Aphids have mutualistic viruses!

Aphids can be a pain in the ass to gardeners and farmers. Although they look pretty harmless, they’re to plants what mosquitoes are to people and more. They transmit some pretty serious diseases which cause millions of dollars in damage per year. They’re also famous for their fecundity-they’re parthenogenic and their daughters are actually born [...]

Mosquitoes and host range evolution on Galapagos

Let’s talk about something that really isn’t given top billing amongst many vector biologists for a minute. It’s not that the subject is taboo, it’s simply that most of the money that comes into researching vector borne disease comes in to fight diseases which afflict humans and animals that are important to humans. Most vector [...]

Perhaps I should start asking Acacia trees for relationship advice?

Acacia trees and ants have an interesting mutualistic relationship which is frequently used as a textbook example of a mutualism. The trees offer the ants hollow thorns in which to live and food to eat, and the ants protect the tree from herbivores, both insects and large mammals as well as vines which would overcrowd [...]

An Open Letter to the Iowa State Legislature

There has been an antievolution bill introduced in my home state. Today, you are faced with a choice. In Iowa, we have always prided ourselves on our educational system. A bill currently in the legislature threatens to take that away. I am, of course referring to House File 183, the so-called academic freedom bill. These [...]

I’m not too happy with Graham Lawton of New Scientist right now…

see more pwn and owned pictures I’m not even going to pretend that I read everything what pops up in popular science. My exposure to pop-sci articles consists largely of stumbling into the Iowa State University bookstore and thumbing through the science magazines, usually after I look at the pretty women in fashion magazines. I’m [...]

Evolution of Tympanic Hearing Structures in Parasitoid Diptera

Google books is a wonderful thing. You can find pretty much anything on there, at least in part. Quite a bit of the stuff you’ll find is missing some pages, but it’s definitely enough to learn from…or at least find a title of something you’re looking for or interested in. Today’s example: Insect Hearing . [...]

Tree Lobsters: Convergent Evolution in Phasmida

Phasmids are really cool insects. You probably know them better as stick insects. They’re insects which have evolved probably the most perfect cryptic coloration in the animal kingdom-they’ve evolved to look like sticks. They’re very, very good at this because not only do they look like the last thing a predator would ever eat, many [...]

Uaraneida and the origin of silk in spiders

I do quite a bit of writing on spiders. Many entomologists deal with spiders, mites and other arachnids in their everyday working life. They’re important, ubiquitous predators. To this entomology undergrad, they’re essentially honorary insects. Everyone knows spiders spin webs. They can be organized and beautiful, such as this orb weaver web They can be [...]

I am living proof against Intelligent Design

Take a look at Casey Luskin’s diagram in his most recent post over at Evolution News and Views. Believe it or not, this diagram hits close to home to me. You see, the very fact that I’m alive is proof positive that this diagram fails the most basic test of irreducible complexity. I have a [...]

Answers in Genesis vs Bacterial Symbiosis

…and as usual, nature wins. more animals Answers in Genesis recently started a so-called ‘research journal’ in which they do…well, as far as I can tell nothing. As a prime example, let’s take this article talking about the role of bacteria in tumor suppression. They talk about the discovery that bacteria live inside tumors and [...]