The first email came on 25 December 2014 from my collaborator, Dr. KD Prathapan of Kerala Agricultural University, India. He and his students had found that week a large healthy population of Javeta pallida, an Indian endemic species, on indigenous wild date palms. Over the course of this year, we collaborated by mail to document the life cycle, behavior, and damage to palms (dessication of leaves by mining). The project was really interesting to me as it provided insights into local cultural practices about the raw Indian sugar, jaggery, and a local alcohol, toddy, that is made from the sap. My Indian collaborators were also enthused as it was an opportunity to travel around and collect information on these practices and assess the damage of this beetle to the local palm tree as well as its potential to expand its host range to the introduced crop, date palm. I will celebrate today’s submission of our large and beautiful paper, the first natural history account of J. pallida, over a cup of chai tea, sweetened with jaggery that I bought at an Indian grocery in Kansas City. I agree fully with Prathapan’s message today, “I never thought it would be such a wonderful learning experience, from literature to culture and religion.”
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