|
Subject |
Comments |
Views |
Author |
Date Written |
Commensalism
|
view preview
Sloths have a commensal relationship with several insects. Their thick fur readily traps bacteria and algae, which makes a good home for many beetles. The beetles are able to lay their eggs in a place that is rich in nutrients upon hatching, and the sloths don’t care either way. One sloth was reported to have over 900 beetles living in its fur!
|
|
|
0 |
4606 |
savio |
10 years ago |
The nastiest cheese on earth
|
view preview
Casu marzu is a traditional Sardinian sheep milk cheese, notable for containing live insect larvae. It is found almost exclusively in Sardinia, Italy. Casu marzu is created by leaving whole Pecorino cheeses outside with part of the rind removed to allow the eggs of the cheese fly Piophila casei to be laid in the cheese. A female P. casei can lay more than five hundred eggs at one time. The eggs hatch and the larvae begin to eat through the cheese. The acid from the maggots' digestive system breaks down the cheese's fats, making the texture of the cheese very soft; by the time it is ready for consumption, a typical casu marzu will contain thousands of these maggots. ...
|
|
|
2 |
4069 |
savio |
10 years ago |
Ant careers
|
view preview
It turns out that ants are capable of making career moves.Computer tracking of ants shows that colonies have three main occupations: nursing the queen, cleaning, and foraging for food. Younger ants typically stay near the queen, but as they get older, they make the transition to foraging. This transition with regards to age was an exciting discovery, giving more insight into ant behavior. Source: http://www.nature.com/news/tracking-whole-colonies-shows-ants-make-career-moves-1.12833 ...
|
|
|
0 |
3621 |
ehd123 |
11 years ago |
Termites are nature's architects
|
view preview
Termites are pretty astonishing creatures by anyone's standards -- their queens are thirty times the size of soldiers and they produce an amazing thirty eggs per minute. Relative to their size, termites build the largest structures in the animal kingdom. Their towers can reach an incredible 25ft (7.6m) high and 40ft across (12.1m) - and that's just above the ground! They can burrow as far as 225ft (68m) below the surface.
|
|
|
0 |
4264 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
Ants: Crashing picnics for 158 million years
|
view preview
There are over 12,000 species of ants in the world, and a new tree of life has been published to better understand how they are all related. Their evolutionary origins have been traced to the tropics in South America, where they play a critical role in maintaining the health of the ecosystem.
|
|
|
0 |
3287 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
Don't like centipedes? They may be beneficial
|
view preview
If you have a house centipede crawling around on your floors, you’re in luck! These little guys feed on pests such as termites, cockroaches, spiders, and ants to keep your home’s biodiversity to a minimum. Adult centipedes have 15 pairs of legs that help it achieve top speeds of 0.4 meters per second. To mate, centipedes become acquainted through the touching of antennae, and the male deposits sperm onto the ground, which the female then uses to fertilize her eggs.
|
|
|
1 |
4200 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Self-sacrificing honeypot ants
|
view preview
More than thirty species of ant have a caste known as 'honeypot ants'. These essentially act as living pantries for other ants in the colony. They consume large quantities of food until the abdomen is incredibly engorged. When worker ants lack other food sources, honeypot ants simply regurgitate out nutrients for them to eat. In some parts of the world, eating honeypot ants is viewed as a sweet delicacy.
|
|
|
0 |
4594 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Here's why I hate centipedes
|
view preview
The Amazonian giant centipede is the largest centipede alive, reaching lengths of 30 centimeters. They are carnivorous and feed on lizards, snakes, mice, and even bats. While their venom is not enough to kill an adult human, it may cause reactions with the skin.
|
|
|
2 |
4967 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
|
0 |
2415 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
World's most dangerous spider
|
view preview
Latrodectus mactans, or Southern black widow or simply black widow, is a highly venomous species of spider. They are well known for the distinctive black and red coloring of the female of the species and for the fact that she will occasionally eat her mate after reproduction (hence the name – Black widow). The species is native to North America. The venom might be fatal to humans. Although these spiders are not especially large, their venom is extremely potent. They are capable to inject the venom to a point where it can be harmful. The males, being much smaller, inject far less venom. The actual amount injected, even by a mature female, is very small in physical volume. When this small amount of venom is diffused throughout the body of a he ...
|
|
|
1 |
2384 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
One giant hornet
|
view preview
The Japanese giant hornet kills about 40 people each year, and being stung by one feels “like a hot nail” going through the flesh.
|
|
|
1 |
2074 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Giraffes come in various forms
|
view preview
This is the giraffe weevil from Madagascar, which, as you might have guessed, gets its name from its long neck. Males use their extra long necks for fighting, while females use theirs to roll a leaf nest, into which an egg is laid during reproduction.
|
|
|
0 |
2488 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Would you like to try a gluten-free diet or a helminth?
|
view preview
Parasitologist espouses using parasitic worms for treatment of autoimmune diseases – Dr. Joel Weinstock, at Tufts Medical Center in a commentary piece published in the journal Nature, describes work that he and colleagues have been involved in that focuses on studying the possibility of introducing parasitic worms into the guts of patients suffering from autoimmune diseases such as Crohn's disease. The thinking he says, is that modern hygienic lifestyles may be contributing to such diseases and that reintroducing parasitic worms and perhaps certain bacteria into the gut may restore a natural balance in the gut and relieve patients of such symptoms as chronic diarrhea, bleeding and infections. Source: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-p ...
|
|
|
0 |
3482 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Beetles the size of period
|
view preview
The water beetle is about 1 mm in length and has been named Hydraena ateneo. Most of the discoveries made in the Philippines occur in their forests, making this discovery even more surprising.
|
|
|
2 |
3546 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Here's why birds and ants get along so well
|
view preview
Some birds, such as woodcreepers and cuckoos, are known to follow army ant raids on forest floors. As the army ant colony travels on the forest floor, they stir up various flying insect species. As the insects flee from the army ants, the birds following the ants catch the fleeing insects. In this way, the army ants and the birds are in a commensalistic relationship because the birds benefit while the army ants are unaffected. ...
|
|
|
0 |
5042 |
duddy |
10 years ago |