The Knight and His Steed

The knight and his steed.

(© Nicolas Reusens)

A tropical capture in Costa Rica.

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The 2014 Sony World Photography Awards.

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Mantid Butt!

Honey… ?

(Chinese Mantid – Image credit: C. L. Goforth)

Does this make my butt look too big?

Thanks to C.L. Goforth for this and other amazing insect photos.

Check out her blog at The Dragonfly Woman!

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Mantidae is the largest family of the order Mantodea, commonly known as praying mantises; most are tropical or subtropical. Historically, this was the only family in the order, and many references still use the term “mantid” to refer to any mantis. Technically, however, “mantid” refers only to members of the Mantidae family, and not the 14 remaining families of mantises.

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This Summer in Science!

This summer is really hopping in terms of scientific research and discovery!!

From lab-grown burgers (talk about Frankenfood!) to lab-grown teeth to lab-grown ears… so far, this summer is tough to beat when it comes to uncovering scientific secrets! And it’s just the beginning of August!

(A tip of the yarmulke to Hashem AL-ghaili!)

Stem cells are front and centre. And a 33 brand new ant species join the League of Extraordinary Insects!

And a happy first anniversary to the Mars Curiosity Rover!

Well done, geeks and nerdlings!!

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10 Quintillion Bugs!?

Did you know, gentle reader, that there are approximately 10 quintillion bugs in the word?

(Cockroach adding to the surplus population)

That’s 10,000,000,000,000,000,000!

Although estimates vary, that’s about 200 million insects for every man, woman and child on earth!

(They’re everywhere!)

Not sure if that figure includes arachnids or not.

That’s a crapload of bugs, and no mistake.

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One-Third of U.S. Honeybee Colonies Died Last Winter, Threatening Food Supply

I thought this situation had gone away.

I guess it hasn’t.

Nearly one in three commercial honeybee colonies in the United States died or disappeared last winter, an unsustainable decline that threatens the nation’s food supply.

Multiple factors — pesticides, fungicides, parasites, viruses and malnutrition — are believed to cause the losses, which were officially announced today by a consortium of academic researchers, beekeepers and Department of Agriculture scientists.

“We’re getting closer and closer to the point where we don’t have enough bees in this country to meet pollination demands,” said entomologist Dennis van Engelstorp of the University of Maryland, who led the survey documenting the declines.

(Please don’t leave us!)

“Many entomologists and pest management professionals have been saying for years that there is no pest management justification for using these insecticides on virtually every crop grown in North America,” said Agricultural entomologist Christian Krupke of Purdue University. “Yet, the opposite trend is occurring.”

The honeybee catastrophe could also signal problems in other pollinator species, such as bumblebees and butterflies, that are not often studied.

“Thinking of honeybees as our canary in the coal mine, a monitor for environmental conditions, is very appropriate,” said entomologist Diana Cox-Foster at Pennsylvania State University. “With honeybee colonies, you have the ability to open them up and see what’s going on. There are many other species needed for pollination, but with most of those, we don’t have the ability to see what’s happening.”

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A year or two ago, I asked an entomologist friend of mine what he thought the reason was behind honeybee hive/colony collapse syndrome. He looked around, leaned in conspiratorially and whispered, “I think it’s the rapture… and the bees went first!” I love nerd humour! 🙂

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Now that’s a BIG bug!

We here in The Great White North have our ‘insect issues.’ Horse flies, black flies, mosquitoes, etc.

(Black flies – they’ll rip a chunk out of you when they bite)

But in other parts of the world, bugs take on an entirely new dimension.

(This kid is so blasé about the whole thing. Most kids I know would have a stroke) 

There’s big…

(How’d you like to find this in your sleeping bag?)

And then there’s BIG.

(You can’t be serious!)

As in effen HUGE!

(Honey? We may have an infestation problem!)

Nightmare-inducing enormous!

(This may not technically be a bug… but still… it’s scary!)

I don’t know how people live in places that have these kinds of things crawling around and not go insane.

(This spider eats mice and snakes!)

I mean really!

So the next time you’re kvetching about mosquitoes… thank goodness you live where these things don’t!

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Fossilized Creature named after Johnny Depp!

I have to hand it once again to the intrepid geeks and nerdlings over at ScienceDaily.com!

Actor Johnny Depp Immortalized in Name of Fossilized Creature With ‘Scissor Hand’ Claws

The article begins, “A scientist has discovered an ancient extinct creature with ‘scissor hand-like’ claws in fossil records and has named it in honour of his favourite movie star.”

The 505-million-year-old fossil called Kooteninchela deppi (pronounced Koo-ten-ee-che-la depp-eye), which is a distant ancestor of lobsters and scorpions, was named after the actor Johnny Depp for his starring role as Edward Scissorhands — a movie about an artificial man named Edward, an unfinished creation, who has scissors for hands.

(What a cutie. Just like its namesake!)

Kooteninchela deppi is helping researchers to piece together more information about life on Earth during the Cambrian period when nearly all modern animal types emerged.

David Legg, who carried out the research as part of his PhD in the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial College London, says:

“When I first saw the pair of isolated claws in the fossil records of this species I could not help but think of Edward Scissorhands. Even the genus name, Kootenichela, includes the reference to this film as ‘chela’ is Latin for claws or scissors. In truth, I am also a bit of a Depp fan and so what better way to honour the man than to immortalise him as an ancient creature that once roamed the sea?”

It lived in shallow seas off the coast of what is now British Columbia, Canada, although in those days, the area was closer to the equator.

It was approximately four centimetres long with a trunk for a body and millipede-like legs and large eyes which it used to search for food along the sea floor, according to research published in the Journal of Palaeontology.

The researcher believes that Kooteninchela deppi would have been a hunter or scavenger. Its large Edward Scissorhands-like claws with their elongated spines may have been used to capture prey, or they could have helped it to probe the sea floor looking for sea creatures hiding in sediment.

(Kooteninchela deppi – a distant relative of lobsters & scorpions)

It also had large eyes composed of many lenses like the compound eyes of a fly. They were positioned on top of movable stalks called peduncles to help it more easily search for food and look out for predators.

The researchers discovered that Kooteninchela deppi belongs to a group known as the ‘great-appendage’ arthropods, which includes spiders, scorpions, centipedes, millipedes, insects and crabs.

Mr Legg said: ‘Just imagine it – the prawns covered in mayonnaise in your sandwich, the spider climbing up your wall and even the fly that has been banging into your window and annoyingly flying into your face are all descendants of Kooteninchela deppi.’

‘Current estimates indicate that there are more than one million known insects and potentially 10 million more yet to be categorised, which potentially means that Kooteninchela deppi has a huge family tree.’

Legg now wants to study the fossils from the Ordovician period, when species diversity increased.

The research was published in the Journal of Palaeontology 2 May 2013.

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Journal Reference:

1. David Legg. Multi-Segmented Arthropods from the Middle Cambrian of British Columbia (Canada). Journal of Paleontology, 2013; 87 (3): 493 DOI: 10.1666/12-112.1

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The Spider, the Porcupine, the Lizard and the Bat

THE SPIDER, THE PORCUPINE, THE LIZARD AND THE BAT

by Lydia O’Donoghue

(Spider the size of a dinner plate… or your face)

Nature Box

Spiders, porcupines, lizards and bats. What could they possibly all have in common? Well according to a recent suite of published research, each of these animal groups has a new addition to their ranks.

Scientists working in Sri Lanka have described a new species of tarantula ‘as big as your face’, in the British Tarantula Society’s latest journal. The species has been named Poecilotheria rajaei, and is believed to belong to a group of arachnids known as tiger or parachute spiders. At almost 8 inches across, it is one of the larger species of known spiders.

It is particularly fast-moving and venomous, consistent with the traits tarantulas are infamous for. P. rajaei is also an arboreal species, preferring to live alone in tree crevices. But if its size alone wasn’t enough to terrify arachnophobes, the scientists say that loss of its forested habitat in Sri Lanka is leading to…

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Bug Self-Medication Widespread!!

Torn from today’s headlines!!

Self-Medication in Animals Much More Widespread Than Believed

YES!! Drug use in the animal kingdom is a much more pervasive activity than originally suspected!

As our intrepid geeks and nerdlings over at ScienceDaily.com reveal, “It’s been known for decades that animals such as chimpanzees seek out medicinal herbs to treat their diseases. But in recent years, the list of animal pharmacists has grown much longer, and it now appears that the practice of animal self-medication is a lot more widespread than previously thought, according to a University of Michigan ecologist and his colleagues.”

The fact that moths, ants and fruit flies are now known to self-medicate has profound implications for the ecology and evolution of animal hosts and their parasites, according to Mark Hunter, a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and at the School of Natural Resources and Environment.

(A parasite-infected monarch butterfly lays her eggs on medicinal tropical milkweed that will help to protect her offspring from disease.) [1]

In addition, because plants remain the most promising source of future pharmaceuticals, studies of animal medication may lead the way in discovering new drugs to relieve human suffering, Hunter and two colleagues wrote in a review article titled “Self-Medication in Animals,” to be published online today in the journal Science.

“When we watch animals foraging for food in nature, we now have to ask, are they visiting the grocery store or are they visiting the pharmacy?” Hunter said. “We can learn a lot about how to treat parasites and disease by watching other animals.”

Much of the work in this field has focused on cases in which animals, such as baboons and woolly bear caterpillars, medicate themselves. One recent study has suggested that house sparrows and finches add high-nicotine cigarette butts to their nests to reduce mite infestations.

“Perhaps the biggest surprise for us was that animals like fruit flies and butterflies can choose food for their offspring that minimizes the impacts of disease in the next generation,” Hunter said. “There are strong parallels with the emerging field of epigenetics in humans, where we now understand that dietary choices made by parents influence the long-term health of their children.”

(Fruitfly larva – Is this young’un getting the benefits of Mom’s drug use?)

The authors [2] argue that animal medication has several major consequences on the ecology and evolution of host-parasite interactions.

In addition, animal medication should affect the evolution of animal immune systems, according to Hunter and his colleagues.

The authors also note that the study of animal medication will have direct relevance for human food production.

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[1] Image credit Jaap de Roode

[2] The first author of the science paper is Jacobus de Roode of Emory University. The other author is Thierry Lefevre of the Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement in France.

Journal Reference: J. C. de Roode, T. Lefevre, M. D. Hunter. Self-Medication in Animals. Science, 2013; 340 (6129): 150 DOI:10.1126/science.1235824

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BUG ROBOTS GET JOBS

BUG ROBOTS GET JOBS

Well, this is interesting. Turns out science is harnessing the power of robotics to create new “robot bugs” designed to crawl, fly, and squirm their way into tight spaces humans can’t.

These robots can theoretically do the dirty jobs people don’t want to do – innovation!

Check out the full article here. Below are some pictures of the prototypes and no, this isn’t an April Fool’s day prank (I checked.)

The Bug Enthusiast

Well, this is interesting. Turns out science is harnessing the power of robotics to create new “robot bugs” designed to crawl, fly, and squirm their way into tight spaces humans can’t. These robots can theoretically do the dirty jobs people don’t want to do – innovation!

Check out the full article here. Below are some pictures of the prototypes and no, this isn’t an April Fool’s day prank (I checked.)

 

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