cricket curiosity

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"I’m never at a loss for things to study or topics to write about: everything in the natural world is fair game. If I’m not intrigued and excited every time I step outside, it just means I’m not paying attention." 

I have used this quote often. It is from the book "Feathers" by Thor Hanson, and it is so true. 

There is the newly created virtual world, then there's the good old real world that has been around three to four billion years. I find my solace in the latter because it is infinitely more fascinating. And Hanson is correct, you really do not have to go that far to find a curiosity. And if you can be entertained by a simple house cricket, then your entertainment comes cheap. Naturalists are cheap dates. The world is our Cineplex. 

I didn't even have to go outside to find today's novelty. As I stepped out of my morning shower, I noticed this oddity clinging to my bathroom curtain. A house cricket (Acheta domesticus) had just molted from its last shed exoskeleton and was in the process of eating it. This sort of thing goes on billions of times every day, but I had never witnessed it. Why eat your old skin? Because it is made of chitin and full of nutrients. So why waste it? 

Nature doesn't discard it's carbon. It recycles it. There's also a soupçon of grossness to this story which adds to its entertainment value. 

N'est-ce pas?

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