WEIRD NATURE
Caterpillars contort their bodies to look like bird poop
How to ward off hungry birds if you're a tasty caterpillar? Try to look like something really distasteful: bird poop. Some caterpillars are masters of disguise, fine-tuning their poo mimicry with a grab bag of tricks—using color, pattern, choice of resting place, and, sometimes, contorting their bodies to match the squiggly shape of bird droppings. In a paper published online this month in Animal Behaviour, scientists used artificial edible caterpillars created from pastry dough to see if a bent shape made birds less likely to gobble them up. The replicas resembled moth larvae Apochima juglansiaria, shown above, and Macrauzata maxima, both of which masquerade as bird droppings. They pinned the models on cherry trees, the natural habitat of moth larvae, bending some into squiggles while keeping others straight. Birds attacked the bent ones almost three times less often than the straight ones. When the researchers performed the same experiment with green caterpillars that do not mimic bird droppings, there was no difference in attack rate between the bent and unbent models. This is the first experimental demonstration of how posture can help caterpillars masquerade as inedible objects.
By Sandhya Sekar
How to ward off hungry birds if you're a tasty caterpillar? Try to look like something really distasteful: bird poop. Some caterpillars are masters of disguise, fine-tuning their poo mimicry with a grab bag of tricks—using color, pattern, choice of resting place, and, sometimes, contorting their bodies to match the squiggly shape of bird droppings. In a paper published online this month in Animal Behaviour, scientists used artificial edible caterpillars created from pastry dough to see if a bent shape made birds less likely to gobble them up. The replicas resembled moth larvae Apochima juglansiaria, shown above, and Macrauzata maxima, both of which masquerade as bird droppings. They pinned the models on cherry trees, the natural habitat of moth larvae, bending some into squiggles while keeping others straight. Birds attacked the bent ones almost three times less often than the straight ones. When the researchers performed the same experiment with green caterpillars that do not mimic bird droppings, there was no difference in attack rate between the bent and unbent models. This is the first experimental demonstration of how posture can help caterpillars masquerade as inedible objects.
By Sandhya Sekar
The Glasswinged butterfly (Greta oto) is a brush-footed butterfly, and is a member of the subfamily Danainae, tribe Ithomiini, subtribe Godyridina.
The wings are transparent, with a span of 5.6 to 6.1 cm (2.2 to 2.4 in). The butterfly's most common English name is glasswinged butterfly, and its Spanish name is "espejitos", which means "little mirrors". Indeed, the tissue between the veins of its wings looks like glass, as it lacks the colored scales found in other butterflies.[3] The opaque borders of its wings are dark brown, sometimes tinted with red or orange, and its body is dark in color.
Adults range from Mexico through Panama and Colombia They also fly through Florida.
The property of the wing tissue that produces the butterfly’s transparency seems to go against nature’s instinct. The nanostructures on the surface of the butterfly’s wings are completely random, researchers report in Nature Communications. They seem to be scattered onto the wing surface with no regard for regular size or structured distribution. This means that when rays of light strike the surface of the wing, one or two rays are reflected, but the majority of the light can pass straight through the wing, unhindered by the surface.
From Wikipedia
The wings are transparent, with a span of 5.6 to 6.1 cm (2.2 to 2.4 in). The butterfly's most common English name is glasswinged butterfly, and its Spanish name is "espejitos", which means "little mirrors". Indeed, the tissue between the veins of its wings looks like glass, as it lacks the colored scales found in other butterflies.[3] The opaque borders of its wings are dark brown, sometimes tinted with red or orange, and its body is dark in color.
Adults range from Mexico through Panama and Colombia They also fly through Florida.
The property of the wing tissue that produces the butterfly’s transparency seems to go against nature’s instinct. The nanostructures on the surface of the butterfly’s wings are completely random, researchers report in Nature Communications. They seem to be scattered onto the wing surface with no regard for regular size or structured distribution. This means that when rays of light strike the surface of the wing, one or two rays are reflected, but the majority of the light can pass straight through the wing, unhindered by the surface.
From Wikipedia
The Immortal Jellyfish
The immortal jellyfish or Turritopsis dohrnii, is a species of small jellyfish which is found in the Mediterranean Sea and in the waters of Japan. It is unique in that it exhibits a certain form of “immortality”. it is the only known case of an animal capable of reverting completely to a sexually immature, colonial stage after having reached sexual maturity as a solitary stage.
Like most other hydrozoans, T. dohrnii begin their life as free-swimming tiny larvae known as planula. As a planula settles down, it gives rise to a colony of polyps that are attached to the seafloor. Jellyfish, also known as medusae, then bud off these polyps and continue their life in a free-swimming form, eventually becoming sexually mature. All the polyps and jellyfish arising from a single planula are genetically identical clones. If a T. dohrnii jellyfish is exposed to environmental stress or physical assault, or is sick or old, it can revert to the polyp stage, forming a new polyp colony. It does this through the cell development process of transdifferentiation, which alters the differentiated state of the cells and transforms them into new types of cells.
Theoretically, this process can go on indefinitely, effectively rendering the jellyfish biologically immortal, although, in nature, mostTurritopsis are likely to succumb to predation or disease in the medusa stage, without reverting to the polyp form.
The “immortal jellyfish” was formerly classified as T. nutricula.
The immortal jellyfish or Turritopsis dohrnii, is a species of small jellyfish which is found in the Mediterranean Sea and in the waters of Japan. It is unique in that it exhibits a certain form of “immortality”. it is the only known case of an animal capable of reverting completely to a sexually immature, colonial stage after having reached sexual maturity as a solitary stage.
Like most other hydrozoans, T. dohrnii begin their life as free-swimming tiny larvae known as planula. As a planula settles down, it gives rise to a colony of polyps that are attached to the seafloor. Jellyfish, also known as medusae, then bud off these polyps and continue their life in a free-swimming form, eventually becoming sexually mature. All the polyps and jellyfish arising from a single planula are genetically identical clones. If a T. dohrnii jellyfish is exposed to environmental stress or physical assault, or is sick or old, it can revert to the polyp stage, forming a new polyp colony. It does this through the cell development process of transdifferentiation, which alters the differentiated state of the cells and transforms them into new types of cells.
Theoretically, this process can go on indefinitely, effectively rendering the jellyfish biologically immortal, although, in nature, mostTurritopsis are likely to succumb to predation or disease in the medusa stage, without reverting to the polyp form.
The “immortal jellyfish” was formerly classified as T. nutricula.
Tardigrada: the toughest animal
Tardigrades in a latent state can survive temperatures up to 272°C, high vacuums, ionizing radiation, outer space, and long periods with no oxygen. One tardigrade was revived from its latent state after 120 years! Since aging ceases in the latent state, entering a latent state can greatly increase the life span of the animal.
http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/156414/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardigrade
Tardigrades in a latent state can survive temperatures up to 272°C, high vacuums, ionizing radiation, outer space, and long periods with no oxygen. One tardigrade was revived from its latent state after 120 years! Since aging ceases in the latent state, entering a latent state can greatly increase the life span of the animal.
http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/156414/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardigrade
Camouflage.
Left-right up-down
Bat-faced-Toad ; Katydid ; Lichen-Spider ; Peppered-Moth ; Righteye-Flounder ; Sandhopper ; Speckled-Sanddab ; Vietnamese-Mossy-Frog ; Orchd Manthis
Left-right up-down
Bat-faced-Toad ; Katydid ; Lichen-Spider ; Peppered-Moth ; Righteye-Flounder ; Sandhopper ; Speckled-Sanddab ; Vietnamese-Mossy-Frog ; Orchd Manthis
Albino Whale Caught On Video.igaloo (white fella in the Mayi-Katuna language from north Queensland) was first sighted in 1991, aged 3-5. He is a humpback, rather than a sperm whale such as Melville's protagonist. He is also entirely white, unlike the fictional version
Read more at http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/albino-whale-caught-video#VPL1YlWGMcdRVFWE.99
Read more at http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/albino-whale-caught-video#VPL1YlWGMcdRVFWE.99
These butterflies are bilateral gynandromorphs - they're literally half male and half female.
This species of butterfly, in the Nymphalidae family, is found from Mexico to the Amazon Rainforest where it is prolific. Its wingspan is about 2.6″. These butterflies feed primarily on the large Solanum family of plants, which contains things such as tomatoes and potatoes.
Mechanitis Polymnia eggs are laid in batches of 10 – 40 under the leaves of plants in the aforementioned Solanum family, and possibly other plants. These butterflies are visible mainly in the morning and again in late afternoon, when females visit Eupatorium flowers along riverbanks. Males form “leks” which attract females with pheromones, disseminated by the males from special scales located on the upperside of their hindwings. The chrysalis (The pupal stage of butterflies. A cocoon is the name used for a structure spun around the pupa by moths and sometimes other insects.) of this species protects the larva while the adult structures of the fully grown butterfly are formed and the larval structures are broken down. Pupae are usually unable to move, but use a hard protective coating and camouflage to evade predators. The fully grown butterfly emerges, typically in the morning, by splitting its chrysalis open. Upon emergence, the butterfly uses a liquid that softens to shell of the chrysalis, along with two sharp claws on the forewings to help separate itself from the chrysalis.
Dailysciencefix copyright 2013
Gasteracantha Sundevall, 1833 è un genere di ragni appartenente alla famiglia Araneidae.
Il nome deriva dal greco γαστήρ, gastèr, cioè ventre, stomaco, e ᾶκανθα, àcantha, cioè spina, processo spinale, a causa della pluralità e varietà di spine di cui è bordato l'opistosoma.
Le 70 specie oggi note di questo genere sono state reperite in Oceania, Asia sudorientale, Asia meridionale, Asia orientale, Africa, isole europee e America settentrionale
Da Wikipedia, l'enciclopedia libera.
This species is only found in Madagascar. It is an arboreal species that relies on its natural camouflage in the northern and central tropical forests of Madagascar. A nocturnal reptile, with suitably large eyes, the satanic leaf-tailed gecko Uroplatus phantasticus moves about its rainforest habitat at night feeding on insects. The satanic leaf-tailed gecko is somewhat of an expert at avoiding predators, not only through their incredible mimicry, but through a number of behaviours. They can flatten their body against the substrate to reduce the body’s shadow, open their jaws wide to show a frightening, bright red mouth, and voluntarily shed their tail in order to trick a predator.
Dailysciencefix copyright 2013
Maratus volans, sometimes called the peacock spider or gliding spider, is a species of jumping spider (Australia).The red, blue and black colored males have flap-like extensions of the abdomen with white hairs that can be folded down. They are used for display during mating: the male raises his abdomen, then expands and raises the flaps so that the abdomen forms a white-fringed, circular field of color. The species, and indeed the whole genus Maratus have been compared to peacocks in this respect. The third pair of legs is also raised for display, showing a brush of black hairs and white tips. While approaching the female, the male will vibrate his abdomen while waving raised legs and tail, and dance from side to side.[3]
Both sexes reach about 5 mm in body length. Females and immatures of both sexes are brown but have colour patterns by which they can be distinguished from related species
This species of spider is not venomous and poses no threat to humans or animals.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia