Inspired Media

(And other holometabolic insects…)

Beautiful photos by Joyce Meyer Photography!

By Aryn Henning Nichols • Originally published in the Spring 2014 Inspire(d)

Many of you know the story: the one about the caterpillar that’s hungry. Very hungry. He eats and eats and eats. And he is STILL hungry. And then he becomes a butterfly! (Sigh. If only that would happen to humans…)

But HOW does that chubby little guy turn into a beautiful butterfly?

Let’s learn! There are four stages of a butterfly’s life: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. (1)

In the first stage, the mama butterfly lays a very small, round or oval egg (appearance depends on the type of butterfly). She picks a very specific leaf that she knows her little babe will eat once it’s hatched a few days later. If you look closely enough at the egg, you might even be able to see the tiny caterpillar growing inside! (1)

Once hatched, the egg has progressed to stage two: the caterpillar, or larva. This is the part where the gluttony begins (although, unlike the book, caterpillars don’t generally eat pickles and salami and ice cream…). The caterpillar behaves like a free-living, eating, growing-but-developmentally repressed embryo. (2)

During the few days or weeks that it is active, it will devour its favorite plant to the tune of its own weight many times over. (2) They stuff their faces so they can grow quickly. And grow they do! Their exoskeleton (skin) doesn’t stretch or grow though, so they “molt” (shedding the outgrown skin) several times during this stage. (1)

Once the caterpillar has reached critical mass, it’s ready to move on to stage three: The pupa or chrysalis. That hungry caterpillar finally gets full, and finds a comfy place to molt into a shiny chrysalis. That’s where the magic happens. Within its protective casing, the caterpillar radically transforms its body.?But be prepared – magic isn’t always pretty!

First, the caterpillar digests itself, releasing enzymes to dissolve all of its tissues. It basically becomes a nutrient-rich soup, feeding the imaginal discs. These highly organized groups of cells survive the digestive process – they’ve been a part of the caterpillar it’s entire life. Before hatching, when a caterpillar is still developing inside its egg, it grows an imaginal disc for each of the adult body parts it will need – discs for its eyes, wings, legs, and so on. In some species, these imaginal discs are dormant; in other species, the discs begin to take the shape of adult body parts before the caterpillar forms a chrysalis – some caterpillars walk around with tiny rudimentary wings tucked inside their bodies.?Inside the chrysalis, once all of the tissues are digested, those discs use the protein-rich “soup” to fuel the rapid cell division required to form the butterfly body parts. One disc could begin with only 50 cells and increase to more than 50,000 cells by the end of metamorphosis. (3)

This type of metamophosis is called holometaboly – a full change – and is the complete – and often dramatic – change from a worm-like larva to a large-winged adult. It’s a highly sophisticated chemical suppression of developmental processes. Though only 9 of 26 insect orders are holometabolic, this accounts for 80 percent of all insects (butterflies, beetles, moths, flies, bees, wasps and ants are majority stakeholders).(2)

Once metamorphosis is complete, the caterpillar is ready to emerge in its final, adult stage: the butterfly. When it first comes out, both wings are soft and folded against its body. It rests a bit, then pumps blood into the wings in order to get them working and flapping. They’re ready to fly just a few short hours after cracking out of the chrysalis and head off in search of a mate in order to continue the cycle!

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Aryn Henning Nichols repeatedly said, “Whoa” while writing this Science, You’re Super. Butterflies! They’re crazy amazing!

 

1. http://www.thebutterflysite.com/life-cycle.shtml
2. http://www.discoverwildlife.com/british-wildlife/how-does-caterpillar-turn-butterfly
3. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/caterpillar-butterfly-metamorphosis-explainer/

 

Taking a Midwest Tradition Local

Story and photos by Aryn Henning Nichols • Photo/Food Assistant Thea Satrom • Originally published in the Summer 2015 Inspire(d)

Getting together with friends is the stuff of summer.

Getting together with friends, eating food grown by friends, is the stuff of a Driftless summer.

When you live in a place like the Driftless Region, you sometimes forget that you’re even eating local…you’re just serving up the produce grown by farmers up the road! They might even be sitting across the table from you – ‘cause this is the Midwest, people. We’re friendly. And we like to potluck.

In case this is your first day in the Midwest, a potluck is “a gathering of people where each person or group of people contributes a dish of food to be shared among the larger gathered group.”

It’s a beautiful thing not just because it’s a great format for a party, but also because sometimes summertime livin’ isn’t so easy; it’s busy. Make it a little simpler by having your friends make all the food. Okay…you still have to make one dish, but that’s a lot better than a whole meal.

What goes into planning a potluck? Just an email, text message, or phone call with a loose “you do a main course, I’ll do veggie, they’ll bring dessert” sort of thing. Take it a step further and challenge potluck-goers to use local produce in their dishes. Buying locally is good for your environment, economy, and – most importantly – yourself. And shopping in season at your area farmers markets and food co-ops is also way more affordable than you’d think!

We put together our own potluck of local foods for this issue – from local shrimp (yep!) to bacon-wrapped dates to a beet and apple salad to cheese curd caprese skewers, we’ve got you covered. For this post, we’re featuring main courses – sometimes you just want to bring something a little heartier, especially as weather starts to turn chillier in the fall!

In a pinch and don’t have time to actually cook something? That’s totally okay too! We looked to the bulk section of our local co-op for a few ideas…chocolate-covered ginger, anyone? Goes great with a mint julep, we think!

Make it a potluck-y summer, friends, and enjoy!

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PRINT RECIPES HERE
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Marinated Grilled Shrimp

Did you know there’s local shrimp now? There’s a new farm north of Fayette called Shrimptastic and also a farm in Ridgeway called Sherlock Shrimp. It works like this: You head to the farm, they harvest your shrimp fresh, you bring them home and cook ‘em. Pretty cool! (P.S. the above photo was taken before local shrimp was available, so it’s actually from the freezer section of the Oneota Co-op. The local shrimp is WAY bigger!)

2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T olive oil
2 T chopped fresh basil
1/2 tsp salt
Juice from half a lime
Juice from half a lemon
1 lb fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined
skewers

In a large plastic bag, mix the marinade.  Add shrimp and coat evenly. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Preheat grill for medium heat. Thread shrimp onto skewers, piercing once near the tail once near the head. Discard marinade.
Cook shrimp on preheated grill for 2 to 3 minutes per side, or until opaque.

Head over to shrimptasticllc.com for a how-to on peeling & deveining shrimp

Pesto Pasta Salad with Local Sausage 

1 lb package of pasta (we used campanelle, but also love penne or other hardy pastas)
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 package (4) local sausage (we used chicken, but any sausage would work great), grilled and sliced.
2 cups arugula
1/4 cup goat cheese
1/2 cup pesto (see recipe below)

Cook pasta according to package directions. We always undercook a bit, because mushy pasta is no good! In a large bowl (or just use the same pot you made the pasta in), combine pasta, red pepper, and chicken sausage. Add in 1/2 to 1 cup of pesto…whatever your taste preferences are. Gently stir in arugula leaves and top with goat cheese. Great served warm or cold!

Walnut Pesto

1/2 C walnuts
2 cloves garlic
3 cups packed basil leaves
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 freshly ground black pepper
1/3 C olive oil (or more if needed)
1/2 C grated Parmesan cheese
1-2 tsp lemon juice

Place basil, walnuts, garlic, salt and pepper, and olive oil in food processor.

Blend until thoroughly combined. Add Parmesan and blend 5-10 seconds more. Splash in lemon juice to taste. Add additional salt to taste, if needed. For storing, a layer of olive oil on top keeps the pesto from browning. It also freezes great, so double the batch to get a little summer freshness when winter hits!

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PRINT RECIPES HERE
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By Aryn Henning Nichols • Photo by Evan Sowder
Originally published in the Summer 2015 Inspire(d)

There’s always been a buzz around bees.

Okay…it’s a bad pun. But, really, bees are pretty darn amazing. They fly their slightly cantankerous (especially for the bumble bees) bodies around, pollinating flowers and crops across the world – in the U.S., alone, their work is worth an estimated $10 billion. (3)

Some even say bees are responsible for one out of every three bites of food we eat. Most crops grown for their fruits (like squash, cucumber, tomato, eggplant), nuts, seeds, fiber (such as cotton), and hay (alfalfa grown to feed livestock), require pollination by insects. Pollination is “the transfer of pollen from the male parts of a flower to the female parts of a flower of the same species, which results in fertilization of plant ovaries and the production of seeds.” According to Michigan State University’s entomology department, the main insect pollinators, by far, are bees. There are hundreds of species of bees that contribute to the pollination of crops. (5)

So where do these little super heroes come from and how do they know how to do their jobs?

Scientists believe that both bees and flowering plants evolved around 100 million years ago during the Cretaceous period. Before this, many plants released seeds and pollen using cones (think pine trees, but both big and small cones). The wind brought the pollen and cones together, thus fertilizing them. But some plants began to reproduce using flowers, and they needed the help of insects and other animals to achieve pollination. (2)

Around the same time, bees were evolving from their wasp-like ancestors. Prehistoric wasps were carnivores that lay their eggs in the bodies of their prey. After flower reproduction happened, bees became herbivores, eating pollen and nectar from the plants and pollinating flowers as they went. (2)

To further enhance pollination, a bee’s body is covered in fuzzy hair that collects pollen, and its legs are built for specific pollen-collecting tasks. The body has three sections – the head, the thorax and the abdomen – much like other insects. The abdomen houses the stinger, and the crop, or honey stomach, where the bees store nectar. A bee has five eyes – three simple eyes, “orocelli”, and two compound eyes made of lots of small, repeating eye parts called “ommatidia” that specialize in seeing patterns. This allows bees to detect polarized light – a super-power humans do not possess! (2)

Bees can be solitary – living mainly alone – or social – living in colonies. Less than 15 percent of bees are social, even though many people are most familiar with social bees since they produce things like honey and beeswax, and will pollinate in large groups in orchards and gardens. (2)

Two of the most advanced social bees are honeybees and bumblebees. Each colony has a single queen, many workers, and – at certain stages in the colony cycle – drones. A commercial – human provided – honeybee hive can contain up to 40,000 bees at their annual spring peak (but it’s usually fewer). (1)

Although honeybees and bumblebees are both social, their societies are quite different. Honeybee colonies are perennial – a nest will last generations. Bumblebees, on the other hand, have annual nests. (2) But no matter how they live, most bees have a similar approach to mating. In nearly every species, a male bee’s only job is to mate with a female. After the female mates, she either retreats to a shelter for the winter or returns to her nest to lay eggs. A female solitary bee lays only a few eggs in her lifetime, but a queen honeybee lays thousands! (2)

Honey, let’s Dance

Bees have an acute sense of smell, and can recognize symmetry and patterns, such as colors or shapes. This helps bees find and recognize flowers and food. Honeybees communicate food’s location with a special bee language: dancing.

When a scout finds food, she uses two known tools to remember its location. 1. A solar compass that helps her calculate where things are in relation to the sun. The bee’s ability to see polarized light (remember the ommatidia eyes) tells her where the sun is even if it’s a cloudy day. 2. An internal clock that tells her how far she has flown.

When the scout returns to the hive, she distributes nectar samples, then performs a dance on the hive “dance floor.”

If the food is nearby, the scout does a “round dance,” making loops in alternating directions.

When the food is far away, she does a “waggle dance”. She runs in a straight line while waggling her abdomen, then returns to the starting point by running in a curve to the left or right of the line. The straight line indicates the direction of the food in relation to the sun. (3)

Then, the sisters head out to forage. They make up to a dozen trips back and forth between the hive and the food; each bee can carry half her weight in pollen or nectar!

Inside the hive, the worker bees transform the nectar into honey. Nectar is 70 percent water compared to honey’s 20 percent. Bees evaporate the extra water by regurgitating the nectar over and over, and also fan their wings over the honeycomb.

While doing all this foraging for nectar and pollen, bees inadvertently pollinate nearly 100 crops. All told, insect pollinators contribute to one-third of the world’s diet. (3) (Super heroes!)

Bees themselves gather enough honey to survive winter. During winter, bees leave their hives only to go to the bathroom. Inside, they take care of the queen and heat the hive by vibrating their wing muscles, similar to humans’ shivering. To control the temperature in the summer they circulate air with their wings and sprinkle the honeycomb with water. (3)

The length of a female honeybee’s life is usually only a few weeks. A queen, though, can live three to five years!

There has been a major decline in commercial honeybee numbers over the past 50 years – and even more so since 2007 – called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). The cause hasn’t been pinpointed yet, but researchers say reasons could include parasites and bacteria, environmental stress, like a lack of pollen, and, very likely, pesticide usage.

What can we do to help? Here are three easy ideas:

1. Plant a Pollinator Garden. See online guide for plantings. (www.pollinator.org/guides.htm)
2. Reduce your use of pesticides, especially when flowers are in bloom and bees are out foraging
3. Buy local to help support local beekeepers (4)

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Aryn Henning Nichols was amazed by bees as she researched this story – dancing? Polarized light? Awesome. Let’s work to save the bees! Plant some butterfly weed (and other pollinator garden plants) today!

Extra bee facts:

• The average American consumes a little over one pound of honey a year.
• In the course of her lifetime, a worker bee will produce 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey.
• To make one pound of honey, workers in a hive fly 55,000 miles and tap two million flowers.
• In a single collecting trip, a worker will visit between 50 and 100 flowers.
• A productive hive can make and store up to two pounds of honey a day. Thirty-five pounds of honey provides enough energy for a small colony to survive the winter. (3)

Sources:

1. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee
2. animals.howstuffworks.com/insects/bee.htm
3. www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bees/
4. www.cnn.com/2015/03/04/living/iyw-5-ways-to-help-bees/
5. nativeplants.msu.edu/about/pollination