Tenacity? Efficiency.

My mother used to say that efficency is applied lazieness, and in some ways she was right.

But when it comes to saving the planet, efficiency is a buzzword we hear often. And in our search for the best way to do things, using the least ammount of energy we look to the animal kingdom for advice. Here the form – function relationship in any living creature has been carefully crafted over centuries of evolution. Survival of the fittest has ensured that only the most efficent designs have survived (although when  romance is involved there tend to be runaway designs).

The way that a bugs form relates to the function is easy to see. Colours blend in or stand out, to avoid attention or act as billboards. Legs save energy by working with the elasticity of the skeleton. Wings are shaped to cut through the air and use the tough sides of the thorax to beat faster. Swimmers and runners are streamlined for least resistance, check this out for some serious hydrodynamics.

One critter that seems to stand out as a model for tough and efficient design is the cockroach. Its large surface area makes the most of the sun’s warmth and flat body ensures minimal air resistance, acting as inspiration for solar travel.

Cockroaches are so tough, they can survive for up to a week without a head. And are thought to be the only probable survivors of a nuclear war. With all this on their side it’s no wonder their models are being used in extreme conditions such as the mars swarm exercise.

Consider them the armored tanks of the insect world, designed for survival. Look to nature for the blueprints for a sustainable tomorrow.

Also, just for fun – Radioactive cockroach and toys!

lofty inspirations

” For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you long to return” – Da Vinci.

For fairly gravity influenced animals, mankind is particularly obsessed with flight. We see birds of prey soaring in the updrafts, bats flapping and foxes gliding…………and bugs? All of the above.

Bugs fly in different ways, depending on their requirements. It was once thought that the humble Bumblebee was incapable of flight, and yet they flew.  Butterflies glide and flap their large wings to ‘flutter’ gently from place to place. While Dragonflies can beat their wings up to 90 times per second and have delicate control to chase and catch fast moving insects. And beetles clatter around, varying from highly aerodynamic, to those that probably shouldn’t have gotten off the ground.

We use their designs to get in the air, actually and by proxy. Their different methods for achieving flight inspiring us to improve our own designs, with their help we are creating safer and more efficient methods to travel by air. And now there are more ‘practical’ applications for the model airplane.

For more info on flying like an insect, checkout these guys.

And randomly: Bumblebees.

the way you look tonight

Its all about the way you look. The way a critter looks is determined by the place in which it lives and what it’s priorities are. Colours and patterns are designed to make the most of their environment, for camouflage, or to make your intentions clear.

Whether they blend in to avoid being eaten (hiding from hungry birds is often the goal), or to better creep up on their prey.

These crab spiders are master colourists, as far as we can see matching their flowers perfectly, lying in wait for pollinators drawn to the nectar. Little do they know that bees can see in the UV spectrum, and the spider hasn’t managed to match the flowers ultraviolet patterns.

Others like to play dress ups, disguising themselves as something less appealing to eat, or to get into places they wouldn’t normally be allowed.

Bugs use the way they look to communicate to the masses, honest and dishonest signals of what they are, how they might taste, and who they want to meet  – kind of like a Facebook “interested in” and “relationship” status.

An honestly copied signal is an advantage to all those who use it as it reinforces the message that is being sent, this kind of mimicry is called Mullerian mimicry. But there are just as many, if not more critters taking advantage of the messages sent by more ‘honest’ species, this kind is called Batesian mimicry, something we are an ideal, albeit clumsy, example.

We copy them in all kinds of adornment, but the original signals are somewhat ‘lost in translation’.

The colours of a monarch butterfly are a sign to all – don’t eat me i’m toxic, and although its possible thats what the designer of this dress intended, i’m not convinced.

Bugs are an integral part of our lives and we embrace and imitate them from funfairs to art instillations, and logo designs.

They intrigue and inspire us.

An inordinate fondness for beetles.

Bugs work to our advantage in all kinds of ways, from silk production and a  nutritious food source, to cleaning museum specimens and weed control.

If you can think of it bugs do it, and if bugs do it then a beetle probably does it. Beetles are the most abundant group on the planet.

They are characterized by their hardened forewings (called elytra) which protect their soft bodies and handily open out to expose the hind-wings for flight. The elytra have  another purpose in acting as aerofoils for added lift (especially handy in the fatter beetles).

With more than 350,000 known species they make up 25% of all known life!

And there lies the key, “known life”.

How much do we really know about what’s out there? Beetles beetles everywhere! and bugs certainly rule our world, whether we know it or not.

The real question is what do we know is there?

There are an estimated 0.1% of insects and 1.7% of other invertebrates (critters without backbones) that we have named and  described. Naming an animal plays an important part in recognizing what’s out there, so we can take care of it/ will know when it’s in trouble.

Naming species is key to preserving biodiversity. For example, if you know there’s a unique or endangered animal in an area you can protect the area in their name, and by protecting that area will benefit a myriad of other plants and critters. It is far harder to protect an area based on it’s value as a natural space. Even so-called protected areas are coming under threat.

The problem is, we don’t. Critters are going extinct faster than we are describing them. Our taxonomists (the people who describe and name new species) cant keep up and we need to make a change.

2010 is the international year for biodiversity. So lets take care of our world, if we know it, we can understand it, and if we can understand it maybe we can protect it.

Bite me!

That humans are inspired by nature is apparent from everything from fine arts to poetry, but why bugs? The efficient way in which bugs are ‘designed’ for their task is exquisite to watch.

And considering the variety within bugs it is unsurprising that some fall into niches that we categorize as pests. Mosquito borne diseases are  the biggest human killer in the world.

The humble, and annoying, mosquito hunts out warm bodies with pumping blood using heat sensors, and chemical signatures in our breath and sweat.

Mozzies tend to be the culprit in cases of host-jump, where an animal virus has moved to humans (as seen in bird and swine flu ), as they aren’t so particular in who they bite, so long as theres nourishing blood. But this is mainly small groups of mosquitoes, the Anopheles and Aedes that carry diseases, and only the females at that. Male mozzies are nectar drinkers,  it’s the female that needs a protein hit to develop her eggs.

The diversity within mozzies goes as far as pure nectar eaters, and there is even a group that hunt and eat other mozzies, using their powers for ‘good’ (to us anyway).

And the disease carriers are spreading. New Zealand is home to 12 native mozzies, most of which don’t bite humans and are thought to have evolved alongside moa. But we have brought some less savory sorts from warmer climates whose spread we are desperately trying to minimize,  although climate change is aiding a slow spread south.

But they aren’t all bad. We have been using bugs to our benefit for centuries, but I’ll leave that for the next post……..

Ciao.

Design bugs

Dont worry, i’m not talking about intelligent design, although most of the designs are intelligent, my views lie in the relms of natural selection. Mother Nature provides the toughest brief of them all, so what better place to borrow ideas.

Ever been bio inspired?

Most people have, although not all would admit it. The natural world has inspired novels and poetry, and engineering?  you might be surprised.

The cleverly evolved designs and mechanisms that appear in nature are the perfect place to go for functional and beautiful ideas.

And as the most diverse and abundant group on the planet bugs are a great place to begin. The series of posts to follow will take a look at bugs and design, hope you enjoyed the teaser 🙂

Awesomeness of glowing in the dark

Ok so bioluminescence has been a bit done to death, but for me, and most people I think, glowing living animals never seem to loose their novelty.

While fireflies (not the song, but the insect) are the most well known ambasadors for bioluminescence, all kinds of creatures create their own light, in the bug world we can include worms and glow worms (not actually worms, but fungus gnats).

New Zealand is known for it’s glow worms (species: Arachnocampa luminosa) particularly in the north island at Waitomo caves – a huge tourist attraction,  and they are present in allsorts of caves, overhangs and shady forest banks across the country. They glow through waste processing and, to our current knowledge, excrete only light and water. And the glow attracts allsorts of flying critters to their beautiful traps = dinner. So its a bug eat bug life in the world of glowworms, but they arent the only ones…

New Zealand has a less known glow worm. These are the giant earthworm Octochaetus multiporus and they secrete bioluminescent slime – but i’m not sure why. Theyre also said to be one of the main foods of our giant Powelliphanta landsnails, and the image of a snail sucking up a giant glowing worm is rather fantastic, now I just have to find one.

I wont go too much into the chemistry of glowing as this woman covers the basic chemistry and the ocean dwelling glowers – and she has some great videos! so check it out.

And now a little fanciful thinking, to wrap a rather information heavy ramble…

You know those moments when the beauty of the world around you seems too great to be real, I had one of those on my trip to Cambodia last year.

We were in the southern region of Takaeo, near the coast, in the tidal region of a river travelling up to see the night sights. As we left the lights of town behind us I thought for a moment that the fluroescence on the boat’s hull was electrical, a second glance, and the memory that we weren’t that high tech, revealed thousands of green glowing algae. You could dip your hand in the water and pick up spots.

Then the light show started, in addition to the algae we came across great spindley trees full of fireflies, all flashing at their own pace, but eventually all in sync, against a background of violet skies cut with bolt lightning.

Its hard to describe the feeling, but it was one of awe at the wonders in this world, it made me feel small, and privelaged to be there.

awesomeness.

Grasshoppers

In keeping with my regards to changing the environment for human benefits, and the great connection between life and water, I’m hopping the ditch back to consider the proposed greening of the Mackenzie country in New Zealand’s South Island where more water isn’t always a good thing.

The Mackenzie basin is landscape of mostly native grasslands, creating golden panoramas edged in snowy mountains that make it one of the selling points in our ‘clean green’ tourist image. 

Burkes pass, leaving the Mackenzie country.

 

And, aside from the economic benefits, it is also home to many unique plants and animals. Close to my heart are the Orthopterans that inhabit this wild and inhospitable landscape.

Hemideina maori - tree weta known for surviving freezing, Mackenzie country,photo by Mollivan Jon

Much of this land is government owned and leased, mostly to ‘sheep and beef farmers’ where grazing of the mostly native grasses is standard. But there are current proposals to sell the land to leaseholders allowing the lucrative but environmentally devastating conversion to dairy farming.

Forest and bird are running a campaign to petition the government and keep this land in public hands – preventing the ‘greening’ of the Mackenzie basin. For more information, and ways to help, see here:

http://www.forestandbird.org.nz/what-we-do/campaigns/keep-the-mackenzie-country-brown

And if you’re interested in New Zealand’s water issues check out my classmates blog : http://julietlarkin.wordpress.com/

Tropical explorations

Welcome to northern Australia, where Kakadu national park is a vivid contrast to the stark desert one might expect (ok, so I expected) and after two days traveling I am very much in awe of the masses of wildlife. Here a stunning array of insects and the critters that lunch on them (as well as the tourists that they lunch on) are out in force.

But why? I certainly don’t function well at these temperatures, so why does life seem to flourish here?
Well it’s the end of the rainy season and everything is growing like mad trying to do its bit before the dry sets in (apparently now it’s the ‘knock em down’ storm season) so the place is aching with fresh leaves and flowers, life and water seem to be well connected.

Wherever there is water there are insects (and crocodile warning signs, although there are no crocs in sight), butterflies are hopping from flower to flower sucking nectar with long tounges, and the flies and mozzies swarm on busloads of unsuspecting tourists that have come to see the sights.

Birds have come from miles around to feed among the waterlillies, dragonflies flit from branch to branch and hundreds of species of ants carpet the ground.

Getting a decent picture for you is interesting, so far i have wasps and some very cute insectivores:

And my favourite creature so far? the epic rhinocerous beetles – Xylotrupes  species – about 4 cm long, dark tough beetles that clatter into the windows at night, and make angry hissing noises when you pick them up – just stunning

What a place!

On a sadder note are the many mines we pass along the way, vast holes in the red rock, men labouring under the intense heat for treasure of an industrial kind.

The vast conservation areas in Kakadu and other nearby parks are commendable, and seem to be reaching their goals in preserving biodiversity, but is this coexistance something our own natural environment can cope with?Should this even be something we are considering?

The New Zealand government needs to consider more than just the economic benefits Australia might get from mining, and see the great pitfalls that follow this lifestyle.

And thats quite enough for now, time for a siesta i think. While all these weird and wonderful creatures thrive in the heat i would really like to spend my days in one of the many scenic billabongs. And if i return from my adventure inside a scaly beast, you will know i gave in to that temptation

Funk Tallamy? sounds like a band

But actually they’re the authors of a cute little paper on the mating habits of long tailed dance flies where, unusually, the traditional roles are reversed and guys pick out their mates from a ‘swarm’ of lovely ladies showing off their wares.

Winning over a girl with dinner and dancing seems fairly common. Although finding her in a ‘meat market’ style club full of ladies with their guts puffed out (literally) to attract the opposite sex seems a little far fetched. But this is precisely what the long tailed dance fly Rahamphomyia longicauda does.

Night after night you’ll find her chilling out under the same patch of sky. A male, clutching his gift of dinner, sees her wide silhouette against the light and the gift is handed over. A spot of privacy is found – the evenings task completed, she’ll be back tomorrow for another go.

But why? you might ask…. Well i’ll tell you

While the dance flies are hunting insects, feeding on midges and whatever other tasty critters they can catch, but the females of the species have lost the ability to hunt and rely males to get enough food to survive and reproduce.

So guys have all the power, and come to meet the gathering girls in their patches of light with food items to exchange for sex. Having gone through all the trouble to hunt down a snack it’s in his best interests to choose the ‘best’ female. But who’s the best female? The guys are under the mistaken impression that bigger females have bigger eggs which are therefore more likely to be fathered by him/ and able to survive to hatching so in their eyes bigger = better.

Males wear the pants in this situation, controlling the food supply – so have the power to choose who might give him the best children. To deal with this power imbalance females puff themselves up to look like they have bigger eggs.

So as long as the guys can’t tell the difference, bigger really is better.

In response to this selective pressure females have evolved some secondary sexual characters to make herself look bigger – they line their legs along the margin of the abdomen and her leg hairs are ‘designed’ to make her look even wider., and puff their guts out into special pockets along the abdomen to make her even bigger.

But heres the puzzle

Bigger girls might not have better eggs,

but they get more sex,

and with that comes food because males bring ‘nuptial gifts’,

so they will produce better eggs

So the best strategy for a male is still to choose the biggest female,

and the cycle continues.

Perhaps the real question is who’s tricking who?

So girls: puff out you gut, be a wide load for a night, if you’re a long tailed dance fly it might just pay off.

Animal behavior paper, 2000, Courtship role reversal and deceptive signals in the long tailed dance fly.