‘Looked like … two [additional] eyes’

A New England scientist has stumbled upon startling surveillance camera images showing the first documented case of strange insect behavior in the region.

What's happening?

“It almost looked like the moose had two [additional] eyes,” Lawrence Klarfeld, an environmental researcher at the University of Vermont, told Scientific American. “I wasn't sure what it was at first.”

Klarfeld described a scene in which moths could be seen feeding on moose tears. He came across a surprising moment while reviewing camera trap footage in the Green Mountain National Forest.

The thirsty insects indulged not in schadenfreude but in lacrophagy, or “tear-eating,” the process by which moths and other insects feed on the tears of larger animals. even people.

Yet what is remarkable is not the act itself, but where it occurred. It has long been thought that lacrophagia occurs almost exclusively in tropical climates. Observing this behavior in Vermont baffles the still very limited scientific understanding of this phenomenon.

According to Scientific American, only one case of lacrophagia is known and documented outside the tropics. This incident occurred in Arkansas.

So what is it about tears that insects find so seductive? There is no clear answer yet, but one possible explanation is the unusually high protein content in tears. 200 times that from sweat.

Why is this a concern?

One of the biggest risks of lacrophagia comes from its ability to spread disease. Klarfeld and two co-authors published article about the footage in the magazine “Ecosphere” for November. They argued that “eye moths can transmit diseases such as keratoconjunctivitis, a condition that can cause eye damage in moose, with serious health consequences.”

Elk are already at risk for diseases such as chronic wasting disease, so they are unlikely to need another source of infection. Moreover, the danger may increase as rising global temperatures expand the range of disease vectors.

What is being done to better understand lacrophagia?

There is still a lot to learn about lacrophagia, especially now that it is being observed in a completely new type of climate. For scientists, an accidental discovery is a call for further research and awareness.

It's also a reminder of why trail cameras are some of the most powerful tools in wildlife research. A well-placed camera can provide extremely valuable information about the population and status of a species in a given area.

As in this case, cameras can also reveal previously unknown patterns of behavior that can contribute to our understanding of nature.

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