Tuesday Tunes – Crab – Weezer

 Fun Stuff, Insects, Pop Culture, Tuesday Tunes  2 Responses »
Sep 272011
 

Ryan FleacrestOf all the insects that someone could write a song about, I would never have thought that crabs would be one of them. But I suppose some artists just need to scratch that itch!

Crabs (Phthirus pubis), also known as pubic lice, generally find new dance partners during the horizontal hokey pokey, so be warned that this post is heading towards the gutter…

Have no fear, taxonomy and phylogenetics to the rescue! The human pubic louse has but a single sister species, Phthirus gorillae. As you might be able to guess, P. gorillae is found on gorillas, and these two species last shared a common ancestor roughly 3-4 million years ago (Reed et al., 2007). For the record, gorillas and humans last shared a common ancestor ~7 million years ago. So our pubic lice and the gorilla louse didn’t diverge when we did, but at some later point while we were on our way to becoming human and pre-gorilla’s were getting more gorilla-like. Anyone else sensing some weird hanky panky going on here? Clearly a speciation event took place, and it seems that our ancestors (perhaps members of Australopithecus, of Lucy fame) were colonized by a louse native to pre-gorilla pubes. Although there are some rather tame theories on how we first contracted our own crotch crickets (gorilla’s being hunted, us sleeping in old gorilla nests, blah blah blah), it must be considered that perhaps there was a little “Jungle Love” going on back in the day…

Anyways, back to present day musical crabs!

In case you’re concerned, the crabs in that video weren’t the crabs I’m talking about (or the ones Rivers Cuomo was singing about), and earns a Myrmecos Taxonomy Fail Index number of 75.

All this talk about crabs reminds me that Bug Girl wrote an awesome piece on whether Brazilian waxing is taxing pubic louse populations (loss of habitat don’tcha know). Definitely worth a read.

And speaking of Brazilians, I’d like to wish our resident Brazilian (nationality, not hairdo) a fond farewell! After 4 long years of teasing from his lab mates, Gil Miranda successfully defended his PhD dissertation and is headed back to Brazil to begin what will surely be a long and successful career! Must… resist… crab… jokes…

This song is available on iTunes – Crab – Weezer (Green Album)

 
ResearchBlogging.orgReed, D., Light, J., Allen, J., & Kirchman, J. (2007). Pair of lice lost or parasites regained: the evolutionary history of anthropoid primate lice BMC Biology, 5 (1) DOI: 10.1186/1741-7007-5-7 OPEN ACCESS
 

Tuesday Tunes – Escapism (Gettin’ Free) – Digable Planets

 Fun Stuff, Insects, Pop Culture, Tuesday Tunes  No Responses »
Sep 202011
 

Ryan FleacrestWell, I’m back from a relaxing vacation with my wife at the family cottage, well-rested, recharged, and ready to dive back into my work with fresh eyes and new ideas! That goes for the blog as well, with inspiration for bigger posts and a themed week or two to come in the future!

Generally when you go on vacation it’s to escape from the stress and workload that comes with day to day life, so it’s somewhat fitting that today’s song is titled Escapism (Gettin’ Free). That’s not really entomological, and neither is the band name, Digable Planets, at first glance. But sometimes the sum of the parts are greater than whole, and Digable Planets is made up of Ishmael “Butterfly” Butler, Mary Ann “Ladybug Mecca” Vieira and Craig “Doodlebug” Irving! A triple threat of entomological nomenclature!

I’m a fan of nicknames, finding them considerably easier to remember (a task I’m normally horrible at), but how the 2 male members of the trio managed to acquire “Butterfly” and “Doodlebug” as their nicknames has got to be an interesting story…

 

This song is available on iTunes – Escapism (Gettin’ Free) – Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time & Space)

Tuesday Tunes – Butterflies & Hurricanes – Muse

 Entomology, Environment, Pop Culture, Tuesday Tunes  No Responses »
Sep 062011
 

Ryan FleacrestAs hurricane season arrives and dangerous storms approach the east coast of North America, it’s worth considering what causes these deadly cyclones. Not necessarily the warm waters off of Africa, but perhaps a butterfly on the other side of the world, whose flapping wings have set off an unpredictable set of events. Although the butterfly effect (as it relates to chaos theory, not that questionable Ashton Kutcher movie) may not be totally responsible for storms causing billions of dollars damage annually, the idea that simple atmospheric changes made by a flying butterfly can impact the total world is quite astounding.

Now to make you really think: as species become threatened with extinction thanks to human activity, how might a reduction or lack of these small atmospheric changes affect future weather patterns and civilization? Fewer storms? More? Who knows.

All joking and theorizing aside, if you or those you know live in places prone to hurricane or cyclone activity, please be safe in the coming weeks.

This song is available on iTunes – Butterflies and Hurricanes – Absolution

Tuesday Tunes – The Fly – Sarah Brightman

 Bug of the Day, Insects, Pop Culture, Tuesday Tunes  11 Responses »
Aug 302011
 

Ryan FleacrestAnother week, another tune! Sarah Brightman’s The Fly

 

 

It’s also time for another ID Challenge:

 

 

Time to earn some more BioPoints! Provide as many taxonomic or biological notes you can think of, and I’ll dole out the points! Good luck!

(I’m taking a page out of Ted’s book and turning on moderated comments so everyone has a chance at some points!)

Tuesday Tunes – A sweet trip through time

 Fun Stuff, Insects, Pop Culture, Tuesday Tunes  2 Responses »
Aug 092011
 

Ryan FleacrestSomething a little different for this weeks Tuesday Tunes, as we trace a simple yet successful phrase through the annals of music history and touch on some of the entomological connections associated with it!

Our phrase of the week is “A Taste of Honey”, and it’s pretty obvious why it’s being featured as a Tuesday Tune. If we dig a little deeper however (and go on a tangent or two), we’ll uncover some rather interesting ties between some big names and entomology! Lets start at the beginning shall we?

A Taste of Honey was written by Bobby Scott & Ric Marlow in 1960 for the Broadway adaptation of a British play of the same name. This original version went on to win a Grammy for Best Instrumental Theme at the 1963 Grammy Awards. The instrumental version was soon covered by a band already featured on Tuesday Tunes, Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, who made the song a commercial hit on their album Whipped Cream & Other Delights in 1965, and the song was subsequently awarded 3 more Grammy Awards (Record of the Year, Best Instrumental Arrangement, and Best Instrumental Performance).

There was another big name who was taking the 1966 Grammy Awards by storm – Barbra Streisand, who’s debut album My Name is Barbra (which won the Grammy for Best Vocal Performance, Female that year) featured a vocal rendition of a familiar song…

Strangely enough, Barbra Streisand wasn’t even nominated for Best New Artist that year, with the Grammy going to Tom Jones, who would cover A Taste of Honey the very next year. Time for Tangent #1 – Barbra Streisand would release an album titled ButterFly in 1974, with the cover art featuring a fly on a stick of butter. I must say I like this kind of ButterFly more than the traditional Lepidoptera…

 

Before we leave the red carpet, there’s one more link between the Grammy Awards and A Taste of Honey. This time the award goes to the band A Taste of Honey, who won the award for Best New Artist in 1978, largely on the success of their smash disco hit Boogie Oogie Oogie. It seems that the members of the band were such fans of Herb Alpert’s rendition of A Taste of Honey that they adopted it as their band name!

There’s one more big name who enjoyed A Taste of Honey in a big way; The Beatles! The Fab 4 included a version on their debut album Please Please Me in 1963, an album which shot to number 1 on the UK charts and which would ultimately pave the way for Beatlemania and the British Invasion.

Tangent #2 – the entomological Beatles is pretty obvious, but did you know that the origin of the band name is also entomological? The Beatles chose their name as a tribute to Buddy Holly and his band The Crickets for their influence over their music. This of course leads us to Tangent #3 (wait, can you have a tangent off of a tangent? Hmmm, geometry never was my strong suit) – Buddy Holly (along with J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson and Ritchie Valens) was tragically killed in a plane crash on The Day The Music Died, which just so happened to be 25 years to the day before a familiar entomologist was born – me!

To wrap things up, Tangent #4 (geometry be damned) is going to take us back to our original theme of A Taste of Honey. Also paying tribute to Buddy Holly, fellow British Invaders and recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, The Hollies covered our song of the week in 1966 on their US album Beat Group! (which also featured Fifi the Flea on the B-side).

So there you go, a full round trip through musical history on the back of a simple phrase! I hope you’ve enjoyed this little web of insect-associated music, and remember to come back next week to find an all new song!

These songs are available on iTunes:

A Taste of Honey – Whipped Cream & Other Delights
A Taste of Honey – The Barbra Streisand Album
Boogie Oogie Oogie (Re-Recorded / Remastered) – 100 Hits – ’60s & ’70s (Re-Recorded / Remastered Versions)
A Taste of Honey – Please Please Me
American Pie – American Pie – Single
A Taste of Honey – The Clarke, Hicks & Nash Years – The Complete Hollies April 1963 – October 1968 (Remastered)

 

Tuesday Tunes – Bug Eyes – dredg

 Fun Stuff, Insects, Pop Culture, Tuesday Tunes  3 Responses »
Jul 122011
 

Ryan FleacrestAlmost forgot about Tuesday Tunes this week! Been a busy summer so far, and this one just about slipped through the cracks. Today’s song has very little to do with insects besides the title, but the song is an old favourite of mine, so it’ll work for this last minute edition!

 

 

As consolation for being kind of lame with the song and write up, here’s some cooler “bug” eyes, and I’ll put some BioPoints up for the identification! 2 pts for order, 3 pts for family, and 5 pts each for genus & species. Remember, with 200 BioPts, I’ll send you a framed photo of your choice from my archives! Enjoy!

 

 

Bug-eyed Beast

 

This song is available on iTunes – Bug Eyes – Catch Without Arms

Tuesday Tunes – Rip Out the Wings of a Butterfly – HIM

 Biology, Fun Stuff, Insects, Pop Culture, Tuesday Tunes  2 Responses »
Jul 052011
 

Ryan FleacrestToday marks the birthday of one of the most influential and important insect authors; Robert Evans Snodgrass (1875-1962). Snodgrass’ special interest was insect morphology, especially within an evolutionary context, as he sought to not only understand how insects are put together, but also how those structures contributed to the evolutionary history of species. His 1935 opus, Principles of Insect Morphology, is still relevant in many regards (my 4th year Insect Physiology professor referred to it several times throughout the semester), and can be considered one of the most important entomology texts of the 20th century.

Being a morphologist, Snodgrass would be an expert in insect dissection in order to examine the intricacies of insect muscles, nerves and exoskeletons. That being said, I’m sure his techniques were pretty refined and not quite comparable to ripping out the wings of a butterfly, but unfortunately there isn’t a song title “Careful Dissection of the Flight Apparatus of Lepidoptera”, so we’ll stick to some hard rock!

If you’re interested in learning more about PIM (instead of HIM), check out this post by Trichoptera grad student Zach Burington on his excellent blog, Trichopterology!

 

This song is available on iTunes – Wings of a Butterfly – Wings of a Butterfly – Single

Tuesday Tunes – Blackfly – Wade Hemsworth & The McGarrigle Sisters

 Fun Stuff, Insects, Pop Culture, Tuesday Tunes  1 Response »
Jun 282011
 

Ryan FleacrestThis Friday is Canada Day, and what better entomological representation of Canada than the scourge of the Great White North, the black fly! Well, I suppose grylloblattids are a better choice, but so far no one has written a song about them, so black flies will have to do! (The Grylloblattidae are a group of rare insects first discovered on a glacier in western Canada, and are the mascot of the Entomological Society of Canada)

Along with our igloos and friendship with Charlie from Thunder Bay, swarms of black flies waiting to bleed unlucky Canadians dry is one of the more common misconceptions about Canada. Luckily, most of southern Canada is relatively free of black flies, but once you get into cottage country, the woods do indeed belong to the bikojisi, as they are known to the Ojibwe. The clouds of black flies present in the back country of Northern Canada have been known to instill fear in even the most adventurous outdoorsman (or outdoorswoman), and those required to work outdoors during the spring in Boreal Canada can undoubtedly sympathize with this weeks artist, Wade Hemsworth as he sings about his experiences with black flies while working for Hydro Ontario!

 

 

Incidentally, this short film by Christopher Hinton was nominated for an Academy Award in 1992 for Best Animated Short (it lost to this entertaining cartoon unfortunately). Pretty good for an insect loathed by most Canadians eh?

Black Fly - Simuliidae - Ecuador

This black fly may be from Ecuador, but that arm is 100% Canadian!

H/T to Bug Girl for sharing this song!

This song is available on iTunes – The Blackfly Song – Folk Songs of the Canadian North Woods

Tuesday Tunes – Pollinator – Miki Litvak

 Biology, Insects, Natural History, Pop Culture, Tuesday Tunes  4 Responses »
Jun 212011
 

Ryan FleacrestIt’s National Pollinator Week in the US, and although Canada doesn’t have their own celebration of insect-facilitated sex, that doesn’t mean I can’t promote some sexy fly pollinators! Honey bees and their hymenopteran brethren get most of the credit for pollination, but flies are likely just as powerful pollinators, only underappreciated and understudied thus far. Some of the world’s most vital crops (i.e. chocolate) depend on flies for pollination (in this case a biting midge of the family Ceratopogonidae), while countless other plants find themselves in a veritable orgy of Diptera deliveries. Some of the more striking of these include the Syrphidae, conveniently known as flower flies for their propensity to visit flowers for pollen and nectar.

Parhelophilus laetus Syrphidae

Parhelophilus laetus

Toxomerus geminatus Syrphidae

Toxomerus geminatus

 

Toxomerus marginatus Syrphidae on flower

Toxomerus marginatus

While these 3 species are pollinators of compound flowers (like the ones in the last photo being visited by Toxomerus marginatus), some flower flies are specialists on plants which were typically thought to be wind pollinated, such as grasses.

Platycheirus sp. Syrphidae on grass

Platycheirus sp.

 

With around 900 species of Syrphidae in North America (and more than 6000 species around the world), not to mention the countless other fly families which visit flowers, there are plenty of flies available to act as plant escorts. You might say that fly pollinators do a little dance of love on behalf of the flowers. I can imagine these fast-flying flower phallus’ bumping and grinding to something a little like this…

 

 

The next time you stop to smell the flowers, don’t forget what it is you’re smelling, the sultry perfume of a flower looking for a little fly action!

 

This song is available on iTunes – Pollinator (Gary Beck Remix) – Global Underground – Tom Novy

If you’d like some more insect sexiness, check out Bug Girl’s excellent, innuendo filled explanation of pollination!

 

 

 

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