SOME ODDITIES IN NATURE

 Have you ever seen an orange shark?

The above fish was caught this month by Garvin Watson in the Pacific Ocean off Costa Rica.  This was a 6-foot 6-inch nurse shark.  Watch this video.

That catch made me wonder about other oddities in nature.  For example, is there a red shark?  The answer, apparently, is no.  

• I once had an elaborate aquarium, a few fish were red-tailed black sharks.  However, this fish belongs to the carp family, and only the tail, caudal penuncle, was red.  Mine only grew to maybe three inches, but these can get up to 6 inches.  They are found in Thailand.
• There is also the rainbow shark, also from Southeast Asia.

• The reddest of these aquarium fish identified as a shark (and all of them aren't sharks), is the albino rainbow shark.

• A similar fish specie is the Galactic Purple Shark.

• About real sharks, there is a lemon shark, but the skin is only somewhat yellowish.  Grows to 11 feet.

• There are no true blue-colored sharks, but the Blue Shark is quite blue as a juvenile.  Looks less so when an adult.

• Finally, there are no real green sharks, although the swell shark does biofluoresce into a green tinge.

Oh well, what about some other oddities?  

• This Hoodwinker Sunfish, or Mola tecta, washed ashore in Oregon in 2017.  Can weigh more than 2000 pounds.

• 
  Coming to the greater New York City is the Joro spider.
• Originally from East Asia, the first documented arrival was to the southeastern U.S. in 2013, or possible as early as 2010.  Probably hitchhiked on cargo containers to a port close to Atlanta.

• 
  Already seen in Baltimore.
• About the size of a hand, with body an inch long and leg span up to four inches.
• Does not fly according to one report, but CBS says this is a venomous flying (with the wind) spider that eats butterflies.
• Does not harm vegetation.
• Becomes food for birds, with eggs a snack for racoons.
• NOT a risk to humans or pets.  Pain is somewhere between a bee sting and mosquito bite.
• 
  The gypsy (or spongy) moth was brought to Massachusetts in 1868 by French scientist Etienne Troubelot.
• He wanted to have a hardier silk-spinning caterpillar.

• 
  Well, it is now a major pest of hardwood trees, especially oak.
• Since 1980, this moth has defoliated over one million acres of forest areas/year.
• Cost?  Almost a billion dollars annually.

• 
  Did you know that the U.S. had a Locust (also called Grasshopper) Plague in 1874?
• Hordes of Rocky Mountain locusts invaded the Great Plains of the the U.S. and Canada.

• 
  Nearly 13 trillion locusts swarmed over 2 million square miles, causing considerable damage.
• Swarms covered the sun for up to six hours.

• 
  Locusts piled up to over a foot high and ate vegetation, wool off sheep and pitchfork handles.
• Excrement polluted ponds, streams and water supplies.
• Trains lost traction on tracks.
• President Ulysses Grant provided some financial relief and seeds.
• 
  That was not it, for 3.5 trillion locusts returned in 1875, the plague was troublesome for much of the 1870s.
• Supposedly, were not poisonous and would have been nutritious as oysters.
• Watch this video.

Did you know that there is such a concept as Entomological Warfare?

• Won't say much, but you go that Wikipedia site above.
• Anyway, insects are use to interrupt supply lines by damaging drops or harm troops/populations.
• Japan used this warfare against the Chinese in World War II.
• Under the Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention of 1972, use of insects to administer agents or toxins for hostile purposes is deemed to be against international law.

To close, here is an accounting of invasive species to the USA.

• 39% of U.S. forests are impacted by invasive plants.
• Hawaii, the most isolated of any spot in the U.S., has the highest rate of forest infestations in the country, 70%.

-