Beware the wings of Summer!

Christmas is coming

Bruxas in the flat
please put the aircon on
and squash the mossies flat

Summer is coming to the Mata Atlantica, which means hot days and nights, and rain - perfect conditions for insects. This, not Halloween, is the time for witches, "bruxas", huge (up to 16cm) moths the size of bats who invade your house at night. As I mentioned in a previous blog, bruxas, (Ascalapha odorata) are of course completely harmless, if occasionally annoying, and they feed on rotten fruit. They'll probably be around until January.

Bruxas might be harmless, but other summer visitors not so much. Termites ("cupims") swarm at this time of year, males and females abandoning their nests and flying out into the sky. They are weak fliers, and blown hither and thither by the wind. When they land they shed their wings and, if they are lucky, start to make a nest from the wet trees and timber they have landed on, so if you see discarded insect wings on your furniature, watch out! Mated queens produce huge quantities of workers that build the nest where they will all live, either underground, in mounds in the pampas or fields, or as nests on the side of trees and fence posts.


As many house holders have found to their cost, termites are very good at digesting wood, which is beyond most creatures. Although some can actually do this by themselves, most have colonies of microbes in their gut who do the work for them. Humans though are having their revenge. Firstly, termites are edible and easily caught when swarming. Apparently they are best lightly grilled on a hot plate, their natural oils supplying the cooking fat. Secondly, they are potentially a source of fuel - producing hydrogen from waste wood, although nobody has quite made a termite power station yet.

And worst of all are the mosquitoes, their life cycles speeded up by the heat, and with plenty of puddles to lay their eggs. Development time for Aedes aegypti, from egg to adult, goes from 33 days at 16C to 9 days at 32, although if it's any consolation they do die younger. With more mosquitoes comes more disease, the incidence of Dengue fever for example starts to rise steeply in December before peaking in March to May.

So beware, the time of the insects is coming!

Witches of the tropical night sky

At certain times of the year, normally around December and January, it´s not uncommon to see "bats" fluttering through the night, and circling street lights. It´s only when they enter your apartment that you realise that they are huge moths, "bruxas". Bruxa means "witch" and this matches the English name, the "Black witch moth" and in deed the size of the moths has impressed many peoples, so that in French it is "La Sorcière Noire" (the Black Witch) and in Spanish, "Mariposa de la Muerte" (the Moth of Death!). The Mayans, with rather more humour, call them "Mah-Ha-Na", or "May I borrow your house", an allusion to their habit of entering houses, and the way they make their presence felt when they are there!

In fact, although Ascalapha odorata is large (up to 16cm) it is completely harmless. Indeed they can actually be eaten, well the larvae. They are especially a delicacy in Mexico and feature prominently in a book by Professor Julietta Ramos Elorduy on edible insects, which includes a recipe for "Black witch fondue". According to another source they have the taste of herring.

Ascalapha are found from the southern USA to Rio Grande do Sol in Brazil, and they are, not unnaturally, strong fliers, migrating through their range. The adult males and females can be distinguished by a pale stripe across the wings of the females and feed on fruit, though unlike some moths they cannot penetrate the skin and have to feed on rotten or damaged fruits. The huge larvae (up to 7cm) feed on leaves, and can be a pest of figs and mesquite.

It is not just humans who can eat then, adults make a tasty meal for bats too. Ascalapha is not without defences though. Bats hunt by echo location, or radar, and Ascalapha has the ability to tune it´s ears to the particular frequency of local bats and take evasive action when they are close.
So this is the Black Witch Moth, not dangerous, but magic in it's own way.