Moths: Myths and mysteries of stress resistance

A cabbage looper's job, in many respects not unlike our own, is to survive its early developmental period and grow up healthy, metamorphose into an adult moth, and beget the next generation of loopers. Given its numerous predators, exposure to the continuous barrage of toxic physical, chemical and biological agents delivered by humans in an effort to eradicate it, as well as nature's own hazards, such as the ultraviolet component of sunlight and hazardous natural chemicals in plants that serve to deter ingestion by the looper, it is not difficult to view the looper as a highly stressed organism. However, the looper and its lepidopteran ancestors have been quite successful at resisting such hazards since the Mesozoic Era. The purpose of this brief review will be to examine Some of the potential mechanisms by which the looper and its relatives have been able to be so successful over these past 200 million years.