Soap Box, page-425

Convergent Evolution
- and the tale of the hummingbird and the hummingbird hawk-moth

When i first saw one of these magnificent little beasts supping jasmine nector on my verandah i was startled.

What the flying flock.... is that??!!
There are no hummingbirds in SE Asia - not for about a million miles in fact!!

But there it was, right in front of my eyes >> a moth doing a perfect replication of a bird. A hummingbird, no less.

Convergent evolution is a fascinating dynamic in biology whereby animals (birds/insects/everything) from totally different epochs, from totally different taxonomies, and who have very different brains >> end up in the same place (ecologicaly, if not the same actual locations), eating the same food, and looking very much like each other.

We all come to ECS with different backgrounds, via different pathways and with a wide range of very different brains.

We are all here for different sets of reasons - and reasonings - but we have all "converged" right here in the same place. We all want the same thing... nector from the same beautiful flower. all of us here together.

Biology - ain't it great!!
https://youtu.be/Jjbr6lhI-Yg?si=m_M_3mPhkBN5ovRY

( 'still havnt worked out if Ambo is the bird and i am the moth - or visa versa)