Happy Tequila Day! Please share with a caterpillar.

How I missed Tequila Day this past Thursday, July 24th I will never know. I bet most people missed it, too - but don't fret - the National Tequila Fair is held every year from November 30th to December 12th in Tequila, Mexico. Among rodeos, cockfights and fireworks, people celebrate the drink distilled from the sap of a particular variety of agave plant.  Although my attendance at the fair is about as likely as emptying a bottle of the "good stuff" by the time the fair rolls around I can still appreciate one aspect of the biology behind some of the other creatures that also love agave - predistilled, of course.

Mezcal is actually the name of tequila (the drink) anywhere outside of Tequila (the town). Both are made from agave, a large succulent plant native to North America. A moth (from the Order Lepidoptera) named Hypopta agavis lays its eggs on the leaves of the agave (perhaps also attracted to the large, fragrant blooms of the agave?). Soon those eggs hatch and a little caterpillar starts to dine on the fleshy innards of the leaves and roots. When its time to fire up the still, the agave is harvested along with the caterpillars. These are the little guys you find sunk in the bottles of mezcal. They are edible to the adventurous drinker or, more realistically to those who have made it to the bottom of a mezcal bottle.

The other "worm" less commonly found in bottles is from the Order Coleoptera, or beetles. The larva of Scyphophorus acupunctatus is a more serious pest than our moth friend but is apparently tastier BEFORE it is dropped in the liquor bottle. So if you're at the National Tequila Fair and ask for la reserva especialmente de mezcal you may just get a side of snout beetle larvae with your margarita.