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ADVENTURES IN ZOOLOGY

This is a blog about research, fieldwork, and trying not to get stung by big tropical wasps too often

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Something a little bit magical

4/24/2014

2 Comments

 
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Here I am in the lab, gently nurturing about eight thousand seeds. I've spent the past two months collecting them from up and down Panama. They come in all kinds of crazy shapes and sizes. Some look squat little fat men waiting grumpily on the forest floor. Others are covered aggressively in hundreds of spines. Some have giant wings. Still more are coated in fluff. But my absolute favourites have to be members of the genus Machaerium (from the Latin for sword) - so named, fantastically enough, because their seeds are supposed to look like miniature cutlasses...

What I'm interested in are the insects that live inside the seeds. Once collected, we sit tight and wait for the insects to emerge (whereupon we pounce, and, well, sorrowfully sacrifice them for science). So far it's been beetles, moths, and a stupendous amount of larvae. But today I turned to the Machaeriums, and found... weevils!

I'm probably far too excited about this, but WEEVILS! Because what could be better than beetles that look like elephants (they look like they have trunks)? Seriously? My weevils are all a bit too tiny to get a good photo of (though the miniature-ness kinda adds to their charm :p ), but here are a few general weevily pictures from Google to show you what I'm talking about if you're new to the concept of six-legged Borrower-sized elephants:
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Call me silly, but isn't there something amazing (a bit magical...?) about thousands of tiny elephants inside miniature cutlasses flying down from the tops of thirty-foot-high rainforest trees? I think it's great. :)

I'll try and get a photo of my particular weevils - watch this space! And we're expecting many many more over the coming months... Ah, weevils. 

Photo credits:
http://www.stri.si.edu/sites/esp/tesp/plant_pictures/i_sp2009.mx.jpg

http://nccataline.blog.com/files/2011/04/boll_weevil_full.jpg

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/resources-rx/images/1022/weevils-490_78880_2.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hyWhMo3klY4/UIrTqZIyJJI/AAAAAAAAJtc/TdEfR84jwII/s1600/Capture2.JPG
2 Comments
Fiona Blundell link
4/28/2014 03:30:31 am

Now that I have found this blog, courtesy of your mother (sorry it had to be said) I am absolutely hooked. I shall be reading every post and I too shall be hoping that you spot a Tapir which has long ranked as one of my favourite pig-like creatures. This particular post is fascinating and I am amazed that I can be quite so smitten with a Weevil. But there we have it - I lead a sheltered life. Keep the enthralling story coming please

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Patrick
4/28/2014 10:46:14 am

Thanks Fiona! Haha, glad to hear you like weevils too ;) They are the bee's knees. Hope you're having a great time living in France! Looking forward to a general family catch-up at some stage...

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    Hi! I'm Patrick - an early-career postdoc in behavioural ecology. I completed my PhD in 2019, focused on Polistes paper wasps in South and Central America. I'm currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow and Simons Society Junior Fellow in the Rubenstein Lab at Columbia University (New York) and the ​Radford Lab at the University of Bristol (UK), looking at the social behaviour and evolution of Africa's incredible wasps! I'm always keen to get involved in outreach to spread the word about these amazing animals.

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