Thursday, September 17, 2020

Book Excerpt for the Day


    “These are about one day old.”  Peck points out a cluster of maggots, maybe twenty or thirty, feeding side by side, packed in close.  They’re easy to miss, because all that can be seen of them is their tail ends.  Insects take oxygen through openings in the exoskeleton called spiracles.  In the larvae, there are, specifically, anal spiracles.  On top of its other charms, the maggot breathes through its ass.  It is a handy evolutionary adaptation if, as Peck puts it, “you spend your whole day with your head buried in slimy dead flesh.



    (from Grunt by Mary Roach)

 

    9*/10.  The complete review is here.

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