Butterflies and Moths Yummy or Terrifying?

After this post you may never look a butterflies and moths the same way again. This investigation began like so many others with a question which caught my attention on a reality show this past week where a child asked; "Can you eat a butterfly?" Huh interesting idea, I thought to myself. The short answer is yes, but it is probably easier and more nutritious to eat them as larva. 

There are some famously huge butterflies out there such as the Queen Alexandra's Birdwing

Photo By Bruno Ramos from Creative Commons

This butterfly has over a nine inch wingspan! They live in the Australasia / Indomalaya (Australia) ecozone. There is also an impressive relation of the butterfly the Atlas Moth which also boasts an impressive 9.8 inch wingspan. (This is the spot that I would love to put the picture of my friend Jon with an Atlas moth sitting on his face but sadly my computer ate it.) 

Photo by Nevit Dilmen From Creative Commons

Now while the wings of these two insects are rather large the bodies are rather small. And those bodies are covered in small scales which slough off rather easily. Eating that to me would be like eating a lint covered jellybean. Now after doing some searching I stumbled across an interesting paper published in 2013 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations about edible insects and food security in it they have a small section on butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera). They point out that most of the butterflies and moths consumed around the world are done so when they are in the larval form as squishy caterpillars.

Now I don't live in the tropics (neither did the child who sparked this post) so, I am going to consider just a few of the lovable squishy nuggets you can find in my back yard. There are about 118 butterfly species which call the entire state of Maine home. I am immediately ruling out eating anything that has little tiny hairs/spines. There are some caterpillars out there which have chemicals on or in those hairs which cause something known as lepidopterism which is a skin condition caused by coming in contact which these tiny hairs. You can also get a number of injuries caused by moth larva which are collectively referred to in the medical community as erucism. PLEASE DO NOT FREAK OUT AND SMASH EVERY CATERPILLAR WITH SPINES! JUST LEAVE THEM ALONE AND DO NOT PET THEM!

        
                          

I am also ruling out anything that tastes bad to a bird, frog, toad, other insects, or reptiles if it doesn't taste good to them it more than likely will not taste good to me either. You know what this suddenly seems way too complicated, because after I sort through all 118 butterfly species here in Maine and  rule out all exclusions I then still have to test them a little at a time to make sure that I am not allergic to them. So, while yes you can eat them by the time you narrow any list down to those you personally can eat you more than likely could have rounded up a whole bunch of crickets or even a few tasty other critters out there which we already know are edible. 





Want more information
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4028003/
http://www.vapaguide.info/catalogue/MIS-76
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190962206017117
https://www.quora.com/Are-moths-dangerous-to-humans-Why
https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/772949-overview
http://mbs.umf.maine.edu/maine-species-list/

Also Just for fun I recommend watching this: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/01/beetle-survives-toad-vomit-animals/

What the Itch!

                                       
Now is the time of year where people start dreaming of spring and strolling down the street after work reveling in the fact that it is still light enough to do just that. Others are sick of dealing with what my mom always referred to as "winter itch" the truly annoying itch associated with dry skin. Which got me to thinking about itching which then sent me down a Google rabbit hole which I am still stuck in.

Recently there have been some great scientific breakthroughs in understanding the neurological  pathways which cause the itch sensation and some of the chemicals associated with itching. (If you want to read some of these articles listed at the bottom of this post. That's great soon hopefully there will be treatments for people with severe itches caused by medications or skin conditions.

One thing with still baffles, at least this mind, is what purpose does itching serve? So, I Googled and Googled and Googled different combination of search terms to see if there was any information about the evolution of itching. Most of what I found were a lot of chatroom discussions on itching where people said things like; "well, duh it tells you when something is crawling across your skin." or "it's a way to tell you to stay away from things." Ok, so I can accept some of the logic here histamines are a group of neurotransmitters which trigger various parts of your immune system letting it know you are under attack. I myself have a severe allergic reaction to any member of the rose family. If I eat a raspberry, blackberry, or try to make rose hip jam I find myself dealing with either annoyingly bad case of hives or full on anaphylactic shock symptoms. So maybe it was just a way to warn us to be more vigilant about the world around us.  

                   

But where did itching begin? What was the first organism which experienced itching and how come after generations upon generations of evolution we still have not lost the itch? Is there a way to trace the genes which code for these neurotransmitters to give us an idea of what the environment was like when itching first began and what was the first unfortunate organism to experience itching. I will keep up my Google rabbit hole search and let you know if it spits out any interesting conclusions, until then think and wonder.




Want to know more?
http://www.medicaldaily.com/scratching-itchy-skin-causes-brain-release-hormone-serotonin-intensifies-itchy-sensation-308458
https://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-do-we-itch-emma-bryce
http://discovermagazine.com/2014/jan-feb/94-itching-for-answers
http://www.news.com.au/technology/science/why-do-we-itch-the-science-behind-the-scratch/news-story/3ae28d06a0bf2425a0fd8fa3463bd2f3
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/experts-why-we-itch-and-scratch/