Posted on 10/30/2008 5:11:48 AM PDT by Renfield
A previously unknown population of vampire moths has been found in Siberia. And in a twist worthy of a Halloween horror movie, entomologists say the bloodsuckers may have evolved from a purely fruit-eating species.
Only slight variations in wing patterns distinguish the Russian population from a widely distributed moth species, Calyptra thalictri, in central and southern Europe known to feed only on fruit.
When the Russian moths were experimentally offered human hands this summer, the insects drilled their hook-and-barb-lined tongues under the skin and sucked blood.
Entomologist Jennifer Zaspel at the University of Florida in Gainesville said the discovery suggests the moth population could be on an "evolutionary trajectory" away from other C. thalictri populations. This is the second population of vampire moths Zaspel and her team have found. They discovered the first in Russia in 2006.
Next January, she will compare the Russian population's DNA to that of other populations and other species to confirm her suspicions.
"Based on geography, based on behavior, and based on a phenotypic variation we saw in the wing pattern, we can speculate that this represents something different, something new," Zaspel said.
"But it is really difficult to say without knowing genetic differences between individuals in that population, and among individuals from other populations, how different this group is going to be."
(Zaspel's research is funded in part by a grant from the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration. National Geographic owns National Geographic News.)
Blood Feeding
If it turns out that Zaspel has indeed caught a fruit-eating moth evolving blood-feeding behavior, it could provide clues as to how some moths develop a taste for blood.
Some researchers, she noted, hypothesize that blood-feeding in insects and animals evolved from behaviors such as feeding on tears, dung, and pus-filled wounds.
"We see a progression from nectar feeding and licking or lapping at fruit juices to different kinds of piercing behaviors of fruits and then finally culminating in this skin piercing and blood-feeding," she said.
Chris Nice, a biologist who studies butterfly evolution at Texas State University in San Marcos, said few butterfly and moth species are equipped with the hook-and-barb-lined tongues needed to pierce fruit.
"The fruit-piercing stage in the first place sets the stage, in a morphological sense, for further transitions into, in this case, the blood-feeding," he said.
Nice added that genetic research such as Zaspel's is the only way to test ideas on how certain behaviors evolve.
Sexual Gift?
The next question is why this Russian population of C. thalictri appears to have evolved blood-feeding behavior, Zaspel said.
Only male moths exhibit blood-feeding, she noted, raising the possibility that as in some species of butterflies and other moths, the Russian moths do it to pass on salt to females during copulation.
"There is no evidence it prolongs the life of the male, or anything like that," she said. "So we suspect that it is probably going to the female."
The sexual gift, she said, would provide a nutritional boost to young larvae that feed on leaf-rich, but sodium-poor, diets.
If salt is otherwise limited in the environment the sexual gift theory "would make sense," Nice added.
A vampire moth in Siberia sucks blood from a researcher's hand. Scientists have found a previously unknown population of vampire moths that may have evolved from a fruit-eating species.
Only slight variations in wing patterns distinguish the Russian population from a widely distributed moth species, Calyptra thalictri, in Central and Southern Europe known to feed only on fruit.
Photograph by Sharon Hill
What’s the difference in adaption and evolution?
Just curious because I don’t understand the difference.
The vampire moths will all be ACORN volunteers.
It is interesting what a species will do or how behavior can change so that it survives.
Evolution is a change in the allele (genetic variation)frequency of a population.
Adaptation just means changing to fit new circumstances.
Evolution through natural selection of genetic variation allows adaptation.
They should let loose some Van Helsing moths to take care of the Vampires.
Probably evolved from a species of Democrat moths. They’ll not only chew up the money in your wallet, but suck you bone dry as well.
Oops, I just noticed your FReepname. I didn’t mean anything by that, honest.
Thank you.
And thanks for not mocking me for not knowing. I have read and read and I guess Evolution is beyond my intellegence level or something because some things don’t make sense to me, and yet I wouldn’t even dream of believing that a being, even God, just poofed animals into existence.
Perhaps the larger question is merely why we exist at all? If physicists and astronomers are correct the 'current' or 'present' universe is approximately 14 billion years old. If they are also correct it may last for another 15-20 billion years until all energy is consumed and it reverts to a dark void.
So exactly how did we arrive here now in this galactic calendar and why? Why is the universe so old? Why not 14,000 years old? 14,000,000 years old? Why is our life span so short compared to the age of the universe? Since all vestiges of life forms as we know them will undoubtedly cease to exist in the future, why are we here? What's the point of it all?
Russian Vampire Moths. Figures.
There is nothing in Evolution beyond any ones’ intelligence level. It is a rather simple concept.
Genetic variation exists within a population due to imperfect replication of DNA. New genetic variations can and do arise within a population due to imperfect DNA replication, mutation, moving DNA elements, etc. A bacteria under stress actually increases its mutation rate in order to increase its ability to generate genetic variation.
Some genetic variations are selected for and others are selected against by virtue of different environments. This causes a change in the frequency of particular genetic variations, with some variations increasing its frequency in the population and others decreasing, and others staying roughly the same.
Genesis says that by Gods word the oceans and the land brought forth life, not that they were directly created by God.
Gen 1:20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
What “on the molecular level”, would stop a 2% genetic difference and a 6% genomic difference between chimps and humans? What makes such a change “mathematically impossible”?
See, I see evolution as a process that God got going, you know?
I think I understand what you mean. Like I had to be crude, but truth is truth and scientifically speaking...
I have two children with my ex-husband, one with my current. I see the genetic traits of their father with each of them and I can see a dominant trait staying through. And all the combinations of DNA in each of them.
As a Biologist I see evolution as the inevitable consequence of living systems with molecular inheritance being subject to molecular change.
As a Christian I see this as part of God’s plan.
The “perfect design” of a living system in a changing and changeable world is not a static design, but one that can change with changing circumstances.
That’s exactly what I say! The perfect process shows intellegent design, in my opinion, but I definitely can see the scientific theory of evolution believable.
I have alot of Skeptic friends and luckily they aren’t dogmatic in their atheism, but I don’t understand why it has to be either/or. Why can’t both apply?
What?
You don't say?...we have no evidence of once species ever nutating into a totally different species?
...um...well, in that case...never mind.
But what about those who hold that enlightend belief...*trying not to laugh here*...that they evolved from distant ancestor primates?
I don't know about them, but I'm not sure I'd be willing to take my gf to the primate exhibit at the local zoo to introduce her to "Uncle Charlie" the chimpanzee. And then boast about superior evolutionary intellect.
But back to the moth... Get back to me when it "morphs" into a differnet species.
...until then, isn't micro-adaptation within God's creation a marvel!?!
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