0:06

Welcome to Creature future production of iHeartRadio.

0:09

I'm your host of Many Parasites, Katie

0:11

Golden. I studied psychology

0:13

and evolutionary biology, and today

0:16

on the show Eggs. I

0:18

like your eggs over easy, scrambled,

0:21

fried, hard boiled,

0:24

whatever you like. There are so

0:26

many eggs in the animal kingdom,

0:29

and they can be bonkers,

0:32

from tiny camouflaged

0:34

works of art to very

0:37

strange but ingeniously

0:39

shaped eggs. We are taking

0:41

eggs to a whole new level.

0:44

Discover this and more as we answer the

0:46

age old question when does

0:49

giving birth coincide with home

0:51

improvement? Joining me today

0:54

is friend of the show, my close

0:56

and personal friend, podcasting

0:58

buddy, host of the podcast Secretly

1:01

Incredibly Fascinating, which I'm

1:03

also on that one too, Alex

1:05

Schmidt. Welcome.

1:07

It's so good to be here. Thank you for having me for

1:10

eggs, a thing I don't think enough

1:12

about.

1:12

Nobody thinks enough about eggs.

1:15

Yeah. I also feel like I have learned

1:17

from various friends and

1:19

so on that different American accents kind of

1:22

say the word differently, So I hope everyone's

1:24

comfortable with how I say the word eggs. Sometimes

1:26

eggs varies eggs.

1:29

I feel like I say eggs. I don't know how

1:32

do other people say it? Eggs? Eggs?

1:34

Like eggs?

1:36

Eggs? Yeah, I say eggs.

1:40

I think I usually say eggs and sometimes I go eggs

1:42

a little bit. And so we'll see what happens

1:45

to me as we go on this journey.

1:46

Either way is excellent.

1:50

So we're

1:52

going to talk about some really

1:55

interesting eggs. There

1:57

are a lot of animals, from insects

1:59

to monotremes that lay eggs

2:03

and they are all very very interesting.

2:06

So Alex,

2:09

you like a stick bug?

2:12

Yeah? Yeah, especially

2:15

I've only ever seen them in like zoos, but

2:17

there will tend to be in a reptile house,

2:20

maybe a little cubby where there's a stick

2:22

insects living out of plant and it's awesome.

2:24

Yeah. I love the bug house. Like

2:26

the San Diego Zoo. They have all sorts of

2:28

cool insects and there's always a stick guy

2:31

in there, just being sticky, going

2:33

around like a stick. Stick

2:36

insects belong to the fasmid

2:39

order. We mostly think of them as

2:41

these small brown, stick like bugs,

2:43

but they can also be green. Rarely,

2:46

they can be bright colors, such

2:48

as stick insects found in Madagascar

2:50

who can be bright blue and orange when

2:53

males reach maturity, but

2:55

most stick.

2:56

Insects blue and orange.

2:57

Yeah, wow, charges

3:00

Iago.

3:00

Bears football value like

3:02

it feels great?

3:03

Wait, Chargers is yellow and blue. You're

3:06

right? Wait what's it's?

3:08

Uh?

3:09

The Chicago Bulls Bears

3:12

Bears, Bears Bears.

3:13

I don't watch football anymore, but the culture is

3:15

meaningful to me. Through an orange

3:18

everyone can see you coming from you.

3:20

Guys, got a stick bug who's a fan?

3:23

So that's something. But

3:25

yeah, most stick insects do go for

3:27

camouflage. They try to mimic green

3:30

or brown sticks or vegetation. Even

3:33

really big stick insects try

3:35

to blend in with their environment, such

3:38

as uh Tinomorpha

3:40

gargantua, which is the gargantuan

3:43

stick insect found in Australia.

3:46

Females can grow almost two

3:48

feet long, which is over fifty five

3:50

centimeters. Males only grow

3:52

a fraction of this in are thinner, which

3:55

enables them to fly. For most stick

3:57

bugs, the females are too thick

3:59

to fly, too big, and

4:02

the males are the ones that can fly. So

4:05

then yeah, the bigger females

4:08

are flightless and their brown branch

4:10

like appearance allows them to blend in with

4:12

the forest canopy despite being so huge.

4:17

Yeah, two feet is a branch.

4:18

It's a branch. That's a branch bug. It's

4:20

not a stick bug. That's a branch bug. Yeah.

4:24

Like, you can't throw it to your dog, you're

4:26

like too big. Put it down a different stick.

4:30

Oh no, this poor. Imagine throwing

4:32

the stick insect to your dogs like, oh

4:35

no, not

4:38

that kind of stick.

4:40

Hopefully become best friends.

4:42

Yeah, that would

4:44

be I would love that story. A

4:46

Pixar movie about a dog and a

4:48

stick insect and their adventures

4:50

together. Sounds good.

4:53

Carries around their friend.

4:54

Hey yeah, and

4:56

then they go and fight the Nazis or

4:59

something anyways, so

5:03

really escalated. Wow. So,

5:07

these gargantuan stick insects, as

5:09

well as other species of fasmids,

5:11

lay eggs, either through sexual

5:15

reproduction with a female

5:18

with the eggs and a male fertilizing the eggs,

5:20

or if the female gets no

5:22

male takers, they

5:25

can actually reproduce through

5:27

parthenogenesis, meaning that she can

5:29

lay unfertilized clonal

5:32

eggs. So you know, if you can't

5:34

find yourself a man, just

5:36

pop out a few clones of yourself and call

5:38

it a day.

5:41

Right, that is double pressure from your

5:43

parents. Why haven't you found a partner?

5:45

And also why haven't you parthenogenesis?

5:48

Some grandchildren for us, I

5:51

guess they don't say it because, like me, they stumble

5:53

over saying the words, but otherwise

5:55

they will bring it up.

5:56

I feel like parent Yeah, like parental

5:59

guilt about having children would be trickier

6:01

if they had to say parthenogenesis every single

6:03

time. So, you know, one

6:06

little obstacle.

6:08

But yeah, frustrated dad is just like, why

6:10

haven't your Parthenon's I'm not learning the just

6:14

Parthenon, come on, make a Greek temple.

6:16

Not being on them face

6:18

blocks and Parthenon a kid already.

6:21

So yeah, the eggs of stick

6:23

bugs are actually no less fascinating

6:26

than the stick bugs themselves because

6:29

the eggs are also camouflaged.

6:31

And Alex, I want to I

6:34

want you to guess what the eggs

6:36

of a stick insect might be camouflaged

6:39

as,

6:41

Like, the.

6:42

Really fun one would be berries, right,

6:44

or nuts or something.

6:45

You are something you

6:48

are so close. So the eggs

6:50

of many stickbug species

6:53

mimic plant seeds, So

6:56

isn't that cute? It's a stick

6:58

buzz that's cool. Their eggs look like seeds.

7:03

They're just really doing at this

7:05

point, they're larpang as a tree. They're doing

7:07

all the parts.

7:08

It's a hardcore sort of fandom

7:11

where they're naming their kids after trees.

7:14

They're dressing up their kids as seeds.

7:17

It's a little bit dorky.

7:19

So yeah, like are they going to make a wikia

7:21

about free cannon and information?

7:23

Now?

7:24

Like how deep is this gonna go?

7:25

Yeah? I feel like stick insects

7:28

are already pretty just nerdy when

7:30

you look at them, and then you add

7:32

in this whole this whole plant

7:34

fixation. It's it's it's it's

7:37

endearing. Though, So the

7:39

eggs mimic the seeds of

7:42

local plants. Depending on where

7:44

the stick insects live, the

7:47

mimicry can be very refined

7:49

in certain stick insects species.

7:52

So, for instance, the giant prickly

7:54

stick insect lays eggs that look

7:56

like seeds with a knob like

7:58

growth, and then these fake

8:01

seeds, which are actually the eggs

8:03

of the prickly stick insect, are actually

8:06

carried off by spider ants

8:08

into their colony because these ants

8:10

often pick up seeds and bring them back to their

8:12

colony. Because the ants

8:14

eat these seeds. They actually eat a

8:17

part of these seeds, this

8:20

like nutritious knob on

8:22

these seeds. And you might be asking, well, why

8:24

would you want to disguise yourself as

8:27

food for another animal, which

8:31

is a great question. And the

8:33

ants only eat part of

8:35

the fake seed eggs, so that

8:38

like knob like growth on the

8:40

egg that mimics a seed

8:43

is called a capitulum, and

8:45

the capitulum is full of nutrients,

8:48

but eating it does not damage

8:50

the growing prickly stick bug

8:53

larvae inside the egg. So

8:57

essentially it's like gives

8:59

the ants a little gift, which is a

9:01

little bit of edible part of the egg

9:04

case because the ant thinks it's a seed.

9:06

But then the prickly stick insect continues

9:08

to develop and when it hatches, its

9:11

juvenile form mimics

9:13

the spider ant, so it can

9:16

proceed to be protected by

9:18

this ant colony. So why does it want

9:20

to be in the ant colony? Because ant colonies are

9:22

full of protective

9:24

soldier ants who will mess up

9:27

whatever is trying to get inside of the

9:29

ant colony. So this little juvenile

9:31

stick bug mimics the ants,

9:34

and then finally, as it develops,

9:36

older juveniles will start to look like

9:38

bark, and then finally its

9:40

adult morph looks like crumpled

9:43

leaves. It's fantastic.

9:45

It goes through this whole life cycle

9:48

from an egg that looks

9:50

like a little seed that tricks ants, then

9:52

they look like the ants themselves, then they

9:54

look like bark, and then they look like crumpled leaves.

9:57

Incredible.

10:00

They did not need to go this hard and no mimicking

10:04

one thing is a lot, and they

10:06

decided I'm going to have a different mimicry

10:09

for each life stage. There are seasons

10:11

to my life, and I'm going to be an autumn

10:14

chapter. When I'm a crippled leaf, I'm going to

10:16

be like you guys in the are they called

10:19

spider ants. The spider ant yell, which sounds

10:21

like two bugs to me. This is a lot. This is great.

10:23

Yes, it's fantastic. There's

10:26

this wonderful National Geographic

10:29

article that shows a

10:32

photo by by

10:34

Levon Biss in this National

10:37

Geographic article about these these fasmin

10:39

eggs, and they are I'll

10:43

provide a link to both the National Geographic

10:45

article and to this photographer's

10:47

website in the show notes. But they're absolutely

10:50

beautiful. They look like these intricate

10:53

wood carvings. Now in this photo

10:55

they look big, but this

10:57

is like a macro photography.

11:00

These are actually really really tiny, like think

11:02

really tiny head of a pin seeds.

11:05

So when

11:08

you can look at them though, when they're

11:10

blown up and you look at them

11:12

in detail, they are incredible

11:14

looking. They're all sorts of different shapes.

11:16

There's like, uh, there's sort

11:18

of more conical shapes, there's oval

11:21

shapes. There's even some that look like a

11:24

weird like almost like a

11:26

totem pole or like a it's

11:28

a rod with like these little holes

11:30

carved into it. It's just they're so

11:32

beautiful.

11:34

Yeah, this is so much to get

11:36

up to as a juvenile or

11:38

infants bug, right,

11:41

Yeah, like I aged many years

11:43

before I did anything besides poop and cry,

11:45

and these these bugs are really

11:48

on the ball immediately, They're like, I'm

11:50

immediately an HR Geeker figure

11:52

in a positive way. Look at my phenomenal

11:55

weird nature art.

11:56

I'm still at the stage of pooping

11:58

and crying a lot. You know a

12:01

lot of what I get up to.

12:05

It's our break from podcasting, it's

12:07

what we do.

12:08

We recharge and

12:10

I'm afraid of being ashamed of it. Yeah,

12:13

but I do. I just

12:15

love the complicated lifestyle

12:18

of like basically from birth

12:21

to the end, like they

12:23

are always tricking.

12:25

Ye, there are always life's of stage for

12:28

these fasmids.

12:31

Yeah, because that that was

12:33

so many schemes. You're a tree seed and

12:36

then part of you is eaten by ants, and

12:38

then you pretend to be an ant, and then you pretended to

12:40

be like bark crumpled leaf, and

12:42

I think something else before that.

12:43

It was bark before crumpled leaf. But yeah, exactly,

12:46

It's just.

12:46

It even sounds hard to do bark before leaf.

12:49

I would think leaf would be dinner

12:51

easier. This is a lot, it's a

12:53

lot of scheme. I recently saw

12:56

a show called Lupan that is on US

12:58

Netflix, where it's a French show of about a

13:01

master thief who also disguises and

13:03

elaborate schemes, and I keep I'm just thinking

13:05

of this guy telling his French friend

13:07

about a plan to be various bugs of eggs.

13:10

It does. It feels like an ocean's eleven,

13:12

but for insects, it's so convoluted

13:15

it doesn't. It seems like a fake, bad,

13:18

fake movie script of

13:21

the insect world. But it's real. It's amazing.

13:25

Yeah, and this picture is Bucker's.

13:27

I'm glad you're looking it for everyone.

13:29

Yeah, it's just definitely check out

13:31

that National Geographic

13:33

article and the photographer's

13:35

website because it's beautiful, absolutely

13:38

beautiful. Well, we are going to take a quick

13:40

break and when we get back, we

13:42

are going to talk about another

13:44

egg, which is like a work

13:46

of art or a work of engineering.

13:54

So, Alex, I know you don't like sea

13:58

life too much, but how you feel.

13:59

About legs, they're

14:02

weirdly fine. And I

14:04

have learned that my phobia is sort of constructed

14:06

around would it broadly make sense

14:08

as a land animal, right? And if sharks

14:10

had legs, they would they would basically be some kind of

14:13

smooth wolf. And so that's fine.

14:14

They're smooth wolves. That's a good way

14:16

to put it. There's smooth sand papery

14:19

wolves. Yeah. I

14:21

like sharks. I feel like they are sort

14:23

of like fish doggies,

14:26

and they're cute and some

14:29

of them will kill you, but they're

14:32

typically harmless when

14:34

you look at them as broadly

14:36

in terms of all the species and stuff, and

14:38

so such is the case with the

14:41

horn shark, which I think

14:43

is a cute one. Horn

14:45

sharks are goofy cute little sharks

14:48

with spots. They grow only

14:50

about a meter, which is three feet

14:52

in length. So you know, I feel

14:54

like you could cuddle one of these. You

14:56

wouldn't want to, because, like I think that'd

14:58

stress the shark out. But you know,

15:01

they also have a few defensive

15:03

techniques which would not be great for cuddling.

15:05

But still I think they're cute.

15:10

When I think of shark defensive techniques, I just think

15:12

of biting me at eating me. So is that

15:14

one of them?

15:15

No, not, Actually they will

15:18

bite, they can't really eat

15:20

you because they're too small, but they do

15:22

have another defensive technique other

15:25

than biting. They actually have a set

15:27

of two protective spines on

15:29

each of their dorsal fins that can be sharp.

15:32

So that's, you know, is kind

15:35

of like an anti cuddling barbs

15:38

going on there, which is a shame

15:41

they are, but their temperament is

15:43

very sweet. They are not that aggressive.

15:46

They will bite you if they're harassed,

15:49

but otherwise they're very chill.

15:51

They eat crustaceans, small

15:54

fish, sea urchins, mollusks,

15:56

other small sea life. They do not actively

15:59

go after your people aggressively

16:01

because they're so sweet.

16:04

That's nice.

16:05

They live. Yeah, yeah, they live in

16:07

the Pacific, off the coast of

16:09

North America down to Mexico. And

16:13

yeah, they're actually so sweet. Their

16:15

temperament is so good. In

16:17

twenty eighteen, three people tried

16:19

to smuggle a horn shark out

16:21

of an aquarium and a baby

16:24

stroller. A

16:29

baby stroller.

16:29

I immediately was imagining some

16:32

kind of duffel bag full of water. I like that, it's

16:34

a baby's stroller.

16:35

Baby stroller. Put a pacifier

16:37

in its mouth and it sucks on it like Maggie

16:40

Simpson. So

16:43

they scooped the shark out of the

16:45

tank, and

16:47

they wrapped the shark in a wet

16:49

blanket and put it in a

16:52

stroller and.

16:55

Right, and then shouted, are you calling

16:57

my baby ugly? I don't anyone who even looked

16:59

at it, like preemptively, that's

17:02

the move. Just shame them and that question

17:04

to get there.

17:05

So this was in

17:07

the San Antonio, San

17:10

Antonio Aquarium. The

17:13

shark's name was Miss Helen.

17:16

And this is in Mexico. It's not Santonio,

17:19

Texas.

17:19

I think it was Texas.

17:20

Actually, yeah, there's a lot of stuff

17:22

named after him.

17:23

Yeah, San Antonio, Yeah, San

17:26

Antonio Texas is where it was.

17:29

This is definitely a tex This was

17:32

in Texas.

17:32

Yes, oh phenomenal.

17:34

Isn't where Brenda's from?

17:36

Yes?

17:37

Oh yes, so wait to have

17:39

what was Brenda doing

17:42

in twenty eighteen.

17:44

Telling me she was bringing a child home and then suddenly

17:47

dropping the subject. So I

17:49

don't know, couldn't be here.

17:51

So yeah, they tried. They wrapped

17:54

miss Helen this juvenile horn

17:58

shark in a wet blaze get put

18:01

her in a stroller. God the

18:04

shark did survive. The

18:06

suspects were apprehended. The shark was

18:08

returned to the aquarium when

18:10

the thieves were caught. The

18:13

reason they kidnapped this

18:16

cute baby shark is that it

18:19

sells really well in the pet trade, so unfortunately

18:22

it's not It was not like a shark liberation

18:24

front, which would be misguided,

18:27

but really funny. This was like they

18:29

were they go for a lot of money

18:31

in the pet trade because they're I

18:33

mean, because they're really pretty in docile.

18:35

I guess they while

18:38

it's not like a nice life for

18:40

them, they I guess people who have large

18:42

aquariums they put them in there. But

18:46

yeah, they they these are survivors.

18:48

They're pretty hardy sharks

18:50

that are accidentally caught in fishing nets

18:53

can often be returned to the ocean and survive.

18:55

So they're they're troopers, and they're

18:57

sweet, and they're precious little babies. And

19:00

while you should not roll it around in a

19:02

baby stroller, I love that

19:04

that did happen, and I wish I could have seen it.

19:08

Yeah, there's so much else to do in San Antonio.

19:10

Go to the river walk, have a breakfast taco

19:13

rights game. They

19:15

have an astounding new French guy. Now, like,

19:17

do that game?

19:19

Put a shark in a s Wait? No,

19:23

no, okay, breakfast

19:26

burrito, put shark in star Wait. Damn,

19:30

it's hard. It's just like breathing. It's natural

19:32

for me. So onto

19:36

the eggs because this is really cool. The

19:38

sharks are really cool in their own right. But we're

19:40

talking about the eggs. So like

19:43

a lot of sharks, they will

19:46

weigh basically egg

19:48

cases, so they have an egg case

19:51

that covers a developing shark

19:53

embryo. Some

19:56

sharks give live birth, but

19:59

a lot of sharks will lay these egg cases.

20:01

So egg cases are made up of

20:03

a tough collagen, and

20:05

different species lay different shapes.

20:08

Sometimes they're kind of like they look

20:10

like little purses or little crescents.

20:13

But the horn shark egg case are

20:15

shaped like corkscrews, and they are

20:18

incredible looking. They

20:20

do not they look like you're talking

20:22

about like hr

20:25

Giger earlier Geiger. Yes,

20:28

it looks like some science fiction e thingy.

20:30

It is this like beautiful corkscrew. It's

20:33

smooth, it looks like it's made out

20:35

of plastic, but

20:37

it is. They're incredible looking.

20:41

Yeah, I'm seeing the picture and

20:44

it looks like a man made

20:46

augur or cool screw, but

20:49

also sort of like a grenade in a good way.

20:51

It's great.

20:52

You toss it and a little baby

20:54

shark pops up.

20:56

Oh wow, and then

20:58

we sing this song.

20:59

No, oh my god,

21:03

that song has ruined talking about

21:05

shark life cycles. So,

21:09

but not only is it shaped like a

21:12

cork screw, it actually functions

21:14

like a corkscrew. So the

21:16

shape of this egg case allows

21:18

the eggsack to become wedged

21:21

in rocky crevices or on the sandy

21:23

floor, and it kind of kind

21:25

of screws in there, and

21:27

that protects it from both predators and

21:30

currents and allows it to kind of kind

21:33

of latch onto like

21:35

a get wedged into like a crevice

21:37

or down in some sand, so it

21:40

like it sort of screws in naturally.

21:44

I've read different things regarding how this

21:46

happens. Some research

21:50

indicates it kind of naturally ends

21:53

up wedged in crevices just due to the shape.

21:56

I've also read at least one source

21:59

that contends that the shark intentionally

22:01

picks up the egg case and like

22:03

puts it near a suitable spot or

22:05

kind of wedges it in. But I haven't

22:07

been able to find any really good observational

22:10

studies about whether they do

22:12

this, whether females like actually

22:15

themselves manually wedging, And the thing

22:17

that seems more likely is that it naturally

22:19

just kind of like she lays it in

22:22

an area that's pretty suitable and then the just

22:24

like the gravity and currents

22:26

end up kind of pushing it into crevices.

22:29

But I really wish, and I really

22:31

hope that they

22:34

find evidence that these sharks

22:37

are grabbing the egg case and just

22:39

screwing it in like a light bulb into

22:41

like into the rocky

22:44

crevice.

22:46

Right, the evidence is a screwdriver, Right,

22:49

screwdriver, We just find that and then.

22:53

Ah, man, can you imagine if Tim

22:55

Allen was a shark.

23:00

H Yeah, making

23:02

that noise. What

23:04

I actually want is shark al

23:07

right? Al was his friend?

23:10

Great?

23:10

Wait, which one was out? Was Al? The one

23:12

on the other side of the fence.

23:15

No, that's Wilson, which would also be

23:17

a fantastic shark because that's just the fin instead of

23:19

his hair. Right, But Al is

23:21

the bearded guy on the show, right, he

23:24

was not Pamela Anderson.

23:25

Man. You know what, I never watched that show as

23:27

a kid. I saw that that come

23:29

on, and that was an immediate, immediate

23:32

channel change.

23:33

You think you think six year

23:35

old me wants to learn about

23:38

saws and home improvement. I

23:42

think I could handle that much flannel

23:44

on the television.

23:45

No, Right,

23:47

And they failed to make them all various species of cuddly

23:50

sharks.

23:50

If they had been sharks in that show, I would

23:52

have watched it and I probably would have learned how

23:54

to do home improvement, which I assume is the

23:56

purpose of the show.

24:00

It is so distinctly weird that

24:02

a major character was the top of a guy's

24:05

hat behind a fence. Yeah,

24:07

like, you probably don't know for about seeing it. But

24:10

Tim Allen would be in his backyard having whole conversations

24:13

every week with the top of a guy's

24:16

hat and you never see his face.

24:18

And that is very shark coded, right,

24:20

because like sharks are super

24:22

famous in a lot of movies just for

24:25

their fin, which I think that's

24:27

good branding right there, Like your

24:29

fin or your hat is

24:31

like just a synectic key

24:33

for you. You've done. You've done good. You've done

24:36

good branding there.

24:38

Yeah, it makes more much more sense. From a

24:40

shark. He really should have been a shark

24:42

and really could have been a shark. You can put a hat

24:44

on a fin. No one will stop you.

24:46

You can put a hat on a fin, No one will

24:48

stop you. That's such a good that's

24:50

such a good philosophy. Thank you, alex

24:56

Well. Let that, let that

24:59

settle in that beautiful phrase, and

25:01

we will take a quick break and then we will

25:03

return wiser and better.

25:06

Yeah, everyone, provide one picture of

25:08

you doing that, and then you can.

25:09

Cutting a hat on your fin,

25:12

your dorsal fin. That's right,

25:17

all right, we are back and we are going

25:19

to talk about some complex egg

25:22

engineering engineering.

25:25

Wow, I just I wrote that joke in

25:27

my notes and I just came up with it. Now

25:30

I'm really predictable.

25:34

I mean is how the English language works, folks.

25:37

It's it's what's coming, you know, right,

25:41

put a hat on a fin too. I have a lot of commands

25:43

this week, but

25:46

a hat on a fin.

25:47

So this comes, uh, this,

25:50

this incredible egg engineering

25:53

feet comes from one of the most deadly,

25:56

most despised animals

25:58

on the planet. Can you guess, Alex,

26:02

an.

26:02

Even bigger shark, like a mega

26:04

shack.

26:06

Go in the opposite direction, an

26:11

even smaller shark. I

26:16

walked into that when

26:18

I set that one up. No, this

26:20

is the mosquito.

26:24

Mosquito. Yes, the common house

26:26

mosquitoes lay their eggs

26:29

in fresh, slow moving

26:31

or stagnant water. As

26:33

you may have known, Like if

26:36

you live anywhere where there's like bodies

26:38

of water, but it maybe ponds,

26:40

and it's during mosquito season

26:43

and they're just freaking everywhere biting

26:45

you up. It's because they use

26:47

stagnant water to lay their eggs.

26:51

Yeah, gross, cut it out, cut it.

26:53

Out, knock it off. But

26:55

yeah, so when the eggs

26:57

hatch, the mosquito larvae is

27:00

aquatic. It breathes air through

27:02

a tube on their butt,

27:05

So their rear ends have a tube

27:07

that they breathe through, and

27:09

they kind of float bottoms up and

27:12

will feed on microscopic organisms

27:14

in the water, and then they will

27:17

molt into their adult flying forms,

27:19

and then they go around being pests and

27:22

spreading disease but also providing

27:24

food for a lot of animals.

27:28

Breathing through a tube of the butt

27:31

feels like something

27:33

some kind of pseudoscience health influencer

27:36

will try to tell me I can do, man, you know what I

27:38

mean. Yeah, Like, if you just tried harder,

27:40

you would be doing this.

27:41

I definitely see butt sunbathing

27:44

where you're supposed to go naked and like

27:46

hold your butt out to the sun

27:49

and it's supposed to do something

27:52

I would caution against it unless you put

27:55

sunscreen on your butt, in

27:59

which case, you know, go

28:01

for it. I'm not going to tell you now, but

28:04

yeah, this is definitely this

28:06

is definitely Goop Goop

28:08

esque breathing through your butt with

28:10

like a straw essentially. I think

28:13

they sell those actually butt straws.

28:14

To breathe through, right,

28:17

because there first they tell you can do it

28:19

literally, and then when you find out you can't,

28:22

they'll be like, actually, like spiritually,

28:24

you can do it if you just align your

28:26

chakras to breathe right through the butt. And I

28:28

know chakras are a real thing in a specific way,

28:30

but like Internet, people use it for the nonsense.

28:33

Definitely not what you're saying, Alex

28:36

in terms of something you can breathe through

28:38

your butt. You've

28:40

just offended so many, so many

28:43

people. Uh

28:46

yeah, but yeah, I definitely

28:49

could see there being like a sort

28:51

of h woo woo spiritual grift

28:53

of breathing energy

28:56

through your butt.

28:58

Right, you're getting bad energy through your mouth, right,

29:00

somehow, the good one we'll

29:02

come through your butt.

29:03

Yeah, and they just sell

29:05

you basically an enema or something.

29:08

Anyways, I these these

29:10

mosquitoes are actually breathing air,

29:13

oxygenated air through their their

29:15

butt tubes.

29:17

H. But we

29:20

are talking about the eggs because

29:22

the eggs that the mosquitoes lay in

29:24

the water are particularly interesting

29:27

because this species of

29:29

mosquito, along with other species,

29:32

but we're talking about the common house mosquito, they

29:34

lay egg rafts, So

29:37

egg rafts rafts

29:40

made out of eggs. These

29:42

are tiny rafts

29:44

made out of hundreds of eggs. The

29:48

eggs are so small that

29:50

each raft is only a fraction of

29:53

an inch big. Like there's

29:56

I've shared a couple of photos with you.

29:58

One is of the raft and it looks

30:01

like a bunch of grains of rice,

30:03

kind of like stuck together into

30:07

a floating raft form. But they

30:10

are much smaller than rice, way

30:12

smaller than rice.

30:15

Yeah, rice is dead on or

30:18

like a brief

30:20

toothbrush bristle, like a bunch of toothbrush.

30:22

It kind of looks like a tooth brush short, too

30:25

short for my teeth.

30:26

Gotta be thinking about that when I brush my teeth,

30:28

Like this is like mosquito eggs that

30:31

I'm rubbing on my teeth. Thanks

30:34

for that.

30:36

Yeah, I'm glad I can bring that to the world.

30:39

You're welcome.

30:40

But yeah, but yeah, this the

30:42

scale of it is kind of hard to tell from this photo.

30:44

But there's another photo of like you see, it's

30:46

like it's just this tiny. The

30:49

entire raft itself is smaller

30:51

than a grain of rice, and it fits on like

30:53

your finger, very tippy tip of your

30:56

fingertip. So

30:58

each egg is really really tiny.

31:01

But I guess it's still bigger

31:03

than I imagine somehow. Yeah, it's tiny

31:05

for sure. And then I just I somehow

31:08

I think of all mosquito things as being microscopic,

31:10

even though they are big enough to see.

31:12

Yeah, but still like the thing that you're seeing, the

31:15

visible thing on the finger that is

31:17

like still smaller than a grain of rice,

31:19

is hundreds of eggs. That's like hundreds

31:21

of eggs all together as

31:24

this raft and so the

31:27

Yeah, so basically the raft is formed

31:30

through this cluster of vertical eggs,

31:33

and the raft is buoyant due

31:35

to a bubble of air inside

31:37

the egg and the exterior

31:40

of the egg being water resistant. So

31:42

it's like an inflatable raft. But

31:44

it's made out of mosquito eggs.

31:48

Wow, Okay, I

31:51

mean that's just cool. Yeah, good

31:53

for them, and a good use of their

31:55

weird, stagnant water rather than the flowing

31:57

water that us proper people

31:59

like.

32:00

It's proper polite

32:03

society likes flowing water. But

32:06

yeah, I mean the reason they want

32:08

these to float is like, if you are

32:10

setting it up such that when

32:12

they hatch, they want to be floating butt

32:15

up so they can breathe through that butt

32:17

straw. You want to

32:19

be on the surface of the water. You don't want

32:21

to be, you know, kind of settled

32:23

to the bottom of the water or get eaten

32:25

by a fish.

32:28

Oh, it's all coming together Yeah, the butt

32:30

tube was so critical to the engineering

32:33

and the understanding.

32:34

The butt tube is sort of so like

32:36

they can like hang out in water, benefit

32:39

from the nutrients in the water,

32:41

and then when they hatch, they

32:44

you know, fly off and are a menace.

32:48

It's like it's like a little chorus

32:50

and a cartoon, Like when a dozen cartoon

32:52

characters are singing, all their mouths are up, you

32:54

know, but this is their butts are up.

32:57

But it's the butts, the butts that are up. Yeah,

33:02

that's not the first thing that pops into my head,

33:04

but you know, let's go with

33:06

that.

33:08

I guess I'm very musical.

33:09

I don't know.

33:09

Yeah, yeah.

33:12

I once found a bunch of mosquito

33:14

larva in a I guess

33:16

it was a wheelbarrow that had been rained in

33:19

And I didn't know anything

33:21

about anything because I was I was a

33:24

kid, and so I just thought I had discovered

33:26

a new type of cool tiny

33:29

water bug. And

33:31

so I thought maybe they were sea monkeys,

33:34

naturally occurring sea monkeys. Sea

33:37

monkeys, by the way, are just brine shrimp.

33:39

But these I collected a bunch

33:41

of them in a jar. I brought them home. I

33:44

was so excited about it and I showed my

33:46

parents are like, oh, that's

33:48

mosquito larva. Like you

33:50

say, what, Like, that's a bunch

33:52

of mosquito larva. I'm like, I'm

33:55

pretty sure these are sea monkeys that I

33:57

found in our backyard, mom and dad,

34:00

and uh, but yeah, it turned out

34:02

that they were indeed mosquito larva. So

34:05

I brought them this show and tell my teacher

34:07

was you know, looking

34:09

at it through personal lips. Yeah, I

34:12

uh, but you know, I kept it sealed.

34:15

She was like very concerned. She's like that

34:17

that's keep that jar closed, please.

34:20

And then and then I

34:22

brought it home and I think I

34:24

gave it to my dad and I think he like flushed

34:26

him or something. I'm not really sure what happened.

34:29

Uh. They certainly were not given an opportunity

34:31

to turn into a bunch of mosquitos inside

34:33

of the home.

34:36

I have so many questions about the

34:38

flow of this because, like, because at

34:40

least one of your parents has a lot of like biological

34:42

training, right.

34:43

Like under stops, No, they just you're

34:45

an or something. Well yeah, so he

34:48

he yeah, he's a he's an

34:50

engineer who works for an oceanography

34:53

But I don't know if that helps you with mosquito

34:55

larva. I think it was just they'd seen

34:57

their fair share of mosquito larva.

35:01

I see, okay, yeah, because I was

35:03

imagining some big gulf of knowledge

35:05

between your parents knowing a lot and your teacher

35:08

not knowing that stuff, so that they

35:10

just kind he was going to bring

35:12

some larvae'd be cool about it.

35:13

You know. I think the teacher also knew it was

35:16

larva, and she was just like, didn't

35:18

want a bunch of mosquito larva

35:20

to get lease in the classroom, which is reasonable,

35:23

I think.

35:26

Right at every turn, young Katie is running

35:28

into jerk squares burnt

35:31

down with her mosquito larvae liberation

35:34

plans.

35:34

Like I found a puppy and it's just a

35:36

lot of cockroaches, a

35:38

lot of cockroaches. Like

35:41

that's not a puppy. It's like, well, I

35:44

think it's a puppy and I'm bringing it to show

35:46

and tell. But

35:51

yeah, so that's the Mosquito

35:54

larva are really fascinating. They're really interesting

35:56

looking. The way that they breathe through

35:59

their rear end is really cool, and they kind of move

36:01

around in a really cool way, and they look

36:03

interesting. There's sort of this kind

36:06

of like almost like they look like

36:08

weird not curly

36:10

shrimp, but really tiny and

36:12

they're very strange looking. And

36:15

but yeah, it's it is. It's like I think

36:17

that when we consider the humble

36:19

mosquito, we just think about the adults

36:22

that are super annoying, but not these really interesting

36:25

earlier morphs of the mosquito.

36:28

And it is it's still a really interesting

36:31

little animal, despite how destructive

36:34

it is.

36:36

Yeah, and this is such a global

36:39

feature, right, like like

36:41

some some various species will

36:43

not be near you when you think about

36:45

them, but like these are all around us. Mosquitoes

36:48

are They're all over the earth because they build

36:50

these weird rafts and that's on top

36:52

of the.

36:52

Raft trans atlantic everywhere.

36:58

Yeah, they're everywhere. They cause a

37:00

lot of diseases. They're

37:02

they're not not great in terms of

37:04

you know, disease spread, but they are they're

37:07

important for the ecosystem.

37:10

So you know, we uh, it

37:12

is it's important to both respect

37:14

them but also try to protect people from

37:17

malaria, which we can do both.

37:19

I shrink. Yeah,

37:21

Yeah, there's room, there's room. Yeah,

37:24

And there's so many mosquitoes. We can kill a

37:26

lot of them. It's hard to

37:28

kill a good amount of them, and there

37:30

they will still be around. But you know,

37:33

but yeah, they do build rafts, so in

37:35

that way, they are somewhat like Tom Hanks.

37:42

Yeah.

37:42

I have never had occasion to

37:44

construct a raft, and I think if somebody approached

37:47

me about it, I would ask if we are stranded

37:49

or something. Right, it feels like definite

37:52

mistake on a sandy island activity,

37:55

right.

37:56

I feel like I would

38:00

die in that situation because I don't think

38:02

I could build a raft. I'd

38:04

probably get distracted and do a

38:07

wicker chair or something, and probably try to

38:09

make it too fancy, and then the whole

38:11

thing would sink like a small

38:13

wooden Titanic, like

38:17

I shouldn't. Maybe I shouldn't have had a had

38:20

a bar and a conversation pit

38:22

on this raft.

38:26

I knew I shouldn't have fallen in love with someone

38:28

from a different social class. On the raft there

38:31

wasn't.

38:31

Rube at all. So

38:34

yes, Mosquitoes build the world's

38:36

tiniest rafts, and that's pretty cool.

38:39

But before we go, we gotta play

38:41

a little game. Alex, you like games

38:44

like games. This

38:47

game is called Gets You Squawking. It's

38:49

the Mystery Animal sound game. Every

38:51

week I play mystery animal sound and

38:53

you the listener, and you the guest kind

38:56

I guess who's making that sound. It can be

38:58

any animal in the world, world

39:01

or out of the world. I don't know. Once

39:03

we find him it could be. Uh.

39:06

But yeah, last week's mystery

39:08

animal sound hint was this, Do

39:10

not adjust your television and ignore

39:13

the barking in the background. This hissor

39:16

is better off in a manger. All

39:31

right, Alex, did you hear that beautiful

39:33

noise?

39:34

Yes?

39:35

Yeah, that that beautiful

39:37

hissing sound.

39:38

Yeah. It

39:40

it sounds like something leaking but cooler.

39:45

Uh.

39:47

I almost feel like it's like

39:49

an ambient purring, but

39:51

weird, like some kind of is

39:56

it? Is it some kind of like fox or something

39:58

like oh with a fox's good

40:00

guess.

40:01

Foxes can make some pretty weird noises.

40:04

You are wrong, so you're not going home

40:06

with a brand new Ford Fiesta.

40:09

This is a young barn

40:12

owl hissing, So

40:17

congratulations to cat s and

40:19

Heather E who getsed correctly. Yeah,

40:22

this is a barn owl. Barn

40:25

owls are cosmopolitan.

40:28

They are found almost everywhere

40:30

in the world except in extremely

40:32

hot, desert or extremely cold

40:34

arctic climates. And in a lot

40:37

of islands they're not found,

40:39

but otherwise they are pretty

40:41

cosmopolitan. They have

40:44

a white heart shaped face,

40:46

white bellies in tan backs,

40:49

and sort of tan heads

40:52

that like wraps around their face like

40:54

a hood. They're beautiful owls.

40:57

They're one of the most beautiful owls

40:59

I think, and they're often

41:02

sort of used in movies to like,

41:04

oh, look at this owl. Very

41:09

elegant, owlegant. They

41:11

feed on small rodents,

41:14

reptiles, amphibians, and insect

41:17

and insects as well as the occasional

41:19

small bird. Because they have

41:21

a fold to seek out dry, pre

41:24

existing shelters for their nests,

41:27

they often roost in old buildings,

41:29

particularly barns, which are open

41:31

structures, so

41:33

this is why they're called barn owls. Barn

41:36

owls do not hoot. They

41:39

either shriek or hiss. The sounds

41:41

that come out of them are horrifying.

41:45

Despite looking so beautiful and elegant.

41:48

They don't like if you hear

41:50

a beautiful hoot and you're watching a

41:53

movie and then you see like a barn owl pictured

41:55

like the movie is lying to you. Because

41:57

barn owls do not hoot, go

42:00

wok. Right.

42:04

The hooting was probably from one of the human

42:06

romantic leads, and they

42:08

were hooting at each other. And you're confused yet.

42:13

But yes, so that is

42:16

the sound of a barn owl.

42:19

That's such a gift to get to hoot as an

42:21

animal, and it's weird that they'd passed that up to

42:23

hiss. But I guess they want snake privilege,

42:25

and they.

42:26

Want that snake privilege.

42:28

Yeah, I mean the the hissing

42:30

is a little more threatening, I guess, But yeah,

42:34

hooting is. I do

42:36

like a.

42:36

Hoot, fantastic.

42:38

It's a great sound, a little yeah.

42:41

Yeah, and every owl we would accept it

42:43

from, but barn owls are like, don't need it now,

42:46

yes.

42:46

S, and your attic, so

42:51

onto this week's mystery animal sound

42:53

of the hint is this, don't add

42:55

this fuzzy fellow to your fruit salad?

43:08

All right, alex any guesses.

43:12

I want it to be something so cute,

43:16

but it's probably fuzzy and

43:19

I probably ate it in a fruit salad,

43:21

So.

43:23

I told you not to. Don't

43:25

add this fuzzy fellow to your fruit salad.

43:28

I'm just so rebellious. I

43:32

think, let's say it's gonna be some kind of colorful

43:34

frog. There's all those colorful frogs at in

43:36

the rainforest there.

43:37

Maybe one of those colorful frog is

43:39

Alex's guess Yeah, do you

43:41

out there have a guess right

43:44

to me at Creature featurepot at gmail

43:46

dot com. And

43:49

if you guess correctly, maybe I'll

43:51

be like, hey, good job you did

43:53

it, but yeah,

43:56

and we will find out who is making

43:58

that sound on the next episodisode

44:00

of Creature Feature. Alex,

44:03

thank you so much for joining me today. Where

44:05

can people find you? Are there perhaps

44:08

other podcasts that you do?

44:14

It is such a joy to make secretly incredibly

44:16

fascinating with you buddy every

44:19

week. It's a lot of fun and I hope people

44:21

check it out.

44:22

Do you check it out? It's it's really great.

44:25

I like it because Alex

44:27

does most of the work on that show, so

44:31

that makes me happy.

44:33

Advice on this it's a joy.

44:35

It's great.

44:35

It's fun to not do work

44:38

and to talk. That's the always

44:41

a benefit of no but it's it's

44:43

an excellent show. I really enjoy being

44:45

on it. I feel like, well,

44:49

thank you, but I it's the

44:51

Alex energy is makes

44:53

it a real fun show and I learn

44:56

a lot, so I assume you also learn

44:58

a lot. So yeah, get

45:00

secretly incredibly fascinated. Thank you guys

45:02

so much for listening. You're enjoying

45:04

the show, and you leave a rating or review.

45:07

I would be so pleased

45:09

to see that because I read every single

45:12

review. All the ratings really do help

45:14

me. It's fantastic,

45:18

And thank you to the Space Classics for there's

45:20

super awesome song. Exo Lumina Creature

45:22

features a production of iHeartRadio. For more

45:24

podcasts like the one you just heard, visit the iHeartRadio

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app Apple Podcasts, or Hey guess what, wherever

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you listen to your favorite shows. I

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don't judge you, not your mother. I

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can't tell you what to do. You got to live your own

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life, make your own mistakes, you

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know, get out on your tiny little

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mosquito raft and just ride

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those waves that we call life.

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I'll see you next Wednesday.

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I also breathe that up your butt. That's required.