Flies for the Win!

 Blogosphere, Cool Science, General Information  9 Responses »
Jul 042011
 

Science 3.0 Blog Winner IconJust a quick post to relay some exciting news. I recently entered a number of my scientific paper reviews in the Science 3.0 #Bugs Blog Contest, which ran for the month of June, and just today found out that my post discussing the Fly Tree of Life project was chosen as the winning contribution!

My effort was but a single post, and there are a bunch of great entomological entrants that you should go and check out immediately. It’s great to see so many people interested in the science of insects and relaying their excitement via blogging. Thanks to the group over at Science 3.0 for running the contest and for the first place honours, and congratulations to all the entrants for their great work!

This month’s contest is centered around Dinosaurs, so be sure to watch for some spectacular posts on giants of the past! Also, check out the advertisement, featuring art work by the talented Torontonian, Glendon Mellow!

The winning post can be found here if you’d like to give it a read – The Fly Tree of Life – Big Science, Big Results?

T.G.I.Formicidae – Formica with Aphids

 Blogosphere, Insects, Natural History, TGIFormicidae  7 Responses »
Jul 012011
 

T.G.I.Formicidae is a new occasional feature here on the blog, and this inaugural edition features some collusion between Alex Wild, Ted MacRae and myself. Alex normally features beetles on Fridays, and Ted and I thought it might be fun to continue the trend, with Ted blogging flies today while I cover ants to complete the triad of major insect groups! Make sure to check out their blogs to see what fantastic Friday finds they have to share!

In a last minute rush to produce some ant photos to compliment the fine photographs of Ted’s and Alex’s, I ran back to the Dairy Bush on the University of Guelph campus with hopes of finding some interesting ants to shoot. Luckily for me, I happened across what I believe are Camponotus Formica ants tending to masses of aphids. Ant mutualism with aphids was one of the first insect interactions I can remember learning about in my intro entomology courses, and I can’t resist watching and photographing these tiny ranchers whenever I come across them!

Camponotus ant tending aphids on a plant

 

Two Camponotus ants tending an aphid herd

 

Camponotus ant seemingly dancing with the aphids it is tending

 

Montreal takes the ento-blogosphere by storm!

 Blogosphere, Fun Stuff, Insects  2 Responses »
May 292011
 

Just a quick post to pass along a menage a trois of new insect blogs which have ties to McGill University in Montreal, Quebec!

Chris Borkent is not only a PhD student working on fungus gnat (Mycetophilidae) taxonomy at McGill, but also an avid naturalist. Chris will be sharing his knowledge and observations on all things natural that he makes during his walk to work at the Lyman Entomological Museum over at his new blog, Natural History in Suburbia. Another dipterist is now online; beware!

Speaking of the Lyman Entomological Museum, they’ve recently started a blog highlighting the research accomplishments and field work being undertaken at their institution. There are a bunch of great entomologists working in the Lyman Museum, so be sure to watch for lots of interesting news!

Finally, McGill alum Brigette Zacharczenko is working towards her MSc PhD at the University of Connecticut by studying the systematics of moths in the family Noctuidae, and has just started a blog chronicling the life history of her research subjects. With some absolutely stunning photos of moth eggs and caterpillars, caterpillarblog is definitely going to be one to watch! Also, Brigette is a super creative seamstress who designs, creates and sells plush invertebrates under the pseudonym Weird Bug Lady. An awesome nickname, and anyone with an interest in insects should check out those cute-n-cuddly works of art right now!

 

Diptera + Water – Blog Action Day 2010

 Biology, Blogosphere, Insects  2 Responses »
Oct 152010
 

Empididae dance fly on green leaf with water droplets

Water, water everywhere, and not a fly in sight! Well, not actually, because the vast majority of flies could be considered aquatics. I’m not just talking about those flies that actually are aquatic at some stage of their life (like chironomid midge larvae, or black fly larvae; I’ll discuss them later), but rather how even those considered “terrestrial” require extremely moist habitats. Take for example, larve of the Xylophagidae, which in North America live in the humidor of rotting bark on downed trees. Or fruit flies (both the true fruit flies {Tephritidae} and the household “Drosophila” melanogaster), which develop in live fruits, stems, flower heads, and leaves for the former, and rotting fruits in the latter. A decaying body is a wet place, and harbours plenty of maggots, usually of Calliphoridae. A live body is also a wet place, and can be colonized by a number of families (termed myiasis) including the infamous bot fly (Oestridae). In fact, very few flies come to mind that don’t spend at least a part of their life in a humid/moist/wet environment.

Besides the vast diversity of “aquatic” flies, flies that are truly aquatic as larvae have been found to be important bioindicators of the health of their watery homes. Phantom midges (Chaoboridae) and their larvae have been used to monitor heavy metals such as nickel in northern Ontario lakes. Black fly larval diversity and species composition has been used to evaluate the health of rivers, especially in northern Canada (imagine that field work, ouch).

Finally, there are some flies which defy convention and dive headlong into the water (skip to 4:40 to see the flies, taken from The Future is Wild series):

The new gold rush – Blog Action Day 2010

 Blogosphere, Environment, Nature  No Responses »
Oct 152010
 

When you think of the Amazon River and it’s tributaries, what comes to mind? Perhaps parrots flying over head

Scarlet Macaw pair flying under blue skies

or capybara feasting along the river.

Capybara along river in Peru

Maybe you envision a caiman slipping into the water, ready to disappear,

Caiman slipping into river in Peru

or if you’re really lucky, a jaguar sunning itself along the beach.

Jaguar walking along river in Peru

But the most common sight on the Madre de Dios and Heath Rivers when I was there?

Gold processing skow in the Madre de Dios River

This beastly boat is a mobile gold processing boat, and not only is it illegal, but it’s one of many polluting these rich waters. With the price of gold sky-rocketing (more than $1300USD/ounce), these boats and the “miners” who work with them stand to make more money than many other careers can hope to make in rural areas. The miners spend hours hauling silt from the river bed onto the boat and sifting it on the large ramp like structure on the left. After sifting, the miners then use liquid mercury (by hand and without proper safety equipment no less) to draw the gold out. The mercury ultimately ends up in the river, where all trophic levels are adversely affected, and fish, mammals and birds begin dying off. Besides the obviously horrible effects of mercury, the increased silt builds up downstream and forests are pillaged for supplies and bushmeat. Is there a solution, or method to deter such destructive techniques? While the gold market remains so lucrative, the allure of a “simple” fortune will continue to draw young men. I don’t have an easy solution, but perhaps once young men start seeing prior workers and residents downriver suffering from acute mercury poisoning, they’ll think twice about taking up the trade (or become smarter about the handling and disposal of these deadly chemicals).

Check out this Washington Post story for more information.

Reflections on Water – Blog Action Day 2010

 Blogosphere, Environment, Nature  3 Responses »
Oct 152010
 

Tone Mapped image of a river in Ontario Canada

Water is the driving force of all nature

– Leonardo da Vinci

I was raised on the shores of Lake Huron, and spent summer vacations on a northern Ontario lake; I have traversed amazonian rivers, and hiked along mountain streams hunting for insects. At work or at play, water has been a contributing factor in my development as a scientist and as a photographer.

Continue reading »

The tiny beauty around us

 Blogosphere, Cool Science, Insects, Photography  No Responses »
Oct 132010
 

The winners of the yearly Nikon Small World Photomicrography Contest were announced today, and some incredible and ingenious insect images took top honours!

Mosquito (Anopheles gambiae) Heart by Jonas King from Nikon Small World Contest

1st Place - Mosquito (Anopheles gambiae) Heart by Jonas King

This image by Jonas King, a graduate student at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, is the heart of Anopheles gambiae, a mosquito species which serves as a vector for malaria. Kings’ research examined how hemolymph circulation influences malaria trypanosome migration from the gut to the salivary glands, and this image of the heart (muscle fibres are dyed green with individual cell nuclei bright blue) was a fantastic result of that research.

Black bean aphid with offspring inside her body by Dr. Tomas Cabello from Nikon Small World Photomicrography Contest

Popular Vote Winner - Black bean aphid (Aphis fabae) with offspring inside her body by Dr. Tomas Cabello

Earning an Image of Distinction from the contest judges, Dr. Tomas Cabello’s photo of a black bean aphid carrying live young was voted the most popular by the public. By using phase contrast microscopy, Dr. Cabello illustrates just how crowded it can be when you’re parthenogenetically viviparous!

There’s a further 120 images from this years competition that I encourage you to peruse, and feature a wide range of colourful, beautiful natural wonders revealed through magnification. There is also an historical record of winners going back to 1977, and I just want to highlight how far photomicrography and photography have come in that time.

Ichneumonidae Eye by Charles Kreb from Nikon Small World Contest

17th place 2010 - Ichneumonidae Eye by Charles Kreb

This image of an ichneumonid wasp compound eye and antennal base by Charles Kreb garnered a 17th place finish in this year’s contest. In contrast, check out the 11th place image from 1987:

Deer fly (Tabanidae) head by Robert L. Calentine from Nikon Small Wonders Contest 1987

11th place 1987 - Deer fly (Tabanidae) head by Robert L. Calentine

This is still a great photo given the resources and technology of the time, but with new digital cameras, photo stacking algorithms and photo manipulation techniques, the sky is the limit for the future of imaging even the smallest of insects now. If you have experience with photomicrography or a subject which you think the world should see up close and personal, I encourage you to enter next year’s competition and help people see the beauty in all aspects of nature!

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