Delicious stewed chicken soup with cabbage. After drinking a few mouthfuls, I found a cooked diamo
Delicious stewed chicken soup with cabbage. After drinking a few mouthfuls, I found a cooked diamondback moth larva floating in the soup. The author provides that "vegetable bug tragedy" will occasionally happen at the dinner table. Although all the vegetables bought in the market take the time to check for bugs, they are carefully cleaned layer by layer when washing vegetables, but they are not necessarily clean. Sometimes the worms don't cook together until the hot dishes are served.
In addition to collapse, you may wonder: Why are bugs on vegetable leaves always so difficult to remove? Wasn't washing vegetables thorough enough?
A plate of hot sweet potato leaves served in the noodle restaurant was almost eaten before it was found that there were two inchworm larvae on the plate. In fact, most plants in the world are the food of certain herbivorous insects, and since the development of agriculture, there have been pests. Although chemically synthesized pesticides can inhibit pests, the result of long-term dependence on pesticides is that some pests gradually develop drug resistance and become more difficult to deal with. Therefore, vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower and Chinese cabbage, which are common in the market, often have insects hidden in them after harvest, although pesticides are applied during planting.
Familiar faces in vegetables, also known as "vegetable worms", are mostly LEPIDOPTERA insect larvae, also known as "caterpillars". Such as Plutella xylostella, Spodoptera pilosa, or some Noctuidae larvae. Compared with other common herbivorous insects, this kind of larva has been attached to the surface of plants for a long time, and it is easier to be brought indoors with the purchased vegetables. Coupled with special habits, it is not easy to be washed away by water when washing vegetables.
What characteristics make them inseparable from vegetables?
Lepidoptera filariasis larvae are laid under the feet and always rotate when crawling. The existence of these silk threads can make them not easy to fall off from plants. Have you noticed the way the caterpillar "shakes its head" when it crawls? Generally, that kind of action is to spin silk while climbing.
Silk is a secretion produced by glands in the body, which is mainly composed of protein. It is originally a liquid, but when it comes into contact with air, it becomes a solid and adheres to the surface of an object.
Lepidoptera larvae have a non-segmented structure in the abdomen, which is called "Gastropoda" (Protopoda), that is, fleshy short feet, which are normal moving organs. Different species of larvae have different shapes and arrangements of gastropods, and most species of larvae have 5, 2 or 3 pairs of gastropods.
When the larva walks, it will continuously spit silk out of its mouth and then step on the silk-coated path. The silk thread can cooperate with the special structure under the abdomen foot, so that the larvae can hold the plant tightly.
Another function of silk is to form a protective cocoon. Some species of larvae will form cocoons on the surface of plants before pupation. Cocoons made of silk are wrapped around the pupa and closely attached to the surface of plants, which are not easy to fall off due to external forces.
The cocoons of washed cabbage and diamondback moth are still firmly attached to the surface of leaves. The author stipulates that the self-provided powerful magic carpet larvae should be firmly attached to plants, not only coated with silk at the trampled place under their feet, but also with a structure that can firmly grasp the silk to cooperate. Under the larva's ventral foot, there are tiny hook structures that can help the larva climb. These structures are called "protopod hooks" (gastropod hooks).
Except for some groups, Lepidoptera larvae generally have at least dozens of protopods at the foot of each abdomen. These mini hooks are slightly curved, and most of them are arranged under the original foot in a ring shape. When the larva walks, the front claw hook can hook the rough surface or fiber contacted by gastropods.
Have you ever raised young silkworms (larvae of silkworms)? Every time you catch a silkworm baby, is there resistance, and even the worm is often pulled up by the thread? This is why the original foot hook caught the silk thread.
Even if you encounter smooth plant stems and leaves or objects, you can safely climb on them as long as the surface is covered with a layer of silk made of larvae. In some species of larvae, the protruding hooks can even pierce the surface tissues of plants, making the worms firmly attached.
In short, the original foot hook is like the prickly surface (hook surface) of magic felt, and silk is like the rough surface (wool surface) of magic felt. Therefore, when the caterpillar crawls on the plant, it is not easy to fall off, but also can crawl on the surface at various angles. And when we shake hard and water the vegetables and try to pick out the bugs, it becomes a very troublesome thing.
Abdominal feet of silkworm larvae. Take silkworm as an example to show the hooked appearance of LEPIDOPTERA. Do you see the tiny hook structure at the end of gastropods? The author provides gastropods of Lycopodiaceae larvae. This is a crawling larva of Lycopodiaceae. You can see that the original foot hook is grasping the surface of the plant. Are the dishes provided by the author with insects natural and healthy? In addition to the special abilities of caterpillars, the uneven surface of vegetables, wrinkles or pores that can be drilled and so on. , more or less will increase the difficulty of cleaning. So don't be too surprised if you find a small amount of insect residue on the leaves of vegetables after washing.
In addition, it seems that many people think that there are insects on vegetables, which means "there is no pesticide residue, so you can eat it safely." In fact, this is not correct. As mentioned earlier, because many vegetable pests are resistant to drugs, even spraying drugs may not kill them. What's more, there is no universal pesticide in the world. Whether there are insects or not is not necessarily related to whether there are pesticide residues. On the contrary, the wounds formed by insect bites on fruits and vegetables may be further infected by microorganisms such as fungi. It is safer to remove it. If you also mistakenly think that food with insects is healthier, please abandon that wrong and outdated concept!