Insects // Current

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1 day ago

Dragonflies' Remarkable Vision: 30,000 Facets Give Dragonflies a Different Perspective

Dragonflies possess excellent color vision, as well as being able to see UV and polarized light - this piece presents a little... more

GrrlScientist
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3 days ago

Deception in the Animal World: Spider builds life-sized decoys

There is a species of spider that builds models of itself, which it uses as decoys to distract predators.

The spider may be the first example of an animal building a life-size replica of its own body.
So believe the scientists who made the discovery, which is published in the journal Animal Behaviour.

The arachnid's behaviour also offers one explanation for why many spiders like to decorate their webs with strange-looking ornaments.

Many animals try to divert the attentions of predators by becoming masters of disguise.

Some try to avoid being seen altogether by using camouflage to blend in against a background, such as the peppered moth evolving motley wings that blend into tree bark, or stick insects that look like sticks.

Others evolve more conspicuous ornaments designed to distract a predator, such as butterflies that grow large eyespots or lizards that quickly move colourful tails, which they detach from their bodies if grabbed.

This latter strategy has puzzled biologists, because attracting predators in the first place is usually a bad idea.

One hypothesis is that animals which grow conspicuous ornaments benefit overall, because directing a predator to attack an expendable part of the body, such as the lizard's tail, outweighs the costs of attracting the attention of the predator in the first place.
----------------more at the link

This reminds me of how you will see a police car on the edge of a town in the USA taking radar, only to discover that its really a billboard or mocked car and mannequin dressed as a police officer!

Or, the country that hints it has nukes and really doesn't-like what Saddam confessed to an FBI agent before being hanged (or is it 'hung'?). (he confessed his weapons of mass destruction was a ruse to make Iran think twice about attacking him)

So, survival in its fittest means you have to make yourself look bigger (blow fish, etc), or that you are not even there (lizards, etc). Maybe we can start a country that is invisible and not worry about someone coming in and taking our natural resources, or hating us because our lifestyle is different. or, our skin color is not the same. Or that their religion says that our land was really meant for someone else. We can remain anonymous and invisible and no one will bother us.There is a species of spider that builds models of itself, which it uses as decoys to distract predators. The spider may be the... more

WorldPeaceTV
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7 days ago

Even cockroaches get fat on bad food

Cockroaches may be tiny enough to slip through the smallest of cracks, but just like humans, these eternal pests can get fat on an... more

JanforGore
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2 responses

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8 days ago

United Kingdom Talk Video Thursday 2nd July 2009

Thursday's edition of my three times a week talk show.Watch or listen to the show her on CURRENT TV on Tues, Thurs &... more

ChrisReardon
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13 days ago

Scotland gets televised midge forecast

For the first time ever a midge forecast will be broadcast on TV. STV will transmit a 30-second forecast every Thursday night... more

DonaldMacP
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2 responses

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17 days ago

United Kingdom Talk Video Tuesday 23rd June 2009

Tuesday's edition of my three times a week talk show.Watch or listen to the show here on CURRENT TV on Tues, Thurs &... more

ChrisReardon
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21 days ago

PETA's Statement Regarding "Flygate"

With everyone condemning PETA once again without actually taking the time to look at PETA's perspective, I thought this... more

numinant
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23 days ago

10,000 bees crowd wing of plane at Mass. airport

Maybe these bees were too tired to fly for themselves. A gang of honeybees landed on the wing of a plane used for flight school... more

Manatee_man
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23 days ago

Pentagon wants cyborg insects to sniff out WMD

The Pentagon is looking for better ways to prevent chemical weapon attacks. So military researchers are implanting insect larvae with WMD-detectors - turning them into cyborg-critters that specialize in tracking down mustard gas. Naturally.

In 2005, the military trained honeybees to sniff out land mines. Then, Darpa’s HI-MEMS program started trying to machinize insects instead. So far researchers have implanted micro-mechanical components into larval moths and created remote-controlled beetles. Those initial HI-MEMS efforts seemed designed for reconnaissance missions - this time, the Pentagon wants its modified bugs to detect and differentiate between chemical agents.

The Pentagon has handed researchers at Agiltron Corporation a contract to implant larvae with “high sensitivity micromechanical chemical sensors” that run on electric power collected with an embedded “electromagnetic harvester.” The implanted system would include muscle actuators, so different tics or twitches would signal the detection of different chemicals.

In separate deals, the Pentagon is also backing research into an insect-mounted device powered by fuel cells, for a more reliable energy source. “This solution offers several advantages over the existing electromechanical methods; 50-100X higher power density, power-generation independent of insect species, and power generation in absence of insect motion,” according to the contract award.

And to really bring the critters into the 21st century, the military wants to hook them up with their own wireless network - using chirps instead of Tweets. They’re funding two projects that would create “a mobile ad hoc network” for vocal insects like crickets and cicadas.

Insects will be equipped with embedded MEMS transceivers that pick up modulated calling sounds from nearby insects. Once the information in a call is extracted by the transceiver, the information code is applied to an electromechanical device on board the insect that modulates the insect calls, thereby retransmitting the information to another insect, and so on.

The instant-insect message would then be transmitted to humans or computerized systems, which could decode the covert chirp.

Sure, swarms of teensy biochemical detectors would be valuable in war-zones. But fly-swatters take note: project proposals reference “civilian and defense applications,” so your bug-squashing habit might soon make you a threat to national security.The Pentagon is looking for better ways to prevent chemical weapon attacks. So military researchers are implanting insect larvae... more