SubscribeBut, here as I type with one hand and holding my leopard gecko in the other, I share this wild video with you of a male jumping spider advertising to a female cadaver. Sound is highly recommended.
Showing posts with label invertebrate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label invertebrate. Show all posts
Jumping Spider Male Breeding Behavior
Hey guys! Still don't have much time for full posts. I'm applying for graduate school in the field of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (EEB).
"Seduce Me" and "Green Porno" - The Art of The Birds and the Bees
Every now and then, someone has a truly great idea about how to explain science to the general public. Sometimes the topic is animal mating behavior.
This is the setup for the Sundance Channel's two recent series: "Green Porno" and "Seduce Me." "Green Porno" explores wild and weird animal mating behaviors while "Seduce Me" acts out animal courtship - a whole other bag of worms.
You can view many of their videos here.
The star/director/mastermind behind the effort is Isabella Rossellini. Quite often, her acting performance will have you in stitches. The costumes and sets designed for both shows are often quite beautiful, regardless of topic.
Here are some samples, but remember many, many more are available on their website:
Lots of Stuff - Videos, Snake Bites and More!
Here's the setup. Whenever I find something I think would make an interesting post on this blog, I bookmark it with intentions of writing an article at some point. That happens for the things with some substance, but over time, I have accumulated all kinds of internet knick-knacks that I'd like to share in one large post.- Here's a neat one. On this website, you can view high-quality, color, streaming video of a nesting Red Tailed Hawk (tipoff from here). The nest is located in Philadelpha, PA at the Franklin Institute Building. Here's a screencap of what I saw when I visited :)
- A study has found that denim denim may guard against rattlesnake bites. Read the fine print, as the study was just measuring the amount of venom that was injected into warm saline-solution filled gloves - not necessarily accounting for physical damage or psychological damage (I think you'd be a bit freaked out if you were bit by a poisonous snake!). Nonetheless, it's an interesting read (especially since I'm always wearing denim jeans).
- A species of frog thought to be extinct in the wild for 30 years has been rediscovered on farmland in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales state of Australia. The Yellow-Spotted Bell Frogs are quite adorable and the article notes optimism for similarly-"lost" species. Seven of Australia's 216 known species of frogs have disappeared in the last thirty years.
- Impress your friends with this compendium of collective nouns for animals. Where else would you hear about a murder of ravens, a pounce of cats, or a parliament of owls?
- A punk band named REPTILES. You can listen to their music here.
- When looking for advice on how to draw reptiles, I encountered this humorously-simple description of how to draw amphibians and reptiles.
- Some great underwater photography from one of my favorite blogs, The Flying Kiwi.
- Cool fluorescent coral (via Deep Sea News):
Hope that was enough for you! I'll continue updating throughout the week as I tactfully do not do homework before finals week.
Article - Fire Ant Decapitating Flies
The topic of the day is like something out of a science-fiction story. Imagine an insect that lays its eggs inside an organism so that its larvae eats its hosts brain from the inside. Sound far-fetched?
Read this article from EcoTone.
Pretty insane, huh? These insects, phorid flies, apparently specifically target imported red fire ants for laying their eggs. They stalk fire ant mounds and oviposit one egg in an ant's thorax where the egg will hatch. The larva goes on to eat the ant-hosts brain causing the ant to wander aimlessly for hours until the larva causes the ant's head to fall off.
Creeeeeeepy.
Fire ants, as you may know, are not native to the USA, and are quite the stubborn pests. In fact, many scientists believe that their dominance over native harvester ants is partly responsible for the decline of the Texas horned lizard.
Who wants to see this cute face go? Certainly not me - although I believe that there's more to that story (for another post).
A similar article I recently read in the Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine described how the use of phorid flies as a biological control for fire ants is being taken to new heights.
Researchers have been experimenting with phorid flies since 1997, and in April 2009, AgriLife researchers released a species that was raised by a team at the University of Texas at Austin. Previously released species would attack only disturbed mounds, but the new species also targets undisturbed mounds and foraging ants. Other than a minimal amount of nectar consumption by adults, the phorid flies eat only fire ants, and each species of fly exclusively eats a certain species of ant.That's incredible! These science-heavy phorid flies will now, according to this article, attack fire ants less judiciously and could push their invasive status down to a reasonable level.
Edit: I had uploaded a picture of a Desert Horned Lizard, not a Texas Horned Lizard. Whoops!
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