I don’t know if you have seen this picture in my gallery or not…but I thnk it is fitting for holloween.

My sister and I were out hiking in the Quabbin Resevoir and happened upon this spooky tree that looks like a scene from the Wizard of Oz. We definitely had a double-take when we first saw it.

PS- If you are not sure what I am referring to, the one tree on the left looks like it has a face.

Have you seen the Dove’s campaign for real beauty commercials? Here is one of their commercials that I think is really interesting. It shows how an every day woman is transformed into a billboard model.

I’m a very routine/habitual person…and apparently so is Gunther. Every night as I get ready for bed, Gunther begins his same routine of running to the bathroom door as I close it in his face, and, like clockwork, manages to fit his paw beneath the foor and swing it frantically at my feet.

Curious cat from outside the bathroom door:

Jamie:

I am making isopod igloos with my pre schoolers and was wondering if you have some pictures to show these interested little ones. Let me know if there are any other critters the children might enjoy.

Isopods are cool. They’re arthropods, but not insects. They are scavengers and breathe with gills.

As far as other insects to use in the classroom that are almost effortless to maintain, I think the Painted Lady Butterfly would be a great example for little kids to watch. You can order PL Butterfly kits from Carolina Biological Supply (see here). This gives children the opportunity to watch butterflies througout each life stage (larvae, chrysalis, and adulthood). The kits provide enough food to see the larvae through adulthood.

Also, while poking around on the web, I found this great site that has listed a plethora of different lesson plan ideas that involve insects.

Thomas:

How can juvenile hormone have several different effects in insects?

Juvenile hormone (JH) is actually a group of hormones (several forms: JH0, JHI, JHII, JHIII) that are produced by the corpora allata (a gland in insects). JH really has two main functions in insects, the primary being morphogenesis, the other being egg production. And of course, there are exceptions. More on the different functions in a sec.

Probably one of the most famous studies using JH was conducted by a prominent entomologist, Vincent B. Wigglesworth. He is considered one of the fathers of insect physiology.

Vincent mainly worked on the kissing bug (Rhodnius prolixus) and he did a classical experiment that showed that JH keeps the larval epidermal cells from producing adult cuticle. The cuticle of last nymphal instar of the kissing bug is dimpled. When the insect becomes an adult the cuticle is smooth. To show that JH was affecting the epidermis, Vincent painted his initials (VBW) with JH on the abdomen of the last instar before the insect molted into an adult. The area that he painted his name in produced another nympal cuticle (dimpled), the rest produced the adult cuticle (smooth).

The picture on the far left is the cuticle of the last nymphal instar, the middle is of the cuticle of the adult, the picture on the far right is where Vincent painted his name with JH showing that the hormone inhibited the epidermis from forming the adult cuticle.

So, JH’s first function is in morphogenesis. The higher the JH titer in the larva, the further it is from becoming an adult. The closer the insect gets to molting into an adult, the lower the JH titer is. In fact, the period before the molt into adulthood is actually called a JH-sensitive (or JH-critical) period, and JH has to be completely absent in order for the insect to successfully molt into an adult.

Why do insects fail to keep molting? JH works in conjuncture with other hormones (such as prothoracic hormone) and it is believed that the absense of JH causes the degeneration and preprogrammed cell death of the gland that produces prothoracic hormone.

After the insect becomes an adult, JH also functions in egg production (ovarian maturation) in many insects. Other behaviors are often linked to egg maturation, such as blood feeding and mating behaviors. Mosquitoes need a blood meal in order to produce eggs. Some researchers have shown that removing the corpora allata (CA) after Culex mosquitoes emerged as adults blocked the initiation of biting behavior. Those same researchers injected JH into mosquitoes that had their CA removed and showed that biting behavior was then recovered. Pheromone production in cockroaches and aggressiveness in honeybees has also been linked to JH.

I know that there are a couple people who visit this site that could answer the original question a lot better (and hopefully they will comment if I’ve missed something), but I think the simplest answer to why JH has several different effects in insects is because it has different actions/functions at different times in the insect’s life (larval vs. adulthood), it has different effects during specific JH-critical periods, there are a couple different forms of JH, and JH has different effects depending on what other hormones it is interacting with (i.e., prothoracic or ecdysial hormone).

As an aside, I tried using methoprene, which is an analogue of JH, in hopes of shutting down biting behavior in horse flies (based off of those experiments with the Culex mosquitoes), but I didn’t get any clear results right away and had too many other confounding factors, so I had to drop that project. Methoprene is an insect growth regulator and is commonly used in pest management programs for fleas, ants, and mosquitoes. In my opinion, it is really cool to see how scientists can use an insect’s natural hormone against it for control purposes. Methoprene isn’t like a traditional insecticide, it doesn’t poison the insect and kill it outright, it disrupts its lifecycle and prevents the insect from ever reaching adulthood and reproducing.

Thats what I find really exciting about insect science; being able to apply the knowledge learned about the mechanisms of basic biology in order to improve the quality of life.

What happens to cats who think the whole apartment is their playground?

They get grounded (literally) by being fitted with booties.

Who’s got the last laugh now, Gunther??

So folks, I am stuck out in the boonies of NY dropping trees like a lumberjack. Well, a lumberjack with a pimped-out ATV and dressed in blazed orange in hopes of avoiding hunting season.

While the trees that were infested with an invasive woodwasp are dead and being removed, there were still other creatures out and about despite the temps being in the 50’s. Take for example this halictid bee (a.k.a. sweat bee).

The halictids are commonly referred to as sweat bees because some species are attracted to perspiration. They feed on pollen and nest in the ground and in wood. They are also known for ‘mass provisioning’ their larvae. They form a mass of pollen in the cell that the egg is laid in and when the larva hatches it will have enough food to feed on until it emerges as an adult. This is different than say how honey bees provide food for their larvae because honey bees continue to bring food back to the growing larvae all throughout the growing season.

Below is a picture of an adult poking its head out of a hole in a piece of decaying wood.

Insects weren’t the only things that were out and about, for instance, here is a cute little millipede that crawled its way across one of our logs.

And there was also this handsome frog, whom I think looks like a little bandit with that mask over its eyes.

While the main purpose of this particular trip is to fell infested trees, my eyes still can’t help but watch the few insects that are still buzzing around. No worries though mom, when that chain saw starts going I make sure to look up to see which way the tree is falling

He looks so serious. It must be the reality tv shows he is so intent on watching