Moths Drink the Tears of Sleeping Birds by annacomposer published on 2015-11-29T22:04:21Z Premiered by Montreal’s Quatuor Bozzini on 14th Nov., 2015. Co-presented by Blue Moss Ensemble and the Music Gallery with the support of the Ontario Arts Council. Program Note: Scientists have recently revealed that a species of moth in the Kirindy forest of Madagascar drinks tears from the eyes of birds. Birds can usually fly away from these predators, but not while sleeping. The Madagascan moths were observed on the necks of sleeping magpie robins and Newtonia birds, with the tip of their proboscises inserted under the bird’s eyelid, drinking avidly. Sleeping birds have two eyelids, both closed. So instead of the soft, straw-like mouthparts found on tear-drinking moths elsewhere, the Madagascan moth has a proboscis “shaped like an ancient harpoon,” with hooks and barbs. It is inserted under the eyelid where the barbs are used to anchor it in place. The team does not yet know whether the insect spits out an anaesthetic to dull the irritation. They also want to investigate whether, like their counterparts elsewhere, the Madagascan tear-drinkers are all males who get most of their nutrition from the tears. (Deborah MacKenzie) Genre string quartet Comment by Christian-Arthur Hâas Very nice 2018-03-24T17:49:06Z Comment by Myckael Marcovic On dirait le chant des baleines ! 2017-04-16T10:34:08Z Comment by WalkingEars Great work I enjoyed this a lot! Cool ambient style and a sort of haunting sparse mood. Tense but also quite lovely. 2017-04-14T17:37:37Z Comment by WalkingEars Wow really interesting effect, nice unique use of the instruments to create an almost electronic-sounding drone 2017-04-14T17:25:29Z Comment by Christopher Larkins | Composer Very original and impressive work. For whatever reason, the music really brings moth imagery to mind. 2017-04-14T15:12:27Z Comment by Composer Luc Martin Like the mix of sounds and the sulpontacello mix here 2017-02-21T01:56:14Z Comment by Maurizio Carrettin - CmSynStudio great !!!! 2016-07-30T17:37:46Z Comment by Sun Murchison ?? 2016-03-24T02:11:31Z Comment by Lionel Benancie +++ :) 2016-02-05T15:12:16Z