The Latest Wildlife Find

You never know where you might find interesting wildlife in Madagascar. It could be deep in a rain forest. It could be in a palm tree. The beach. On the porch maybe. Or you might find some wildlife in your soup.

While enjoying a bowl of curry coconut soup, my wife Cindy said, "What are all the black spices? They're tasty. Is it pepper?" Now I made the soup, so I know what all I put in it. There were a lot of ingredients, but black pepper wasn't one of them. The little black bits floated, so Cindy had been gleefully skimming them up with each spoonful. Our roommate, Swanni, and I looked at our bowls. We too had some non-existent black pepper floating on top of our creamy yellow soup. Then Cindy, as she was just about to slurp another delicious spoonful, saw something out of the corner of her eye, "I think the spice has wings!" 

Well, she is a doctor, so we all had a closer look. After taking a few photos, we all agreed the "black pepper" did indeed have wings...as well as six legs and a pair of coconut-coated antennae. 

Then we did the only thing a doctor, a soon-to-be doctor and a science teacher could do; we investigated and contemplated where the creatures came from...as we finished our soup and had some seconds. 

Our conclusion? We believe the creatures to be weevils who were living inside of the peanut-like beans I used for the soup. I cleaned the beans before I cooked them and they seemed fine. But bean weevils like to live their entire lives in or on a single bean. The eggs are laid on a bean and then the larva chew their way in and spend the rest of their life in their comfy little bean home.

Sadly, during the cooking the weevils crawled out and met their unfortunate curried fate. 

Photo 1: A delicious bowl of creamy coconut curry soup a la bean weevil.

Photo 2: The green things are thyme leaves. The black things...well, aren't.

Photo 3: Note the wings and legs on the "black pepper".