Keep your Mouth Shut

Imagine you are an Atlas moth and you just hatched out of your cocoon.  You start flying around and then you suddenly become  hungry.  You fly over to the nearest flower too go get a drink of nectar.  As you go to take a sip, you realize that your mouth parts aren't developed and that you have to rely on the fat you stored when you were a larva.  Then you fly away, knowing that you will die of starvation in the next two weeks.

Because of their lack of mouth parts, the Atlas moth must eat as much as possible when they are caterpillars.  While in their larval state, they mainly consume the leaves of certain citrus and evergreen trees.  They only have a couple of weeks to bulk up for their time as an adult.  The caterpillars are green with white "spines" and can grow up to 4.5 inches before they pupate.

Once they have enough food, they form silk-like  cocoons.  The silk they produce is not actually silk but a stronger substance simply referred to Fagara silk.  They spend about four weeks developing until they emerge from their cocoons.

When they come out, they are adults.  An adult female's wingspan can reach up to 12 inches long; the male is usually smaller.  Their wings are usually maroon and have translucent patches on them.  Their large wings are disproportionate to their bodies.  Their bodies are small and usually "furry".

All in all, this moth is the biggest moth in the world, with arguably the biggest defect in the world.  This proves that just because you are big, doesn't mean that you are perfect.

Further Reading

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attacus_atlas

http://www.worsleyschool.net/science/files/thelargest/butterflyandmoth.html

http://www.cirrusimage.com/Moths_Atlas.htm

http://www.naturia.per.sg/buloh/inverts/atlas_moth.htm

Book Club Responce #1

Everyone has had a time where your life has changed unexpectedly.  For me, this was when my parents divorced.  Although the actual divorce was not an issue, because I was young, it is sometimes difficult to get to spend an equal amount of time with them.

I usually spend most of my time with my mother.  I only get to see my father every Monday, Wednesday, and every other weekend.  On those days, I only get to spend a couple of hours with him, with the exception of the weekends.  Sometimes that is not enough time with him.  It doesn't help that the amount of work that I get from school takes up the time I see him.  I know schoolwork is important, but I like spend as much time with him as possible. 

When I am with him, he is usually with my half-sister.  This is the only time that I get to see her so I like to have as much fun with her as possible.  I know that she enjoys my company as much as I enjoy hers, so it is sometimes hard not seeing her, especially when I don't see her for days.

Even though this can be difficult at times, I know that my parents love me and that they are doing their best to make sure that I see them equally.  This may be a difficulty, I have learned that everything will be okay.

The Magic of Magicadas

In the summer of 1979, my mother was walking through a local park.  As she was walking, she heard a hiss that literally made her skin crawl.  Being only five years old, her sense of curiosity got the best of her.  She slowly trekked towards the mysterious sound, until determined the source.  What she found still creeps her out to this day.  She had found a cicada. More specifically, it was a magicada, a cicada that emerges every 13 or 17 years, depending on the brood, or set of cicadas that hatch at one time.  This particular brood was Brood II, a brood that hatches every 17 years.


There are 30 known broods of periodical cicadas (magicadas).  Broods are symbolized by Roman numerals.  The broods that emerge every 17 years are Broods I-XVII.  Broods XVIII-XXX emerges every 13 years.  Although there are 30 broods named, only 15 of them have been discovered.  The other 15 broods are used for the convenience of scientists.  


Periodical cicadas are averaged sized cicadas.  They are 2.5 to 3 centimeters in length.  They are usually black with red eyes and yellowish orange stripes on their abdomen.  Their wings are translucent and have orange veins.

Magicadas are well known for their extremely long life cycle.  First, they start our as eggs.  When they hatch, they burrow underground as nymphs.  They stay immobile for the majority of their life, going through five stages of development.  The year before they emerge, they start to feed on tree roots.  Afterwards, they emerge through the burrows they used to get in.  The males and females mate, resulting in a total of 600 eggs.  Then the 13 to 17 year cycle repeats.


In 1870, Brood XXI mysteriously went extinct.  No one knows exactly what happened to them but a variety of factors could have played a role.  This is exactly why we should protect the environment- because treasures such as this brood of cicada can be lost.


http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/bugs/cicada/
http://www.magicicada.org/about/brood_pages/broods.php

This Is A Blog About Bugs- Beware if You Have Entomophobia

Remember when you were a little kid, playing in your attic, and how that bug started crawling up your leg?  Remember how you screamed at the top of  lungs and how your mother practically tripped over herself trying to get upstairs so she could see that you are okay?  Now, if you have the same reaction every time you see a bug, you have entomophobia.

Entomophobia is the fear of insects and any other thing that crawls around.  Similar fears include arachnephobia, the fear of spiders, apiphaphobia, the fear of bees, and myrmecophobia, the fear of ants.  Entophobia is an irrational fear that, like all fears, can cause severe emotional response, anxiety, and a panic attack.  

 

Entophobia is often confused with an aversion to insects.  Aversion is a natural fear to bugs that can cause harm. Humans have had this kind of aversion for hundreds of thousands of years.  Although aversion is completely natural, it can turn into a phobia if the fear becomes more immense.

Most phobias have the same symptoms as entophobia.  Endophbics can experience much distress if in contact with a bug.  If the fear is potent enough, the person may loose consciousness.  In addition to the same symptoms, they also have similar treatments.  Treatments include medication, therapy, and counseling.

Everyone has fears, but if they let them out of control, they can become phobias.  Phobias can cause much difficulty in life, and may make it impossible to enjoy your day.  You should not let your fears go to your head.    An anonymous person once said, "Each time we face our fears, we gain strength, courage, and the confidence in doing."  Keep this quote in mind the next time a bug crawls up your leg.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entomophobia

http://www.phobialist.com/

Amber Alert (The Fossil)

30 million years ago, an ant was walking up a form of a cycad, a kind of plant.  As it scaled the plant, it realized that that it had stepped in something rather sticky.  It looks down and realizes that it stepped in tree resin.  It thinks to itself, "Oh God, I'm going to be stuck here forever".  The resin continues to ooze over the ant.  Overtime the resin, along with the encased insect, are buried and are exposed to great amount of pressure and heat.  The resin begins to fossilize, resulting in amber.

Although this is not a true account of how an ant got stuck in resin, amber is actually formed in this manner.  The resin has to withstand the elements and degradation, the process of degrading or decomposing.  Then, it must be buried in the right conditions for fossilization to occur; it must be quickly covered with sediment or dirt.  Lastly, the resin must go through a process of oxidation, which is the process of the removal of oxygen.  The final product takes millions of years to form. 


Amber is usually a yellowish brown color, but it comes in a variety of colors.  It can also come in pale yellow, brown, and black.  Some of the most uncommon colors are green and red, also known as cherry.  The rarest color is blue, which is only found off of the coast of the Dominican Republic.  It is so rare that only 100 kilograms of it are found each year. 


In addition to being decorative, amber has other uses.  It helps paleontologists study specimens that would otherwise decompose.  Specimens such as insects, as well as bacteria, amoebae and frogs have be studied in amber.  The amber also helps to date when these specimens were alive.  amber is also used in perfume as a fragrance, and as flavoring in some liquor.

As you can see, something as beautiful as amber can have use and can give us an insight of life before us.  It gives us an example of the beauty in the world.  If only the rest of the world was the same

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amber#Formation
http://www.emporia.edu/earthsci/amber/whatis.htm#top
http://www.articlesbase.com/jewelry-articles/what-is-an-natural-amber-stone-603360.html

Drop Dead Goats

Imagine you are on a farm.  You see a goat running towards you as fast as it possibly could.  You start to think "Oh My Gosh this goat is going to attack me!!", when all of a sudden, the goat just falls over and seems to be paralyzed.  No, the goat did not faint because it was it was afraid of you.  Goats that exhibit this strange behavior, known as fainting goats, are known to faint at the most random of times.  The cause for this unusual behavior is a genetic condition called myotonia congenita.

Myotonia congenita is a genetic condition that caused the goats muscles to faint when startled.  This condition is caused when the CLCN1 gene is mutated.  This gene controls muscle and bone development.  When this gene mutates, it causes muscles to contract more frequently than normal.  This condition can also affect humans, in which case they can take medicine to shorten the contractions.

Despite the name, fainting goats do not actually faint.  When an animal faints, it loses consciousness.  The goat just simply collapses.  Although it remains conscious, it looses all sensation. 

Animals have developed strange tendencies, whether by choice or by disorder.  It is one of the things that makes the animal kingdom unique.  It usually remains untempered with and is allowed to change by itself, whether for better of for worse.  I believe that we shouldn't attempt to change anything in nature, no matter how unusual.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fainting_goat

For a video click here.

The Potugese Man-of-war

If you were to see a Portuguese man-of-war, the first word that would probably come to your head would be- jellyfish.  Well, the man-of war is actually a siphonophore.  A siphonophore differs from a jellyfish because it is a colonial organism.  This simply means that a bunch of single celled organisms ,call zooids.  They act together, like how polyps act together to form coral. There are four kinds of zooids that make up the man-of-war. 

The first kind of zooid makes up the gas-filled bladder, called the sail.  This sail can allows the man-of-war to float at the surface.  The sail can be tinged blue, purple, translucent, mauve (a pinkish purple color), and pink.  The sail is filled with about 90% carbon dioxide.  In the event that the man-of-war is attacked, it can deflate this sail, and submerged itself.  The man-of-war's sail must stay wet in order to remain inflated, so they may roll to wet their sail.

The other three kids of zooids create the man-of-war's tentacles.  These tentacles are can grow to over 50 meters long, but are usually 10 meters long.  The venomous tentacles are used to catch prey.  Prey swim through the tentacles and get stung.  Although the venom works on most fish, some fish are immune to the stings and live within the tentacles.

Note: Man-of war stings are poisonous to humans and may result in death.  For treatment, click this link.

Man-of wars- live in tropical regions around the world.  They range from Spain to Guyana to Costa Rica.  This is because they have no means of propulsion.  They must travel through ocean currents.

Isn't interesting that a bunch small organisms can work together to form one massive creature.  When you think about it, we all work together to form society as a whole.  If only everyone could do that.