rice plants that do manage to break the water’s surface are safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their roots and stems are thick and tough enough that the tadpole shrimp leave them alone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At that point, tadpole shrimp are actually kind of helpful. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They turn their appetites to any weeds that make their way into the rice field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They even eat the larvae of mosquitoes that could carry West Nile virus when they grow up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once the tadpole shrimp mature, they lay their eggs in the mud and then they’re done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adult tadpole shrimp only live for about a month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The secret to these armored arthropods’ survival is their eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the end of the growing season, farmers drain their fields so they can harvest the rice on dry ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No water? No problem. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The eggs can survive being completely dehydrated for years. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their tough outer shell protects them from scorching heat, freezing cold, even time itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The embryos inside just stop developing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They enter a suspended state called diapause.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s what keeps them from hatching in a dry field. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the water returns, and conditions are right again, they’ll be ready to hatch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because tadpole shrimp evolved to live in temporary freshwater ponds, created by seasonal rains throughout North and South America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s how they endure having their ponds dry up each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’ve been living this way for hundreds of millions of years — since before the dinosaurs — waiting out droughts, changing climates, even global catastrophes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a world where the future is unpredictable, tadpole shrimp are the ultimate survivors.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Turns out they were here all along. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re time travelers waiting for months, years, even decades in the sun-baked soil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each spring, when rice farmers flood their fields and scatter their seeds they inadvertently create the perfect conditions for billions of tadpole shrimp to awaken. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The eggs’ rugged outer shell, called the chorion, cracks open and the larva wiggles its way out of a translucent sac. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tadpole shrimp aren’t really tadpoles, they aren’t even shrimp, though they are crustaceans whose ancestors evolved in the sea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tiny larvae forage through the mud incessantly for any food they can dig up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re not picky. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as they grow, they really acquire a taste for rice plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They chomp away at the first tender roots and leaves just when the seedlings need them most.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without roots to hold them down, the young plants just float away. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if it loses its first leaves, a seedling can’t get enough energy to grow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As if that’s not enough, the throngs of tadpole shrimp stir up the mud, blocking out the sun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the rice plants that do manage to break the water’s surface are safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their roots and stems are thick and tough enough that the tadpole shrimp leave them alone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At that point, tadpole shrimp are actually kind of helpful. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They turn their appetites to any weeds that make their way into the rice field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They even eat the larvae of mosquitoes that could carry West Nile virus when they grow up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once the tadpole shrimp mature, they lay their eggs in the mud and then they’re done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adult tadpole shrimp only live for about a month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The secret to these armored arthropods’ survival is their eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the end of the growing season, farmers drain their fields so they can harvest the rice on dry ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No water? No problem. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The eggs can survive being completely dehydrated for years. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their tough outer shell protects them from scorching heat, freezing cold, even time itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The embryos inside just stop developing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They enter a suspended state called diapause.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s what keeps them from hatching in a dry field. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the water returns, and conditions are right again, they’ll be ready to hatch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because tadpole shrimp evolved to live in temporary freshwater ponds, created by seasonal rains throughout North and South America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s how they endure having their ponds dry up each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’ve been living this way for hundreds of millions of years — since before the dinosaurs — waiting out droughts, changing climates, even global catastrophes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a world where the future is unpredictable, tadpole shrimp are the ultimate survivors.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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