Naturalist Newsletter: Sep 19/ Bones in Pigs' Feet

[Rob]

JIM CONRAD’S NATURALIST NEWSLETTER
Issued from Hacienda Chichén beside the Maya ruin of
Chichén Itzá in the central Yucatán, MÉXICO

September 19, 2010

*****

BONES IN PIGS' FEET
As a very fat kid on the Kentucky farm back in the
l950s I always got excited when my mother brought home
a jar of pickled pig feet. Anyone seeing how I
devoured them then wouldn't have imagined that I'd
spend the adult part of my life as a vegetarian. So, I
had conflicting feelings last weekend during my bike
ride south of Pisté when I entered the municipal
garbage dump to snoop around for interesting fugitive
plants, and saw that someone had dropped quite a few
chopped-off pig feet all along the entrance road.

Black Vultures clustered around every severed foot
pecking, stabbing and tugging. Most feet by now
consisted of nothing but bones and a little hairy hide
and flakes of brittle hoof. It was the bones that got
my attention. I remembered how during horse evolution
each foot lost four toes, so that now nothing remains
inside a horse's hoof except a much enlarged middle
toe. Horses and their relatives run on the tips of
their feet's single toe bones -- a condition
zoologists refer to as having "mesaxonic" feet.

But the grizzly remains of pig feet on the road that
day clearly showed more than one big toe inside each
hoof. If you can bear to look at the vulture-pecked
remains of a pig foot, you can see what I saw at
http://www.backyardnature.net/n/10/100919pg.jpg

It almost looks like the remains of a human hand
daintily closing its fingertips around something
small.

It turns out that the evolution of the feet of pigs
and horses took very different paths. Instead of pigs
having mesaxonic feet, they have paraxonic ones. That
means that instead of losing all but the middle digit,
which then became much larger, pig feet lost their
"big toe" completely, but kept the remaining four, and
of those four the two middle toes developed to be much
larger than the two side toes. Besides pigs, deer,
bison and elk have paraxonic feet.

So, in the picture, the two top sets of bones are the
large toes while the lower one is one of the small
toes, the other small toe being hidden, or maybe
vulturized. Henderson State University in Arkadelphia,
Arkansas hosts a well illustrated webpage focusing on
evolutionary adaptations of bones in mammalian feet at
http://www.hsu.edu/content.aspx?id=5290

I ate my last pickled pig's foot many years ago, but
it seems as if I don't remember having bones left
after finishing off a jar of them. (After eating my
first artichoke I didn't have anything left over,
either... ) Trying to remember whether I ate the
bones, which must have been soft and crumbly, I asked
my Maya friend who goes by the name of Cancún if
people around here eat pig's feet, and, if they do,
whether the bones are soft.

He replied that if the pigs are "cochinas americanas,"
meaning pigs raised in pens and fed special food so
that they grow fast and are killed after only about
six months, the foot bones are fairly soft. However,
if they are "cochinas Mayas," who roam around and eat
squash, roots and what's left over from people's
meals, they're killed only after several years, and
then their foot bones are hard.

That's interesting, but I'm still left wondering
whether back in the 1950s after eating a jar of
pickled pig's feet I had any bones left over, or at
least should have had.

*****

AMAZING CATERPILLAR PICTURE
Victoria Ciau of the Yucatán was touring Chichén Itzá
ruins when she spotted the remarkable thing shown at
http://www.backyardnature.net/n/10/100919cp.jpg

Vicki sent the picture to her friend Susan in Chuburná
Puerto, Yucatán, and Susan, a Newsletter reader, sent
it on to me. I relayed the picture to Dr. Terrence
Fitzgerald, a specialist in social caterpillars at the
Cortland campus of the State University of New York,
and he responded:

"This is a Papilio, most likely Heraclides (Papilio)
anchisiades idaeus. It would appear to be in the
second to last instar in a molting aggregation. I have
not seen this species in the field but judging by the
way they aggregate, it may be a processionary... the
caterpillars following each other head to tail."

The butterfly PAPILIO ANCHISIADES IDAEUS is known as
the Ruby-spotted Swallowtail, a pretty, black species
with large, red spots on the hindwing. I think I've
seen them here but haven't photographed them. Several
photos, plus caterpillars in other instars, appear at
http://www.mariposasmexicanas.com/papilio_heraclides_anchisiades_idaeus.htm

Why might caterpillars aggregate in this fashion?
Several reasons can be thought of, including being
part of a collective or cooperative foraging behavior,
and thermoregulation, but in this case I'd guess that
aggregation mainly serves for group defense against
predators and parasites. The number of caterpillars
might dissuade some predators, and the pattern created
by the massed bodies might confuse others.

Thanks to Vicki Ciau for sharing her picture with us,
to Susan for sending it to us, and to Dr. Fitzgerald
for the identification.

You can see Dr. Fitzgerald's interesting, website (soon
to host our picture) about social caterpillars at
http://web.cortland.edu/fitzgerald/

*****

FANTASTIC SKIPPER
Skippers are members of a family of thick bodied, big
headed, stubby winged, fast-flying butterflies that
for the most part are dark and void of bright colors
and striking patterns. A skipper not fitting that
profile at all -- the undersides of its hindwings
shining ivory white to silver with veins outlined in
reddish brown -- is making its rounds here these days.
You can see how prettily it's decked out at
http://www.backyardnature.net/n/10/100919sk.jpg

Volunteer insect identifier Bea in Ontario pegs this
as the Fantastic Skipper, VETTIUS FANTASOS, a member
of the Grass Skipper Subfamily (Hesperiinae) of the
Skipper Family (Hesperiidae).

It's clear why we have so many here. The species'
adults take nectar from Bougainvillea, morning glories
and Yellow Oleanders -- all growing here in abundance.
The caterpillars feed on grasses, especially the genus
Lasiacis, which is a black-grained, woody, climbing
grass also very common here. Since the species is
distributed from northern Mexico (rarely straying into
Texas' lower Rio Grande Valley) through Central
America to Paraguay in South America, it could hardly
not be here.

*****

WILD FRANGIPANI
The Frangipani page is one of the most visited pages
of the Mexican Flora section of my backyard-nature
website. That's because Frangipani flowers are
gorgeous and when I was among the Tzotzil speakers of
the community 28 de Junio, Chiapas in 2008 I helped
the villagers prepare for an important celebration by
stringing together Frangipani flowers into garlands,
and got some fine pictures. You can see that page at
http://www.backyardnature.net/mexnat/frangipa.htm

Frangipanis are members of the genus Plumeria, and
several species are involved. The most-planted
Plumeria species, with flowers ranging in color from
white to red, and planted in the tropics worldwide, is
Plumeria rubra, native to the West Indies.

However, on my bike ride last week south of Pisté I
passed by several fruiting Frangipanis apparently well
established in the forest. I'm thinking they must be
PLUMERIA OBTUSA, native to the Greater Antilles,
northern Central America and southern Mexico,
including here. It grows to about 25 feet tall (8 m).
You can see its green, upside-down-V-shaped fruits at
http://www.backyardnature.net/n/10/100919pl.jpg

*****

ANGEL HAIR CALLIANDRAS
At forest edges along roads a small, acacia-like tree
is flowering in the interesting manner shown at
http://www.backyardnature.net/n/10/100919mm.jpg

Of course the droopy white things are stamens, and
even fairly early in the morning when you might expect
them to be more perky they dangle like that. I had to
see numerous trees at different times of the day to
convince myself that this is the flowers' normal
condition. A close-up showing filaments flowing en
masse from tiny, green corollas crammed into a head is
at http://www.backyardnature.net/n/10/100919mn.jpg

The tree's bipinnate leaves are shown at
http://www.backyardnature.net/n/10/100919mo.jpg

In much of Mexico this little tree is known as
"Cabello de Ángel," which means "Angel Hair." It's a
member of the Bean Family genus Calliandra, probably
CALLIANDRA CAPILLATA, distributed across lowland
southern Mexico into Guatemala.

That genus name, Calliandra, nicely describes the
various species it includes, for the "calli" is from
ancient Greek meaning "beautiful," while "andra"
refers to the flowers' stamens -- "beautiful stamens."
You might remember the pretty Calliandra we met in
Chiapas in 2007 with many red, stiff, slender stamens.
For comparison you can see that one at
http://www.backyardnature.net/chiapas/calliandr.htm

*****

TROPICAL GRAPES FLOWERING
Last November in these parts a very common liana, or
woody vine, was bearing clusters of grapelike, purple
fruits. The lianas in question were members of the genus
Cissus, in the Grape Family, the Vitaceae. "Real"
grapes are in the genus Vitis, so somewhat arbitrarily
I call Cissus species "tropical grapes."

With about six species of Cissus listed for this area,
and not having flowers to work with, I've been
hesitant to say which species we have. Now at least
two species are flowering and I find that it's still
hard to name them.

One species, with hand-sized, red flower clusters, or
inflorescences, showing up brightly against dark-green
forest backgrounds bears simple (not compound), very
variable-shaped leaves. A flowering branch is shown at
http://www.backyardnature.net/n/10/100919cs.jpg

An interesting close-up of some flowers that already
have lost their four petals and four stamens, leaving
only developing ovaries submersed beneath shiny
droplets of nectar, with slender, stigma-bearing
styles poking up through the nectar, is shown at
http://www.backyardnature.net/n/10/100919ct.jpg

From very scant information and limited images on the
Internet, I'm guessing that this is CISSUS
GOSSYPIIFOLIA, sometimes named C. formosa.

A second Cissus species, this one with trifoliate
leaves and yellowish inflorescences, is shown at
http://www.backyardnature.net/n/10/100919cu.jpg

A close-up of this species' flowers, this time with a
blossom bearing four turned-back, yellow petals and
four anther-bearing stamens, with no nectar globule,
is at http://www.backyardnature.net/n/10/100919cv.jpg

I'm guessing that this is CISSUS ALATA, sometimes
listed as C. rhombifolia.

Really I hadn't realized that Cissus blossoms are so
pretty and interesting. To discover this, first I had
to get so blind that I could no longer focus up close
or use my hand lens well, and thus had to photograph
small things and see them on my laptop screen!

*****

WHITE FOUR-O'CLOCKS FLOWERING
Here and there in moist, shaded spots at woods edges
and along trails there's a lanky, waist-high herb with
slender, white, four-inch-long (10 cm) blossoms that
open at dusk and wither the following dawn, just like
Northern garden Four-O'Clocks. In fact, the herbage is
very similar to that of normal Four-O'Clocks, and the
flowers have similar structure, except that they're
longer, narrower, and white. Since Northern garden
Four-O'Clocks, Mirabilis jalapa, are native to Mexico,
the first thing I figured that this fragile-looking
wildflower might be a different species of the genus
Mirabilis. See what you think in the picture shown at
http://www.backyardnature.net/n/10/100919mi.jpg

A closer look at the flower better showing the
stamens' purplish, remarkably curling filaments is at
http://www.backyardnature.net/n/10/100919mj.jpg

This is indeed a different species of the four-o'clock
genus Mirabilis. It's MIRABILIS LONGIFLORA.
Distribution accounts I find say that it's native to
much of Mexico and a little of the contiguous US, but
not to the Yucatán. Apparently it's been introduced
into Europe where it escapes into the wild, so maybe
years ago it was grown in our garden area and now is
escaping here. Or maybe it's also native to the
Yucatán, just never noticed by botanists.

The stamens' purplish filaments seen in other pictures
of this species on the Internet don't curl -- often
they stiffly jut straight out. Maybe our stamens are
curling because by the time I had enough morning light
to photograph it the flower already was fading. You
can see the corolla's curling-in edges, so maybe the
curling filaments were just following suit.

This tuberous species should be planted in northern
gardens where they'd blossom on late summer nights,
issuing sweet fragrance and making night-pollinating
moths very happy. I read that it's deer and snail
resistant.

*****

HOCTÚN'S CHURCH
Last Monday my long-enduring visa saga took me to
Mérida again so once more I found myself on a rumbling
Oriente bus heading west, stopping at all the little
towns along the way, Holca, Kantunil, Xocchel... nice
little places, so much color, so many random
juxtapositions of incongruous elements, lush
vegetation, scroungy dogs and smiling faces.

Several towns along the route are home to colonial
churches that seem far too large for such small
places. I've been told that usually such big churches
mark centers which once served to "concentrate" the
Maya, so the clergy and Spanish-blooded landlords
could easier control them.

Hoctún, with about 4700 inhabitants, of which a third
are children, has one of the largest churches. You can
see it in a picture taken through the bus window at
http://www.backyardnature.net/n/10/100919ho.jpg

The earliest mention I can find of something happening
specifically to the people of Hoctún was dated 1722,
when the lady Doña Angela de la Fleguera Castillo was
granted, under conditions of the Encomienda System,
269 Maya citizens of Hoctún.

With such a big church I thought that maybe Hoctún had
served as an especially important concentration
center, but I couldn't find reference to such an
event, if it existed. However, in Terry Rugeley's 1996
book "Yucatán's Maya Peasantry and the Origins of the
Caste War," with most pages online via Google Books,
there's a revealing story about an event in Hoctún in
1829, eight years after both Mexico gained
independence from Spain, and the independent entity of
Yucatán joined the Mexican Republic.

In 1829 the Yucatán had been divided into parishes.
The home office of Hoctún Parish surely was the church
in the picture. That year some Maya farmers needed new
pastureland so they sent out scouts, who found good
land in adjacent Cacalchén Parish. Wanting to proceed
legally, they applied to Cacalchén's authorities for
permission to relocate there, and permission was
granted. Since in those days the Maya were obliged to
work for the creole population -- creoles in this case
being people born in Mexico but mostly of Spanish
blood -- the Maya who moved onto the new land
transferred their "fagina" (or fajina, pronounced fa-
HEE-na) obligations to their new parish. The Church-
sanctioned fagina was a set of obligations each Maya
worker was forced to fulfill for their creole
overlords.

When Raymundo Pérez, priest of Hoctún, got wind of the
situation, he wrote to the bishop asking that the
peasants be restored to his own jurisdiction and his
own tax rolls. The Church sided with Pérez, who'd
argued that if Maya peasants could go where they
wanted it would constitute a fundamental threat to
Church/creole authority and the tax base. Pérez's
argument had been based solely on issues of power and
money, with no reference to the welfare of the Maya.

*****

Best wishes to all Newsletter Readers.

Jim

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