I Said It Was Interesting, I Didn't Say It Was Dinner Conversation

This evening one of my friends forwarded me a video about sloths. I can't say this was a topic I have ever given any great consideration before, so I was quite intrigued to learn that sloths have great quantities of algae growing in their fur. That in itself seems like a habit worthy of remark, but I was positively delighted to learn that, better still, they have. . .moths. There are several species of Pyralid that spend most of their adult lives comfortably living in the fur of the sloth.

When the sloths descend from the trees to defecate, the female moths lay eggs in the dung. The caterpillars which hatch are thus quite happily placed, as they are coprophagus. Some theories, like that shown in this summary from the Royal Society posit that the sloths benefit equally from this relationship, as the sloths with more moths also seem to have more algae in their fur and the algae may, in turn provide a source of extra nourishment to the sloth.

Whatever the truth of it, I'm just really excited about the moths. And also rather disappointed that Brits don't pronounce sloth to rhyme with moth, as the whole business might otherwise be an instant worldwide classic, rather less hectic than a cat in a hat.