Insects:
Thanks Bill for drawing my attention to iNaturalist which has the makings of an awesome site! What is it? It is essentially a Google Map where people can add pins every time they see an interesting critter: a plant,...
Posted on August 27, 2008 12:13 AM • 7 Comments •
I had no time to read this in detail and write a really decent overview here, perhaps I will do it later, but for now, here are the links and key excerpts from a pair of exciting new papers in...
Posted on January 7, 2008 8:14 PM • 1 Comments •
Another thing I will also have to miss - the Inaugural Event of the 2007-2008 Pizza Lunch Season of the Science Communicators of North Carolina (SCONC), on October 24th at Sigma Xi Center (the same place where we'll have the...
Posted on October 9, 2007 6:09 PM • 0 Comments •
One cool thing about being a blogging biologist is that one can write every day about sex with a straight face and then blame readers for "having a dirty mind". But sex is so interesting - life would cease to...
Posted on August 29, 2007 1:09 PM • 2 Comments •
You really don't want to be an enemy of the aphids - two papers today! The first is quite straightforward: Aphids Make 'Chemical Weapons' To Fight Off Killer Ladybirds: Cabbage aphids have developed an internal chemical defence system which enables...
Posted on July 12, 2007 12:59 AM • 0 Comments •
Jonah points to link by Kottke to series of close-up photos of insects splatered on windshields. The images are truly cool and not gross at all. This immediately reminded me of a funny, yet excellent book I read a few...
Posted on March 8, 2007 3:45 PM • 2 Comments •
Just quickly for now without commentary: Totally cool paper in the last Science: S. Libert, J. Zwiener, X. Chu, W. VanVoorhies, G. Roman, and S.D.Pletcher Regulation of Drosophila lifespan by olfaction and food-derived odors: Smell is an ancient sensory system...
Posted on February 5, 2007 2:27 PM • 0 Comments •
Circus of the Spineless #16 is up on The force that through......
Posted on December 31, 2006 12:57 AM • 0 Comments •
Identification Of Carbon Dioxide Receptors In Insects May Help Fight Infectious Disease: Mosquitoes don't mind morning breath. They use the carbon dioxide people exhale as a way to identify a potential food source. But when they bite, they can pass...
Posted on December 15, 2006 12:39 AM • 0 Comments •
Scientists building a better mosquito: Without mosquitoes, epidemics of dengue fever and malaria could not plague this planet. The skin-piercing insects infect one person after another while dining on a favorite meal: human blood. Eliminating the pests appears impossible. But...
Posted on December 12, 2006 1:00 PM • 2 Comments •
The honeybee genome project has been finished and a bunch of papers are coming out tomorrow. As soon as they become available online I will comment, at least on the one paper that shows that the molecular machinery of the...
Posted on October 25, 2006 9:36 PM • 0 Comments •
For easy-to-understand quick look at the evolution of vision I have to refer you to these two posts by PZ Myers, this post of mine, and these two posts by Carl Zimmer. Now, armed with all that knowledge, you will...
Posted on October 4, 2006 9:55 AM • 0 Comments •
From January 20, 2006, on the need to check the model-derived findings in non-model organisms....
Read on »
Posted on October 2, 2006 11:06 AM • 0 Comments •
One of the coolest parasites ever (from February 04, 2006):...
Read on »
Posted on September 13, 2006 10:52 AM • 0 Comments •
Baby bugs team up for sex scam The moment they're born, beetles of one species join forces for a curious drill. The larvae hatch out of their eggs and together, as a group, climb to the tip of the plant....
Posted on September 12, 2006 10:09 PM • 2 Comments •
Destructive insects on rise in Alaska: Destructive insects in unprecedented numbers are finding Alaska forests to be a congenial home, said University of Alaska forestry professor Glenn Juday, and climate change could be the welcome mat. Warmer winters kill fewer...
Posted on September 11, 2006 5:03 PM • 2 Comments •
How to collect and catalogue them....
Posted on September 8, 2006 2:08 PM • 2 Comments •
Hypotheses leading to more hypotheses.
Read on »
Posted on September 5, 2006 10:59 AM • 0 Comments •
Bumble Bees Can Estimate Time Intervals: In a finding that broadens our understanding of time perception in the animal kingdom, researchers have discovered that an insect pollinator, the bumble bee, can estimate the duration of time intervals. Although many insects...
Posted on August 26, 2006 2:41 PM • 2 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
A post about a childrens' book and what I learned about it since.
Read on »
Posted on August 25, 2006 9:56 AM • 6 Comments •
Snuck into the very end of this, otherwise very interesting article on neurobiology of cephalopods and moths, is this little passage: As for flies, Tublitz outlined a tantalizing question, as yet unanswered, that has continued to take flight out of...
Posted on August 17, 2006 1:59 PM • 2 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
About insects, parasitoids and the mental approach to science...
Read on »
Posted on August 9, 2006 10:59 AM • 1 Comments •
As always, animal porn is under the fold:...
Read on »
Posted on July 28, 2006 3:09 PM • 4 Comments •
