May 7, 2008
Legs go!
…listen
…about the musicSlow and sticky wins the race.
And yet, more fur! This week has been like a big debutante ball for island insects. Just as you’ve recovered from the furry bee (and thanks to Glenn are now quite well educated on All Things Apidae), today I greet you with this adorable caterpillar, the latest addition to the ever-lengthening queue for my diabetic coma-reversing Insulin MedEvac services. He is clinging to/sucking up the sticky sugar water remnants on the hummer feeder. It took him four hours to make it across the three inch span of the jar top. And you thought the L.A. freeways were slow.
Also seen today: several inchworms, beetles, slugs, and the first of the dragonflies– bright blue helicopters of joy buzzing around the woods. Plus several variations of spiders, including one harmless-but-enormous wolf spider lookalike with a thyroid condition, squatting defiantly in my hallway and spanning an impressive four inches stem to stern. The larger the visitor, the easier my job as Director of the Benevolent Shapiro Arachnid Relocation Program. But if they get much bigger than this guy I’ll need to invest in larger drinkware to use for transport services and field trips. Oh, and I’ll need to start charging for size and weight, just like the post office. Wish I had a photo to share, but the camera was in my car at the time. So you’ll just have to imagine a spider so huge that I nearly tripped over it, like the ottoman in the title sequence of the Dick Van Dyke show. Really ;-).
Glenn Buttkus said,
May 8, 2008 @ 10:58 am
Your musical clip wowed me, per usual, ABYSS/REFLECT @ 2:13. It is comic,and yet dramatic. It illustrates the slow pace of Msr. Caterpillar, how in some ways he seems to teeter on the edge of a real drop off, an abyss; even though he is much more grounded and safe than that. It opens with a high pitched sustained sound, almost so high I could barely hear it, in the range of a bass dog whistle, or a steam radiator, or some kind of sythesizer. The participants of this pitch, this musical anguish, are joined by a sombre piano, alone, playing methodically but gently, slowly, first gathering intensity and then dropping down and back, unable to lead the way, to sustain equalibrium; shaky, somewhat atonal, oblique, as it struggles to join in, to mother, to hug, and then the high pitch begins to overtake the piano, and we are at the end of the clip.
Your comments show that it is part of a Three Movement work, entitled AT THE ABYSS, that runs 14 minutes. The 3 movements were Observe, Reflect, and Act. The clip is part of the middle. Turns out we are listening to a piano, a marimba, a vibraphone, and some metal percussion; though I did not “hear” that on the clip–untrained ear and all. This long piece was the winner of the 2003 “Best Original Composition” Award, and it certainly deserved it as Alex dealt with the state of this planet; politically, spiritually, and personally. I loved the additional critic’s comments, like:
“This recital, consisting of music for percussion and piano opens with Alex Shapiro’s wonderfully descriptive At the Abyss. It is the longest work on the program, and is reflective of the composer’s concerns for current social issues including politics and ecology. Well constructed, and full of interesting sounds, the work reminded me of some of the more creative film scoring that I have heard. This is music that conjures images in the mind, and the joy of it all is that those images will vary from listener to listener.”
——— Kevin Sutton, MusicWeb International
I would submit further, that almost all of your work is reminescent of film scoring, that it seduces and intructs and entertains, and nutures visualizations, stimulating lay poets to wax freely.
As to your fuzzy black crawling friend:
A caterpillar is a larval form of a member of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). They are mostly phytophagous in food habit, with some species being entomophagous. Caterpillars are voracious feeders and many of them are considered pests in agriculture. Many moth species are better known in their caterpillar stages because of the damage they cause to fruits and other agricultural produce.
The etymological origins of the word are from the late 1400s, from Middle English catirpel, catirpeller, probably an alteration of Old North French catepelose : cate, cat (from Latin cattus) + pelose, hairy (from Latin pilōsus).
Anatomy
Most caterpillars have tubular, segmented bodies. They have three pairs of true legs on the three thoracic segments, up to four pairs of prolegs on the middle segments of the abdomen, and often a single pair of prolegs on the last abdominal segment. There are ten abdominal segments. The families of lepidoptera differ in the numbers and positioning of the prolegs.
A geometrid caterpillar or inchwormCaterpillars grow through a series of moults; each intermediate stage is called an instar.
Like all insects, caterpillars breathe through a series of small openings along the sides of their thorax and abdomen called spiracles. These branch into the body cavity into a network of tracheae. A few caterpillars of the family Pyralidae are aquatic and have gills that let them breathe underwater.
Caterpillars have 4,000 muscles (compare humans, with 629). They move through contraction of the muscles in the rear segments pushing the blood forward into the front segments elongating the torso. The average caterpillar has 248 muscles in the head segment alone.
Senses
Caterpillars have good vision. They have a series of six tiny eyelets or ‘stemmata’ on each side of the lower portion of their head. These can probably form well focused, but poorly resolved images. They move their heads from side to side probably as a means of judging distance of objects, particularly plants. They rely on their short antennae to help them locate food.
Some caterpillars are able to detect vibrations, usually at a highly specific frequency. Caterpillars of the common hook-tip moth, Drepana arcuata (Drepanoidea) produce sounds to defend their silk nests from members of their own species, by scraping against the leaf in a ritualized acoustic duel. They detect the vibrations conducted by the plant and not air-borne sounds. Similarly, cherry leaf rollers Caloptilia serotinella defend their rolls.[5] Tent caterpillars can also detect vibrations at the frequency of wing beats of one of their natural enemies.
Classification
The geometrids, also known as inchworms or loopers, are so named because of the way they move, appearing to measure the earth (the word geometrid means earth-measurer in Greek); the primary reason for this unusual locomotion is the elimination of nearly all the prolegs except the clasper on the terminal segment.
Caterpillars have soft bodies that can grow rapidly, like balloons, between moults. Only the head capsule is hardened. In caterpillars, the mandibles are tough and sharp for chewing leaves; in most adult Lepidoptera, the mandibles are highly reduced, or soft. Behind the mandibles of the caterpillar are the spinnerets, for manipulating silk.
Some larvae of the Hymenoptera (ants, bees and wasps) order can appear like the caterpillars of the lepidoptera. These are mainly seen in the Sawfly family and while the larvae superficially resemble caterpillars, they can be distinguished by the presence of prolegs on every abdominal segment. Another difference is that lepidopteran caterpillars have crochets or hooks on the prolegs while these are absent on the sawfly larvae. Also in lepidopteran caterpillars is the upside down Y shaped suture on the front of the head. The larvae of sawflies differ also in having prominent ocelli on the head capsule.
Defenses
Many animals feed on caterpillars as they are protein rich, and caterpillars have evolved various defenses.
Appearance
Costa Rican hairy caterpillar.Many caterpillars are cryptically coloured and resemble the plants on which they feed and may even have parts that mimic plant parts such as thorns. Some look like objects in the environment such as bird droppings. Many feed enclosed inside silk galleries, rolled leaves or by mining between the leaf surfaces. Caterpillars of Nemoria arizonaria that grow in spring feed on oak catkins and appear green. The summer brood however appear like oak twigs. The differential development is linked to the tannin content in the diet.
More aggressive self-defense measures are taken by hairy caterpillars. These caterpillars have spiny bristles or long fine hair-like setae with detachable tips that will irritate by lodging in the skin or mucous membranes] However, some birds, like cuckoos, will swallow even the hairiest of caterpillars. The most aggressive defenses are bristles associated with venom glands, called urticating hairs; a venom among the most potent defensive chemicals in any animals is produced by the South American silk moth genus Lonomia. It is an anticoagulant powerful enough to cause a human to hemorrhage to death (See Lonomiasis). This chemical is being investigated for potential medical applications. Most urticating hairs however range in effect from mild irritation to dermatitis.
Giant swallowtail caterpillar everting its osmeterium in defensePlants have evolved poisons to protect themselves from herbivores and some caterpillars have evolved countermeasures and eat the leaves of these toxic plants. In addition to being unaffected by the poison, they sequester it in their body, making them highly toxic to predators. These chemicals are also carried on into the adult stages. These toxic species, such as the Cinnabar moth (Tyria jacobaeae) and monarch (Danaus plexippus) caterpillars, usually advertise themselves with brightly striped or coloured in black, red and yellow—the danger colours (see aposematism). Any predator that attempts to eat a caterpillar with an aggressive defence mechanism will learn and avoid future attempts.
Some caterpillars regurgitate acidic digestive juices at attacking enemies. Many papilionid larvae produce bad smells from extrudable glands called osmeteria.
Caterpillars can evade predators by using a silk line and dropping off from branches when disturbed.
Some caterpillars obtain protection by associating themselves with ants. The Lycaenid butterflies are particularly well known for this. They communicate with their ant protectors by vibrations as well as chemical means and typically provide food rewards.
Some caterpillars are gregarious; large aggregations are believed to help in reducing the levels of parasitization and predation. Clusters amplify the signal of aposematic coloration, and individuals may participate in group regurgitation or displays.
Behavior
A Pasture Day Moth caterpillar feeding on capeweedCaterpillars have been called “eating machines”, and eat leaves voraciously. Most species shed their skins four or five times as their bodies grow larger, and they eventually pupate into an adult form. Caterpillars grow very fast; for instance, a tobacco hornworm will increase its weight ten-thousand-fold in less than twenty days. An adaptation that enables them to eat so much is a mechanism in a specialized midgut which transports ions at a very high rate to the lumen (midgut cavity), to keep the potassium level higher in the midgut cavity than in the blood.
Most caterpillars are solely herbivorous. Many are restricted to one species of plant, while others are polyphagous. A few, including the clothes moth, feed on detritus. Most predatory caterpillars feed on eggs of other insects, aphids, scale insects, or ant larvae. Some are cannibals, and others prey on caterpillars of other species (e.g. Hawai’ian Eupithecia ). A few are parasitic on cicadas or leaf hoppers.Some Hawai’ian caterpillars (Hyposmocoma molluscivora) use silk traps to capture snails.
Many caterpillars are nocturnal. For example, the “cutworms” (of the Noctuidae family) hide at the base of plants during the day and only feed at night. Others, such as gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar) larvae, change their activity patterns depending on density and larval stage, with more diurnal feeding in early instars and high densities.
* Perhaps your little dusky friend will become a wonderful golden Monach butterfly rather than a common brown moth. We can dream, enit?
Glenn
Joy said,
May 9, 2008 @ 5:33 pm
Hi Alex: While you’ve been up to your eyeballs in insects, we’re having a fox convention over here on Mt. Dallas! We’ve had a red fox hanging around as well as a black/silver fellow who enjoys playing chase with our little dog, Petey. They have no fears! I’ve also noticed a number of fox along West Side Rd. heading up the embankments. Have you seen the signs asking drivers to slow down due to “fox pups” here on West Side Rd.? Signs of spring. Are you able to see the whales from your place? We were watching them from our deck today. Very convenient!
Alex Shapiro said,
May 9, 2008 @ 5:53 pm
Glenn is making sure that this blog is not only fun, but educational. Thank you, Professor Buttkus.
Hi Joy– yup, we’ve got a lot of foxes here, too, and I’ve been wanting to snap some photos but have yet to have camera in hand at the same time as fox in view. There’s a new grey pup living in the culvert by my driveway, as well as elders crossing the road, and here too, we’re all driving slowly and even keeping dogs on leashes, so as not to threaten the youngster.
I see the water shimmering through the trees, but I don’t have enough of an expanse to catch sight of the Orcas. There’s gotta be a reason for me to leave my Shangri-la once in a while, and whale watching is certainly a great one!