Knowing the Land of Israel part 3: Discovering little wonders in Ashkelon National Park

Israel is an ancient land. In terms of human habitation, our homeland is one of the oldest places on our planet. The roots of history in this place reach back into distant antiquity, with city built on top of city and with civilization built on top of civilization. Nowhere in Israel is this more apparent than in the city of Ashkelon.

The modern city of Ashkelon is special in and of itself, a symbol of Israeli resilience, growing and developing at a fast pace even by Israeli standards, steadfast and undeterred by the decades of missile attacks it has endured. What’s particularly remarkable about this place, however, is the large, mysterious hill rising up from the southern edge of the city, known nowadays as Ashkelon National Park.

Ashkelon was founded as a Neolithic settlement around 5,880 BCE, making it one of the oldest inhabited cities on Earth. Since then, this influential port, near the southern coastal border of both ancient and modern Israel, has changed hands among the Canaanites, Philistines, Israelites, Byzantines, Arabs, Turks, and more. Much like Jerusalem, each time Ashkelon was destroyed, it was eventually rebuilt. In Ashkelon’s case, however, for thousands of years this slowly resulted in the creation of the massive hill, literally made of the rubble of our history. It is upon this hill that Ashkelon National Park sits today.

Walk around on this giant hill (known as a “tel” in archaeological terms), and you will find thousands of years’ worth of ruins to explore. Head down to the beach and view the giant marble pillars and bricks of ancient Ashkelon slowly crumbling into the surf, monuments to ancient civilizations left abandoned, like something out of Planet of the Apes.

The park has a curated green area where visitors can have picnics and barbeques while looking over the cliffs at the glimmering blue sea below. What could add more to the taste of a barbeque than sitting on a manicured patch of grass with your family and watching the remnants of ancient civilizations and bygone eras succumbing to the march of time and slowly dissolving into the waves?

In all seriousness, however, it’s not just human history that this area preserves. Ashkelon National Park and the land south of it, leading to the Gaza border, is one of the last undeveloped areas where you can still find the southeast Mediterranean coastal sand dune ecosystem. This unique climate, which intergrades between the desert beaches of Sinai and the more classic Mediterranean beaches farther north, hosts a unique collection of remarkable animals and plants. These creatures have called this place home since before the first Canaanites set up camp on the Ashkelon beach so many millennia ago.

Butterfly mind control

Being a caterpillar is hard. Caterpillars are slow-moving, soft, and mostly defenseless – vulnerable to any predator that happens to find them. Walking through Ashkelon National Park, you might notice little green caterpillars being swarmed by ants and assume that these little guys are about to meet an untimely end. As is often the case in Ashkelon National Park, however, there’s a lot more going on than meets the eye.

These caterpillars, the immature form of a family of little shiny blue butterflies called Lycaenids, have found a way to convince ants to protect them. While the hills around Jerusalem also have Lycaenids, the genus commonly found around Ashkelon, Tarucus, is particularly majestic. The adults have wings that are pearly white with black splotches on the underside, and they open to reveal iridescent blue. Yet as dull-green caterpillars, they’re even more impressive.

This caterpillar, completely unlike the caterpillars of most butterflies, has the ability to produce a sweet, honey-like nectar. When it detects the presence of ants, the caterpillar begins secreting this nectar from pores in its back, which the ants harvest and drink. The ants, in turn, protect their valuable supplier from other predatory insects, similar to how shepherds collect milk from their sheep and, in turn, protect them from wolves and lions. Unlike shepherds and sheep, however, this symbiotic relationship has a sinister undertone.

A study published in ScienceDirect (Hojo et al., 2015) suggests that the chemical content within Lycaenid caterpillars' “nectar” has mind-control effects on ants. Specifically, drinking the nectar reduces motor activity in the ants and alters their dopamine levels, making them both less physically able to leave their caterpillar and more willing to stay. Additionally, there are signs that the nectar makes the ants more aggressive, compelling them to attack any potential threat instead of running away. In the micro-world of insects in Ashkelon National Park, the shepherd is led by the sheep.

Catching water

Walk the sandy trails that wind around the dunes of Ashkelon National Park, and you might see a little black beetle – a darkling beetle in the genus Pimelia – scurry across your path, seemingly in a huge hurry to get to some destination. Despite their constant hurry, these little beetles possess a variety of fascinating adaptations that enable them to conserve time and energy, perfectly adapting to the intense heat of the Middle East.

These unique creatures have shells covered in numerous bumps and grooves. While this adaptation has the added benefit of making them a hard meal to swallow for birds, the main reason for the Pimelia’s texture is a miracle of bioengineering – moisture collection.

The bumps in this beetle’s shell are strategically placed to maximize surface area, allowing the Pimelia to capture any moisture that drifts in from the sea as dew. All the beetle has to do is stand exposed to the desert air at night, and its unique shape does the rest.

Once the dew forms, the shell’s grooves channel the water down the length of the insect, all the way to its mouth, allowing it to drink. In this way, the beetle can stay hydrated, even in the dry climate of the Middle East, without ever having to find water. With an innovation like that, Pimelia would fit right into our country’s bustling hi-tech scene, and what’s more Israeli than that?

Helicopter moths

You’re visiting Ashkelon Park in the early evening; the sun has just set, and the light is beginning to fade when suddenly something colorful zips over your head while making an almost-electric buzzing sound. No, it isn’t a helicopter or a drone (although in this part of the world, you’ll see plenty of those). Instead, what you’ve just seen, or at least glimpsed, is a giant sphinx moth.

While most flower-pollinating insects land on flowers in order to drink their nectar, doing so comes with a number of challenges. To begin with, the insect needs to stop flying in order to land on the flower, which exposes it to predators. Additionally, flowers are delicate, and landing on them requires precision and coordination. That’s fine if you’re an average-sized bug, but what if you’re a giant sphinx moth?

The solution? They’ve developed the ability to hover in place while drinking. The sphinx moth can beat its wings approximately 85 times per second while hovering to drink nectar from a flower, far faster than any hummingbird or bat.

Shaped like a fighter jet with aerodynamic, angled wings and flying over 55 km. per hour, the sphinx is already impressive, but that’s not all; this moth has one more trick up its sleeve. To get nectar out of the most difficult to reach flowers, this supercharged moth has developed an extra-long tongue, which in some species can reach up to 30 cm. (although our local Ashkelon sphinx moth has a tongue that’s slightly more modest). There are plenty of impressive moths and butterflies in the area around Ashkelon National Park, but the sphinx truly takes being a moth to a whole new level. If you happen to be outside at sunset, stop by a flowering plant and watch for a minute. You might just catch a glimpse of the illusive Ashkelon sphinx.

Contemplating our place in history

So, whether you want to contemplate the rise and fall of civilizations and your own place in human history or just have a pleasant barbeque with family and friends while looking out at a scenic view, I highly recommend checking out Ashkelon National Park. Who knows what strange wonders you might find there.■

Travel time from downtown Jerusalem (by car): 1 hour and 20 minutes

Accommodation: Organized campsites are available 

What to bring: Walking shoes, long pants, hat, water, sunblock, bathing suit, and food as needed

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