Aquamoth جزء 2

جئت عبر PDF النص الكامل للمقال العثة برمائية واستخراج شجرة تظهر الإشعاع من مجموعة الأنواع هذه والتطور المحتمل للالصفات برمائية. المثير للاهتمام أن نلاحظ حالة الشكل, وكل العثة هي المستوطنة في بركان الخاصة به في أرخبيل هاواي.

This is a Bayesian analysis of a three gene phylogeny constructed with EF1-alpha, CAD and COI. If anyone wants a copy of the paper, send me a note. Pulled from: روبينوف د., شميتز ب., غزوات مائية متعددة بواسطة مستوطن, ساكن الأرض, إشعاع عثة هاواي. PNAS مارس 2010.

باسم…

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لا بأس بالدين الراسخ…

You can read all about his story from the NY Times. أعتقد أن الأمر الأكثر رعبا في فضيحة الإساءة بأكملها (فضائح) هو أن الكنيسة تؤمن بالفعل أن هذا هو عمل الشيطان – لا عقول البشر الملتوية. نعم, “the Devil is at work inside the Vatican”, so why punish a man who just needs the devil vanquished? Oh wait, they don’t even exorcise priests because it is just atemptationwith young, deaf, boys. Then how is it that these priests who are so easily tempted left in positions of power? The answer is easyjust like any government, the Catholic church is profoundly incompetent.

الإجابة على عبقرية الأسبوع الماضي الصحافة

لجميع أولئك الذين امتنعوا عن التصويت (أريد أن نفترض بعض القراء يجب أن يعرف هوية دينا كاتربيلر الغموض, ولكن كان كسول جدا للتعليق), هنا هو الجواب (بعد نهاية الشوط الاول).

Continue reading Answer to last week’s Genius of the Press

Aquamoth!

آخر حيوان مذهلة من هاواي – a completely amphibious caterpillar (نشرت في مارس 22 PNAS). بينما هناك عدد قليل من قشريات الجناح المائية, كل منهم الخياشيم التي تبقيهم يقتصر على المياه (تمانع لك, نحن نتحدث فقط عن مرحلة اليرقات). إذا تيار من يجف, لذلك لا كاتربيلر. The novel adaptation in these insects is the ability to live comfortably, and apparently indefinitely, on dry land أو submerged in fresh watera trait distinctive to these 12 new species of Hyposmocoma (Cosmopterigidae). This is unique not only to Insects, but to all known animals. يوجد, بالطبع, amphibians. But unlike these caterpillars they require moisture to survive and often desiccate rapidly. Hyposmocoma thrive in desert like conditions, or submerged for weeks. Not only were 12 different species discovered (that are also the first known caterpillars to eat snails), but it even appears as if this amphibious ability has evolved three separate times. Clearly the selective pressures on small lepidoptera in these areas are extreme.

The Lepidoptera as a whole have evolved a full range of adaptations, including species that are parasitic, detritivorous, fungivorous, endophagous, carnivorous (also on Hawaii), aquatic and now fully amphibious. Hummm, sounds like a bad song (to this music). بوضوح, leps are cooler than any other order.

Perhaps if I were Rubinoff I may have named one moth Hyposmocoma aquamana. بالطبع, Aquaman was pretty worthless on the landso maybe it should have been ح. potioaquamana (potio- coming from the Latin for superior or more effective).

كاليفورنيا الربيع


لقد حان الربيع إلى شمال كاليفورنيا والعث هم على الجناح. أنا أخذت في رحلة تصل سريعا إلى سفوح سييرا خلال عطلة نهاية الأسبوع وارتفعت فوق المنحدرات الحادة فوق نهر الأمريكية. Above is pictured Xanthothrix ranunculi f. albipuncta (ليليات: Stiriinae). It happens to be sitting on a beautiful california poppy. The hostplant, ومع ذلك, يكون Coreopsis stillmanii and grows in small patches of serpentine soils on southern facing slopes along the central valley. هنا ملف Xanthothrix sitting on the host.

This moth was originally described as a form of X. ranunculi في 1925 (form roughly equals subspecies today), and then completely forgotten about and unseen until 1990. It was left out of a major revision of the subfamily, so the legitimate status as a subspecies or full species remains unknown. لا تنزعج.

عبقرية الصحافة, V.II

بعد الدفعة آخر من سلسلة المفضلة, عبقرية الصحافة. هذه المقالة تأتي من حروف أخبار, الذين يمكن التعرف على هذه اليرقة? إنه بالتأكيد ليس عثة الغجر.

زميل مدون علم الحشرات Myrmecos كان له قصة مماثلة الأسبوع الماضي.

قبالة مع رؤوسهم!

(الصورة الائتمان)

The monarchs have started their spring migration north and you might even see one soon (ليس مثيرا إذا كنت تعيش في فلوريدا أو مرحبا حيث هناك سكان على مدار العام, أو في كاليفورنيا حيث توجد بقع منفصلة البيات الشتوي). تقارير من مواقع الشتاء في المكسيك ولكن هم الكئيب; with possibly the lowest population size since the colonies were discovered in 70’s. A few bad storms in and along the butterfly’s route, coupled with habitat fragmentation and logging, has probably killed 50-60% of the mexican monarch population (according to reports below).

(credit)

Is this anything special to be concerned about? I don’t particularly think so. Weather was the key player in this year’s record low population, and I can imagine the butterflies have seen numbers this bad before us humans were around to count them. I will bet anything on the population making a recovery in the years to come, no need to run around screaming, the monarch will be in your garden this summer and next.

Monarchs are pretty and kids love them, so it doesn’t take a stretch of the imagination to figure out why so much effort is put into monitoring them. But as a lepidopterist, nothing is as boring as yet another report on theplightof the monarchs Zzzzzzzzzzzz. I tend to believe there are more pressing issues to be concerned about, such as the accelerating rate of biodiversity loss in the face of scientific ignorance. Monarchs do play an important role as a public mascot and even as a figurehead species that help preserve precious habitatbut let’s use them as a foot in the door for further education. نعم, ال Monarch Butterfly Fund, is striving for habitat protection and sustainability. A good thing. I understand that this achieves a positive outcome, but why only in the name of the monarch? This seems like a spectacular opportunity for science education that is just rounded down tosave the monarch”. These forests serve as much more than a shelter to one butterfly species and even more thanan important carbon sink and oxygen generator”.

My interpretation.

Instead I suggest this. It is by far, orders of magnitude, more interesting:

[youtube = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGYAMDGMraA&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

عبقرية الصحافة, الجزء الثاني

نشرت في سانتا باربارا نيوز برس, شتاء 2009. من يستطيع أن يقول لي ما هو الخطأ في هذه التسميات?

الائتمان المسح الصفحة: ستيوارت ويلسون.

الوقت للسماح تكساس كن بلدها مرة أخرى

As if educational standards weren’t bad enough in this country, Texas has decided to make them worse. A recent push from a conservative school board has re-written history, literally. The logic may be a bit difficult to follow, but they have attempted tobalancehistory by injecting more conservative ideals (تمانع لك, no one is a historian on the board). What is to be changed:

  • Adding confusion on separation of church and state – (نعم, we know it’s not literally in the constitution. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.)
  • Discussing how christian ideals helped to found our country.
  • Conservative resurgence in the 80’s and 90’s, including the Moral Majority and the NRA.
  • Discussing the violent nature of some civil rights movements and republican support of congressional civil rights votes.
  • Adding that Germans and Italians were interned as well, not just the Japanese during WWII.
  • Adding how senator McCarthy was correct in being paranoid over communism.
  • Replacing the wordcapitalismwithfree-market enterprise”.
  • Removal of Thomas Jefferson from sections of the book.

This entire change is ghastly. I don’t have a problem mentioning some republican presidents and their positive role in history, or the role of the GOP. History may be written by the victors, but it should strive towards fair and balanced. The alterations made above are absolute bullshit and only serve to further their conservative, religious, agenda. What really pisses me off is the alteration of the civil rights movement and Japanese internment. Just because a bunch of old, fat, white men in congress realized they better pass civil rights laws does not mean they should deserve credit for it. و, are they really expecting us to believe that internment was not focused on the Japanese? That entire chapter in our US history is undeniably horrible and shameful, it was also fueled by racism. I do not understand how supporting bigotry and racism is considered a conservative value. Why must they unashamedly, and ignorantly, re-write history to further their agenda? The poisoning of the GOP and conservative values by religion is all to clear in this case. The bread and butter of religious fundamentalism is inculcating the youth. This strategy is very successful when you encourage large families and insane devotion. Now that the majority of conservatives are religious they are spinning their webs onto our children (حسنا, your children).

The worst is yet to come. Texas and California are the largest textbook markets in the country. If they pass legislation mandating the alteration of texts then the publishing companies must fall into line. Since printing different versions of books for different states is financially unfeasible, then only ONE book gets printed for US schools. If Texas successfully adds this BS to the history books then every public school in the US gets force fed (or as republicans like to sayrammed down our throats) these books.

What is a conservative today if not religious? What is coming next: insertion of morebalancedideals of global warming, cloning and evolutionary biology. لا تنزعج.

Fail to Texas.

When I’m too lazy to think of my own material,

I post someone else’s. Came across this series in a PZ Myers lecture, pretty entertaining and you should go check out Mr. Deity yourself.

[crackle src=/p/Mr._Deity/Mr._Deity_and_the_Messages.swf&fv=id=2021384&mu=0&ap=0]