Day 21: fruitpiercer

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OUR TOP STORY TONIGHT!

Three weeks of social-isolation and we are all getting a little twisted-up and buggy.

This report is filed from South Florida. Naturalist Christie Collins has an eye for the odd. That’s why we became friends when we worked together at the nature center two years ago. She soon figured out: I was odd.  

Christie's secret goal in life is to find and identify every insect that lives in America. She's a true bug-ologist. This one she found at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton but, dare say, it is not beloved in Florida. It’s the caterpillar of the citrus fruitpiercer (Gonodonta nutrix), a moth also found in Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Cuba and Central America.

Yes. It's a fruitpiercer, something like a blood-sucker. As the name suggests, the adult moth pierces soft fruits like kumquats and feeds on the sweet juices. But it leaves a small wound that rots and renders the fruit unsellable.

And on a bit of a personal note. I have been a nature writer for 28 years. And this is the first time I have used the words "fruitpiercer" and "kumquat." My bad. I wonder what other words I have neglected? 

Ob-la-dee, ob-la-da. 

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