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Science Quickly

For Halloween, Consider the Chocolate Midge

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.2639 Ratings

🗓️ 31 October 2018

⏱️ 3 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A tiny fly, related to biting no-see-ums, pollinates cacao trees and enables our chocolate cravings. Christopher Intagliata reports.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in.

0:05.8

Researchers at Yachtolt have been delving into the secrets of probiotics for 90 years.

0:11.0

Yacold also partners with nature portfolio to advance gut microbiome science through the global grants for gut health, an investigator-led research program.

0:19.6

To learn more about Yachtolt, visit yawcp.co.j.jot.com.j. That's Y-A-K-U-L-T-C-O-J-P.

0:28.4

When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacolt.

0:33.7

This is Scientific American's 60-second science. I'm Christopher in Taliatta.

0:39.0

As you unwrap a Halloween candy or two, it's worth paying your respects to the real reason for many of the treats.

0:46.0

A tiny fly whose trick is to make chocolate possible.

0:49.7

They're all in the family, Ceratapagana Day, which are the biting midges family, but not all of the

0:54.9

adults bite. How we usually do it is we call them Sarats. Erica McAllister is a fly scientist at the

1:01.6

Natural History Museum of London and author of The Secret Life of Flies. The Cerrats, as she calls them,

1:07.6

related to noceums, do a job that's very hard to get done by hand.

1:11.9

They crawl through long, twisty cacao flowers pollinating the stubborn cacao tree,

1:16.9

which produces the beans used to make chocolate.

1:19.3

They are really, really difficult to pollinate.

1:22.4

Now, you do need these little things to do it.

1:24.7

And to McAllister, at least, the tiny midges are a beautiful sight to behold.

1:29.4

They look like a very tiny mosquito, but they are basically absolutely covered in hair.

1:35.8

They're very beautiful, very her suit, little organisms.

1:39.7

And the males have got the most, they look like feather dusty antennas, because he has to not only

1:45.9

smell for the female, he's listening, and his ears are on the antennae. They're not very

1:51.1

robust, these things. They're tiny, as their name applies. And they've got nice external

...

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