Tuesday Tunes – Bumble Bees – Aqua

 Cool Science, Entomology, Fun Stuff, Natural History, Tuesday Tunes  5 Responses »
Dec 062011
 

Ryan FleacrestLet me start by saying that when I went looking for a song for this week’s Tuesday Tunes, I didn’t expect to find such a gem as this. All I wanted was something simple that would allow me to segue into some very cool insect news, but what I got instead was one of the worst songs I’ve ever heard, but which actually has some relevant biology included in the lyrics. That being said, consider yourself warned: there’s cool science ahead, but also some really, really, bad music!

The University of California Davis insect collection announced yesterday (with future taxonomic publication to come I assume) that they collected specimens of Bombus cockerelli Franklin 1913 for the first time since 1956. Collected again from it’s extremely restricted known range (a 300 square mile plot of land in New Mexico), this species is understandably rare in insect collections. There has apparently been considerable debate amongst Bombus experts over whether B. cockerelli represented a unique species or whether it was a variant of the much more common Bombus vagans, and with museum specimens 50+ years old, there has been no ability to compare DNA between species. Lead researcher Doug Yanega implies that molecular evidence obtained from these new specimens supports B. cockerelli as its own species, and it will be interesting to see in future publications how this species fits into the larger Bombus picture! Doug has some succinct comments on why it shouldn’t come as a surprise to rediscover an insect species thought to be “lost”, so I’d highly recommend giving the press release a read!

Bombus cockerelli from EOL.org

Bombus cockerelli courtesy of EOL.org (CC-BY-NC-SA)

 

Moving on to this week’s “killer” song, if you grew up in the late 90’s (or had offspring doing so), you’re probably familiar with the musical torture stylings torture that was Aqua, the Danish pop band responsible for the hit song Barbie Girl. This week I bring you another musical instrument of torture, Bumble Bees:

Well, did you catch the surprisingly accurate lyrics as pertaining to pollination biology? From the “Wham bam, thank you mam” insinuating the correct sex for flower visiting bees, to the fact that bumblebees regularly leave “donations” of pollen while “invading” deep flowers, the song is actually pretty good for biology. Even though it sounds horrible, Aqua get props for taking the time to pen some pollination biology into their “music”!

 

If you haven’t had enough, this song is available on iTunes – Bumble Bees – Aquarius

Tuesday Tunes: Flight of the Bumblebee

 Fun Stuff, Insects, Pop Culture, Tuesday Tunes  No Responses »
Jan 112011
 

Ryan FleacrestWelcome back to Tuesday Tunes! This week’s feature is a special request by Bee-Bopping Beetle expert Ted MacRae: Flight of the Bumblebee.

Composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov as a transitional piece for his opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan, The Flight of the Bumblebee is one of the most recognized pieces of music in the western world. Used in everything from cartoons to Kill Bill, there are a hive’s worth of artists performing this selection!

We start with Ted’s favourite, a face-melting, finger-blistering electric guitar solo by Luis Moreno.


That was one hyper bumblebee! Time to slow things down a little, with the most bumbley-bee version I could find. The Canadian Brass is a quintet ensemble known around the world for their crazy skill and light-hearted performances.

A truly eusocial endeavor! That’s it for this week, but I’ve got plenty of entosongs awaiting your auditory organs! Fleacrest, out!

You can purchase a more traditional arrangement from iTunes – The Flight of the Bumble-Bee from The Tale of Tsar Saltan – Rachmaninov Plays Rachmaninov (The Ampico Piano Recordings)