Back from Hawaii and starting to engage the world again, I thought I’d share this crazy tidbit: the upper elevations of Hawaii’s Haleakalā volcano are almost completely barren of plant life, as the arid soil is constantly baked by the sun. Yet in the crevices between the volcanic rock live a range of endemic insects, such as a moth that through evolution has lost its ability to fly. With almost no plants to dine on, it survives during its pupal stage on a diet consisting solely of organic debris blown up from shore by the wind. Damn.