The Other 95%

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All the news, views, and research concerning to most underappreciated majority of life: invertebrates. Features include Tuesday Toons and a Spineless Song of the Week performed by myself. Detailed articles are mixed with other spineless fun!

Kevin Zelnio
7 posts

Eric Heupel
7 posts

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  • July 16, 2008
  • 12:00 AM
  • 790 views

Insect Ejaculate Attracts Parasites x2

by Kevin Zelnio in The Other 95%

Kevin and I have been anxiously waiting for PNAS to release this one, since we saw it in Nature A few years ago a Nature Brief Communication described the interesting relationship between the cabbage white butterfly (Pieris brassicae) and the parasitic wasp Trichogramma brassicae. The wasp parasitizes the eggs of the butterfly laid on plants of the cabbage family. The wasp, when given the choice between virgin or mated cabbage white butterfly females, was able to detect and showed a strong preference for the mated females. The authors determined that the wasps used a chemical cue ... Read more »

Nina Fatouros, Gabriella Bukovinszkine'Kiss, Lucas A Kalkers, Roxina Soler Gamborena, Marcel Dicke, & Monika Hilker. (2005) Oviposition-induced plant cues: do they arrest Trichogramma wasps during host location?. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata, 115(1), 207-215. DOI: 10.1111/j.1570-7458.2005.00245.x  

Nina Fatouros, Martinus E Huigens, Joop J van Loon, Marcel Dicke, & Monika Hilker. (2005) Chemical communication: Butterfly anti-aphrodisiac lures parasitic wasps. Nature, 433(7027), 704-704. DOI: 10.1038/433704a  

N Fatouros, C Broekgaarden, G Bukovinszkine'Kiss, J J van Loon, R Mumm, M E Huigens, M Dicke, & M Hilker. (2008) Male-derived butterfly anti-aphrodisiac mediates induced indirect plant defense. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0707809105  

  • September 5, 2008
  • 12:01 AM
  • 766 views

Right Whale Lice

by Eric Heupel in The Other 95%

Cyamus ovalis Photo: Vicky Rowntree, University of UtahIn an earlier post, I joked (well half joked) about the need to save the whale lice, even if you don't care about the right whales. I thought today I would expand on the brief comment about the lice and their special relationship with whale and how they can actually tell us about the populations of right whales and their evolution. Image courtesy of Mariano Sironi, Institute of Whale Conservation, Buenos AiresIn the image above you can see the characteristic white and black rough patches known as callosities on the face of a right wale. The raised dark grey bits are indeed part of the whale. Those are rough ridges that become sharper and harder. They are not really lice, but a caprellid amphipod, in other words a crustacean. Whale lice specifically are in the family Cyamidae consists of 35+ species in seven genera and are collectively known as cyamids. On each right whale around 5000 Cyamus ovalis coat the callosities and gives them their white color is Cyamus ovalis. In the spaces between the raised callosities live around 500 C. gracilis. On adult whales approximately 2000 C. erraticus live in the genital and mammary slits. C. erraticus is highly mobile though often occupying wounds, and living in large concentrations on the heads of young calves. Of these C. gracilis is the smallest with ~6mm long adults and with the other two species measuring ~12-15mm long as adults. Closeup of Right Whale callosity with C. ovalis. From Iain Kerr, Ocean Alliance/Whale Conservation InstituteThe cyamids were named "whale lice" by early whalers in reference to their own head and body lice. Mmmmm fun! While not actual lice, they behave similarly in a few key ways. Cyamids have no free swimming stage and spend their entire life on one species of whales, transferring from whale to whale through intimate contact, primarily between a mother and it's calf. They were recently used, similarly to their lice namesakes, to track the population structure and evolution of their hosts. In 2005 a team of scientists published the results of their study of the population structure and evolution of right whales based on DNA studies of the whales' cyamids. The cyamid DNA is in some ways more informative than the whales' own DNA as the cyamids complete many generation per whale generation and the population of the cyamids, especially C. ovalis, is far greater than that of the whales, offering the researchers more mutations to track. The team collected cyamids from globally distributed right whale strandings and used variation in the mitochondrial COI gene to analyze the population structures of both the cyamids and by inference the right whales they inhabit. The first finding was that there was no obvious population structure within ocean basins. They also found high levels of haplotype diversity but low gene differentiation suggesting a large population with high transfer rate between individual whales.The North Atlantic and Southern Ocean populations however have apparently been fully isolated for several million years. This supports the view that the North Atlantic, Southern Ocean and North Pacific right whales have been isolated for millions of years and shouldbe considered separate species. In a gene tree for the right whale cyamids the three different nominal species clustered out as seven distinct species. C. avalis, C. gracilis and C. erraticus fall out with separate North Atlantic and Southern Ocean species which diverged approximately 6.3mya. Interestingly the Northern Pacific C. ovalis form a tight clade nested within the tree of the Southern Ocean C. ovalis suggesting that there was more recent contact those two populations than between the Northern Atlantic and Southern Ocean populations. By studying the cyamid crustaceans Jon Seger and his team were able to provide another line of evidence that each oceanic basin population of right whales is in fact a distinct species. They also found four new species of right whale cyamids and that the number of right whales in each basin was higher than originally estimated for pre-commercial whaling populations.Classification of the nominal species Cyamus ovalis:KingdomAnimaliaPhylumArthropodaSubphylumCrustaceaClassMalacostracaOrderAmphipodaInfaorderCaprellidaFamilyCyamidaeGenusCyamusSpeciesCyamus ovalisReferences:Kaliszewska et al. (2005). Population histories of right whales (Cetacea: Eubalaena) inferred from mitochondrial sequence diversities and divergences of their whale lice (Amphipoda: Cyamus) Molecular Ecology, 14 (11), 3439-3456 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2005.02664.x... Read more »

Zofia a. Kaliszewska, Jon Seger, Victoria J. Rowntree, Susan G. Barco, Rafael Benegas, Peter B. Best, Moira W. Brown, Robert L. Brownell, Alejandro Carribero, Robert Harcourt.... (2005) Population histories of right whales (Cetacea: Eubalaena) inferred from mitochondrial sequence diversities and divergences of their whale lice (Amphipoda: Cyamus). Molecular Ecology, 14(11), 3439-3456. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2005.02664.x  

  • February 5, 2008
  • 12:01 AM
  • 763 views

Oops! Another Discovery Institute Abuse & Misuse

by Kevin Zelnio in The Other 95%

I guess its to be expected, Intelligent Design proponents just can't seem to tell the truth. Case in point: Casey Luskin, a Discovery Institute lackey attempts his first take at participating in the Bloggers for Peer-Reviewed Research Reporting (BPR3) with a post demonstrating how a recently published article in PLoS ONE using the icon copyrighted by BPR3. Anyone is free to use this icon, you've seen it many times on this blog, so long as they register their blog and abide by the guidelines of this organization. The icon is important not only because it signifies that a post is a thoughtful c... Read more »

Leslie Orgel. (2008) The Implausibility of Metabolic Cycles on the Prebiotic Earth. PLoS Biology, 6(1). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0060018  

  • April 8, 2008
  • 11:01 PM
  • 726 views

Isopods Cause Reproductive Death in Shrimp

by Kevin Zelnio in The Other 95%

Isopods, you know them as those adorable little roly-poly bugs under rocks in the forest or the gigantic Bathynomus of the deep sea. They are also those cute and cuddly parasites in the gill chamber of shrimp too! Awww, How special! In the recent issue of JMBA-UK, Calado et al. describe how these fuzzy wittle darlings castrate their shrimpity hosts.The isopod in question is the Argeiopsis inhacae, a member of the parasitic family of isopods - Bopyridae. They don't start off as the lovely parasite "friend" of shrimp. The larvae begins life as a free swimmer until it finds a copepod ... Read more »

Ricardo Calado, Cátia Bartilotti, Joseph Goy, & Maria Dinis. (2008) Parasitic castration of the stenopodid shrimp Stenopus hispidus (Decapoda: Stenopodidae) induced by the bopyrid isopod Argeiopsis inhacae (Isopoda: Bopyridae). Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the UK, 88(02). DOI: 10.1017/S0025315408000684  

  • May 25, 2008
  • 12:00 AM
  • 696 views

Crustacean Larval Degeneration

by Kevin Zelnio in The Other 95%

I remember the brief discussion in Invert Biology about the 100 year old mystery of the "y-larvae" crustacean. The jist of the conversation was that there was still much to learn about larval development of many crustaceans and there were some which were known as larvae but not as adults, for instance... "y-larvae" (also known as Facetotectans), a taxa of crustaceans which is described solely on the basis of the naupliar and cyprid larval stages.Pachenik's Invertebrate Biology, the standard undergraduate textbook for invert biology/zoology, doesn't mention y-larva at all, while Br... Read more »

Henrik Glenner, Jens Hoeg, Mark Grygier, & Fujita Yoshihisa. (2008) Induced metamorphosis in crustacean y-larvae: Towards a solution to a 100-year-old riddle. BMC Biology, 6(21).

  • September 18, 2008
  • 11:03 PM
  • 660 views

Wilted Greens

by Eric Heupel in The Other 95%

Differential Grasshopper by Eclectic Echoes ©2008 BY-NCDid you know that the Differential Grasshopper (Melanoplus differentialis) prefers wilted or damaged sunflowers? This one is seen on a sunflower that was damaged in recent winds we had here (tail end of Hanna). I wondered why it was that the grasshoppers (2 found) and the evidence of grasshopper activity – chewed leaves and copious amounts of feces – was all on the damaged sunflowers and not on the still healthy plants.In 1984, A. C. Lewis published a study in Ecology which showed M. differentialis has a strong preference for wilted and damaged sunflowers. In Feeding choice trials only 1% of grasshoppers feeding on undamaged sunflower tissue when damaged or wilted tissue was available as well. The wilted leaves have higher sucrose and soluble amino acid concentrations.In growth trials, grasshoppers which fed on mixed diet of both damaged and healthy sunflower tissue had a higher growth rate at all stages, higher fecundity, and higher survival. Grasshoppers fed only fresh healthy leaves had slower consumption rates, lower food conversion efficiency, and interestingly also had a higher feeding rate of molted skins.The higher survival and fecundity rates may be because of the difference in diet directly, but it is likely that in part these are a result of the higher growth rate of the instar stages and increased size and health of the adults. (Bigger healthier females - more eggs, and more robust eggs)Classification of the Differential grasshopper:KingdomAnimaliaPhylumArthropodaSubphylumHexapoda ClassInsectaOrderOrthopteraSuborderCaeliferaFamilyAcrididaeGenusMelanoplusSpeciesMelanoplus differentialisLife Photo MemeReferences:A. C. Lewis (1984). Plant Quality and Grasshopper Feeding: Effects of Sunflower Condition on Preference and Performance in Melanoplus Differentialis Ecology, 65 (3), 836-843... Read more »

A. C. Lewis. (1984) Plant Quality and Grasshopper Feeding: Effects of Sunflower Condition on Preference and Performance in Melanoplus Differentialis. Ecology, 65(3), 836-843. DOI: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici  

  • July 11, 2008
  • 11:01 AM
  • 651 views

Free Access to Internet Resources Helps Conservation

by Kevin Zelnio in The Other 95%

OK, a slight digression on the theme today. We are going to talk about a paper involving the endemic flora of Trinidad and Tobago, but we won't discuss plants. Instead, we'll talk about open access to information. In a paper just out in the conservation journal Oryx, Van Den Eynden and colleagues discuss how they evaluated plant endemism, conservation status and reserve effectiveness utilizing only freely available online resources from the internet and local Herbaria. There were several conclusions drawn about plant conservation, but here is a tidbit about how free access to information helpe... Read more »

Veerle Van den Eynden, Michael Oatham, & Winston Johnson. (2008) How free access internet resources benefit biodiversity and conservation research: Trinidad and Tobago's endemic plants and their conservation status. Oryx, 42(03). DOI: 10.1017/S0030605308007321  

  • June 15, 2008
  • 12:00 AM
  • 608 views

Optically Buggin'

by Kevin Zelnio in The Other 95%

It's an overcast ugly day here, so this morning while waiting for the sea shanty festival to start, I thought I should get something more serious posted to the site. This one made the rounds of the physical and material science news sites a few weeks ago when the original press release went out. After the paper was actually published I was able to find some time to read it —"Bugs" and computing are intimately linked throughout computing history (and electronic engineering in general). Moths were the nemesis of early vacuum tube computer operators as they would fry themselves o... Read more »

Jeremy Galusha, Lauren R Richey, John S Gardner, Jennifer N Cha, & Michael H Bartl. (2008) Discovery of a diamond-based photonic crystal structure in beetle scales. Physical Review E, 77(5). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.77.050904  

  • May 25, 2008
  • 11:01 PM
  • 607 views

Cave Inverts Prefer Exotics

by Kevin Zelnio in The Other 95%

While the deep-sea may be the final frontier for marine biologists, caves are one of the least studied environments on land. Some caves can extend dozens of miles below the ground in sinuous networks, all but cut off from the grassy hills and tree-lined horizons above. Its not an easy environment to access and many explorers have perished attempting to map these subterranean labyrinths. Yet, recent investigations have found an astonishing community of invertebrates associated with caves, existing nowhere else. Many of these species are insects and spiders, adapted to the dark conditions, muggy... Read more »

NICOLE HILLS, GRANT HOSE, ANDREW CANTLAY, & BRAD MURRAY. (2008) Cave invertebrate assemblages differ between native and exotic leaf litter. Austral Ecology, 33(3), 271-277. DOI: 10.1111/j.1442-9993.2007.01814.x  

  • November 26, 2008
  • 12:56 AM
  • 572 views

Starvation is the Thread That Binds Amoebas Together

by Kevin Zelnio in The Other 95%

When the going gets tough, the starved huddle together en masse. You might expect this behavior from musk oxen, schools of fish or even armies of anemones. New research published in the open access journal PLoS Biology demonstrates that our spineless protistan cousins, the amoeba, seek out genetically similar relatives when they are under stress. They aggregate together to form a fruiting body which will carry their genetic information safely on when better days arrive. This happens at an expense though. Nearly 20% of individual amoebas will perish in this effort "altruistically" giving their all for their cousins. The spores of the fruiting body are hardy and will go on carrying the amoebas' genetic heritage, while some cells will die making the stalk that lifts the fruiting body off of the ground. The higher the fruiting body the more likely and farther it will be dispersed.Figure 4: Sorting of Strains during Multicellular Development. Cells expressing either GFP or DsRed were mixed at equal proportions and allowed to develop on agar plates. Pictures were taken at the indicated developmental time points and the merged image of the two fluorophores is shown. (A) A mix of the genetically dissimilar strains AX4-DsRed and QS44-GFP shows increased segregation with time. (B) A mix of the genetically identical strains AX4-DsRed and AX4-GFP shows no segregation.There are several interesting ramifications from this study. The amoebas must be able to detect similar genotypes. Additionally, this demonstrates an important historical point in organismal evolution. The beginnings of multicellularity. One direct hypothesis generated or supported by this is that multicellularity evolved out of a need to protect genetic information during stressful times, such as starvation. Instead of every individual slowly dying off they band together for a final push to ensure the survival of the genes.Elizabeth A. Ostrowski, Mariko Katoh, Gad Shaulsky, David C. Queller, Joan E. Strassmann (2008). Kin Discrimination Increases with Genetic Distance in a Social Amoeba PLoS Biology, 6 (11) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0060287... Read more »

Elizabeth A. Ostrowski, Mariko Katoh, Gad Shaulsky, David C. Queller, & Joan E. Strassmann. (2008) Kin Discrimination Increases with Genetic Distance in a Social Amoeba. PLoS Biology, 6(11). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0060287  

  • February 2, 2009
  • 01:11 AM
  • 563 views

Cephalopod-tastic Friday

by Eric Heupel in The Other 95%

Roger Hanlon, from the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, came out to UCONN's Avery Point campus to present for our Friday seminar series. His presentation was a good overview of his lab's work on cephalopod camouflage behavior over the past decades, with the majority of the discussion on the work they have done recently with the cuttlefish Sepia officinalis. So I hope you will bear with me while I gush on a bit about my favorite group of animals and their amazing adaptations, which allow them to confound predator, prey, and researchers alike! One of the first videos (of many) presented was one which leaked to YouTube in low res, but, of course, Roger had it in full resolution and projected large. The video is a magnificent example of high-fidelity camouflage by the octopus employing all its tricks. I've seen an octopus disappear in front of my eyes only once and it was simply amazing. I've seen Roger's video three or four times in high resolution, and each time I get the same wonder filled reaction. I've probably seen it a hundred times in YouTube's low resolution and even there it makes me pause. For some reason the majority of people who view this think the tricks in the video are in post production not from the octopus...go figure.Where's the octopus?Image copyright Roger HanlonAfter the "Wow" example, Roger gave an overview of camouflage related capabilities and systems in cephalopods. He outlined their amazing skin with its dense network of chromatophores and their controlling muscles, underlaying leucophores and their muscles, the base skin layer, and the vision and neural control system which allow the cephalopods to coordinate and change all of these structures along with changes in the texture of the skin as fast as they do. From Sutherland et al. (2008).He broadly covered the use of color and patterns in cephalopods for communication, especially in sexual competition and courtship. Regretfully, he ran out of time at the end and didn't cover the wonderful tale of "cross-dressing" cuttlefish males and their success in tricking dominant males to think they are females. His lab also found that females showed a preferential choice of the "cross-dressing" male's sperm for fertilization of the eggs (Hanlon et al. 2005). But, he did show Caribbean reef squid males showing their "two-faced nature", always presenting the female they are wooing with a peaceful calm side, while showing all other squid an extremely aggressive countenance.Two frames about 10 seconds apart from video by Roger Hanlon. In the first image the male is on the left of the female, showing her a calm, courting display. The stark white display facing away from the female is an aggressive display, warning other males to keep away. In the second frame the male has switched to the right side of the female when she moved and changed his color patterns to keep the docile pattern visible to the female and the aggressive warning showing outward to any other males. Total color change occurred in ~2 seconds. Images from video, copyright Roger HanlonOnce Hanlon laid the background information, which was especially important since his audience included physicists, chemists, biologists and students ranging from age 8 to 70+, Roger moved on to the main focus of his labs recent work: camouflage. While the octopus in the image at the top is a high-fidelity example of cephalopod camouflage, a near exact match to the background in color, pattern, and texture, in years of observing cephalopods with many thousands of video and photographic records as data points, Hanlon's lab has found that this high-fidelity form of camouflage is very rare. "Good enough" camouflage patterns are far more common. Most of the camouflage in cephalopods can be categorized into 3 broad templates (with variations) of patterning: a fine-grained, average intensity uniform pattern, a medium-grained varied contrast mottled pattern, and large-grained high contrast disruptive pattern. Using their visual records and captive cuttlefish, they have examined these templates extensively.Each template is used in different circumstances and, with minor variation in pattern and the addition of color matching, is very effective in fooling the eye without having to exactly match the background. In a large variety of controlled tests his team has gradually narrowed in on the base templates and the cures that cuttlefish use to determine which pattern to utilize. The lab uses tanks with natural or laminated backgrounds placed at the bottom of the tank. They capture the reaction of the cuttlefish when the environment is changed using both HD video and still photography. To better quantify the results they have been using black and white checkerboard and pixilated background patterns with varying sized squares.The cuttlefish have an area on the top of their mantle that is referred to as the "White Square component" which is characteristic, displayed in disruptive camouflage, and is proportional to the size of the animal. It is also, though not visible to the cuttlefish, key in the choice of disruptive camouflage by the cuttlefish.Disruptive skin components of cuttlefish Sepia officinalis, including the "white Square Component" indicated by the number 2 at the joint of the "T" formation on the back of the cuttlefish in the left figure. On the right is the result of comparing various sized cuttlefish with various sized grid patterns. At all sizes when the area of one square of the grid is between 40 and 120% of the area of the cuttlefishes white square component, it will utilize the disruptive camouflage. Below and above those relative sizes and the animal moves to mottled or uniform patterning.From Barbosa et al. (2007).In their recent research, the lab found that when presented any cue for disruptive patterning, even if it represents only a small percentage of the total environmental cues, e.g. two or three white rocks on sandy bottom, a cuttlefish will choose to move to the cue item and employ a disruptive pattern of camouflage. Interestingly, white pebbles cued the disruptive pattern but black pebbles did not. They have also determined that the shape of the cue is not critical, but the area is. In a recent paper, Barbosa, Litman, and Hanlon, set up both vertical and horizontal patterns to test the cuttlefish response against. Since cuttlefish are generally benthic, ideally they must remain camouflaged against predators from above (such as those pesky dolphins) and from the sides simultaneously. In these tests the cuttlefish appeared to weight the patterns on the side of the tank over the bottom of the tank for choosing their pattern, but they also modified that choice by the bottom pattern. In their quantitative analysis it was found that there was a statistically significant difference between when the side or the bottom only were checkered and between when the bottom was checkered and both the bottom and side were checkered. These differences were displayed in three of eleven discrete skin regions of the cuttlefish. What happens when the vertical and horizontal patterns are radically different? Qualitatively, the cuttlefish appear to weight the vertical visual cues over the bottom cues slightly. Quantitatively this is born out in only three areas of the cuttlefish's body.Figures from Barbosa et al. (2008)The team at the MBL, having made progress on the cues for disruptive patterning camouflage is also looking into the effects of substrate contrast and size for uniform, mottle or disruptive body patterns. For this work they have turned to image processing to grade and analyze the cuttlefish responses to varying check sizes, as before, but also with varying contrast between the check patterns. As with the previous experiments with black and white, or other high contrast checks the cuttlefish camouflage pattern depended on the size of the checks, with disruptive patterns being employed when the check was between 40% and 120% of the area of the animals white square component. When the pattern was altered to a low contrast pattern however, the camouflage pattern was independent of the check size, and was of the uniform/stippled pattern. At intermediary contrast levels the mottled pattern is seen with small area checks.Evaluating background pattern contrast as well as check size as cue for unirom, mottled or disruptive camouflage pattern employment by S. officinalisFrom Barbosa et al. (2008)(b)Even with all the headway the lab is making on camouflage patterns in cephalopods, there is still much for them to look at. Especially vexing right now is the issue of color. Cephalopods have excellent color matching capabilities, at least during the daytime, at night they still employ excellent pattern camouflage but the color is off, in hue if not in intensity (Hanlon et al. 2007). What researchers wonder about however is how they are able to "see" the colors that they are using in their camouflage. Cephalopod eyes are beautiful structures, able to see polarized light, but they only have one receptor for color information. Cephalopods are colorblind (Mäthger et al. 2006) and see only in a blue-green at 492nm. So how do they "see" the colors they are imitating, since they are able to imitate the colors around them?Lydia Mäthger and others from the lab are examining just that. They have recently had a paper published from experiments in which they measured the spectral reflectance of S. officinalis and of several marine substrates which would evoke the three different main camouflage patterns. They found that the spectral signatures, while not a match, do correlate closely, suggesting that the color variations in substrate and animal skin can be very similar and this may let the cuttlefish effectively match color without color vision. So, yeah, that was a very cool seminar. All the better for the all too brief conversation afterward at the post-seminar social. Since we lingered so long my family decided to get Thai for dinner from a new restaurant near the school. First two items up on the specials for the night? #1 Fried cuttlefish with Chili sauce. (sorry DC!)#2 Jumping Squid with Thai Basil and ChiliOh, yeah... Cephalopodtastic!A Barbosa, L Litman, R Hanlon (2008). Changeable cuttlefish camouflage is influenced by horizontal and vertical aspects of the visual background Journal of Comparative Physiology A, 194 (4), 405-413 DOI: 10.1007/s00359-007-0311-1A Barbosa, L Mäthger, K Buresch, J Kelly, C Chubb, C Chiao, R Hanlon (2008). Cuttlefish camouflage: The effects of substrate contrast and size in evoking uniform, mottle or disruptive body patterns Vision Research, 48 (10), 1242-1253 DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2008.02.011A Barbosa, L Mäthger, C Chubb, C Florio, C Chiao, R Hanlon (2007). Disruptive coloration in cuttlefish: a visual perception mechanism that regulates ontogenetic adjustment of skin patterning Journal of Experimental Biology, 210 (7), 1139-1147 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.02741R Hanlon, M Naud, J Forsythe, K Hall, A Watson, J McKechnie (2007). Adaptable Night Camouflage by Cuttlefish. The American Naturalist, 169 (4), 543-551 DOI: 10.1086/512106R Hanlon, M Naud, P Shaw, J Havenhand (2005). Behavioural ecology: Transient sexual mimicry leads to fertilization Nature, 433 (7023), 212-212 DOI: 10.1038/433212a (Open Access)L Mäthger, C Chiao, A Barbosa, R Hanlon (2008). Color matching on natural substrates in cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis Journal of Comparative Physiology A, 194 (6), 577-585 DOI: 10.1007/s00359-008-0332-4L Mäthger, A Barbosa, S Miner, R Hanlon (2006). Color blindness and contrast perception in cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) determined by a visual sensorimotor assay Vision Research, 46 (11), 1746-1753 DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2005.09.035R Sutherland, L Mäthger, R Hanlon, A Urbas, M Stone (2008). Cephalopod coloration model. II. Multiple layer skin effects Journal of the Optical Society of America A, 25 (8) DOI: 10.1364/JOSAA.25.002044 (Open Access)... Read more »

Alexandra Barbosa, Leonild Litman, & Roger T. Hanlon. (2008) Changeable cuttlefish camouflage is influenced by horizontal and vertical aspects of the visual background. Journal of Comparative Physiology A, 194(4), 405-413. DOI: 10.1007/s00359-007-0311-1  

A BARBOSA, L MATHGER, K BURESCH, J KELLY, C CHUBB, C CHIAO, & R HANLON. (2008) Cuttlefish camouflage: The effects of substrate contrast and size in evoking uniform, mottle or disruptive body patterns. Vision Research, 48(10), 1242-1253. DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2008.02.011  

A. Barbosa, L. M. Mathger, C. Chubb, C. Florio, C.-C. Chiao, & R. T. Hanlon. (2007) Disruptive coloration in cuttlefish: a visual perception mechanism that regulates ontogenetic adjustment of skin patterning. Journal of Experimental Biology, 210(7), 1139-1147. DOI: 10.1242/jeb.02741  

Roger T. Hanlon, Marie‐José Naud, John W. Forsythe, Karina Hall, Anya C. Watson, & Joy McKechnie. (2007) Adaptable Night Camouflage by Cuttlefish. The American Naturalist, 169(4), 543-551. DOI: 10.1086/512106  

Roger T. Hanlon, Marié-Jose Naud, Paul W. Shaw, & Jon N. Havenhand. (2005) Behavioural ecology: Transient sexual mimicry leads to fertilization. Nature, 433(7023), 212-212. DOI: 10.1038/433212a  

Lydia M. Mäthger, Chuan-Chin Chiao, Alexandra Barbosa, & Roger T. Hanlon. (2008) Color matching on natural substrates in cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis. Journal of Comparative Physiology A, 194(6), 577-585. DOI: 10.1007/s00359-008-0332-4  

L MATHGER, A BARBOSA, S MINER, & R HANLON. (2006) Color blindness and contrast perception in cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) determined by a visual sensorimotor assay. Vision Research, 46(11), 1746-1753. DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2005.09.035  

Richard L. Sutherland, Lydia M. Mäthger, Roger T. Hanlon, Augustine M. Urbas, & Morley O. Stone. (2008) Cephalopod coloration model. II. Multiple layer skin effects. Journal of the Optical Society of America A, 25(8), 2044. DOI: 10.1364/JOSAA.25.002044  

  • May 16, 2009
  • 01:41 AM
  • 457 views

SpeciesDay - Unionidae

by Eric Heupel in The Other 95%

It's been a bit quieter around here than Kevin and I prefer, but now the finals are all done and I can finally say "I can has cheezburger wit dat?"Seriously though, in the next month or so there will be some changes in this space... in the mean time:Did you know there are 198 invertebrates listed under the Endangered Species Act? Yep, inverts make up 34% of the 575 animals protected under ESA. But is this good or bad that inverts are underrepresented here?? Care to guess how many of those 198 are molluscs? I'll give you a starting point - only two of the 198 invert species protected under ESA are cnidarians. Elkhorn Coral (Acropora palmata)and Staghorn Coral (Acropora cervicornis) are listed as Threatened. First correct answer, gets a small hand made tote bag free (allow 3-4 weeks for creation and delivery though!)Today, May 15th is Endangered Species Day, and the the net was all atwitter with postings and tweets about endangered species. I just got done with the prototype for an outreach product that includes some of those endangered molluscs so I tweeted out the Shinyrayed Pocketbook (Lampsilis subangulata) a member of that marvelous group of freshwater mussels, the Unionidae. If you recall from our earlier posting, this is the group of freshwater bivalves that has the habit of spitting its spawn into the face of an unsuspecting fish. The spawn are technically a form of larvae unique to these mussels called the glochidia and for some reason all my vertebrate loving friends seem to think that the whole "spewing spawn in your face" technique is rather disturbing. The young molluscs that are now in the face and mouth of the hapless fish attach to the its gills and encyst there. They feed on the blood in the gills until they are ready to drop to the sediments and metamorphose into a full adult form.The shiney-rayed pocketbook is found in Alabama, Florida and Georgia, mainly in the Chattahoochie and Flint rivers. In its most recent review it was assessed as endangered with a recovery priority of 5 (high threat and low potential for recovery). The good news though is that from 2003 to 2007 the range of the Shiney-rayed Pocketbook did extend into more of the river than it had been in recent years. The shiney-rayed pocketbook handles the details of reproduction and larval distribution a little differently than our last unionoida. Our last fresh water mollusc, the Snuffbox, lures a fish in with it's mantle flaps which look like a small fish. When the fish attacks the lure, the snuffbox springs its trap, catching the logperch's head between it's valves. It then uses it's mantle to smother the fish for a few moments. When it releases the smothering hold on the fish a little, it also releases it's glochidia which is has been brooding in the shell. The fish gasps for water (air) and gets water and glochidia.The shiney-ray takes another very interesting tack at larval distribution. Its females also brood the young until they reach the glochidia stage then release them to parasitise largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) and spotted bass (M. punctatus). The season for releasing glochidia will be begin in just a few weeks, late May through August.) The females, create a superconglutinate, a group of large packets (conglutiates) of glochidia attached to what appears to be a long transparent mucus rope. The superconglutinate strongly resembles a small fish, which lures in larger predatory fish. When a larger fish attacks the superconglutinate the mass ruptures and glochidia are freed to attach to the gills of the fish. The glochidia parasitize a fish host for a until they are ready (able?) to metamorphose into juvenile mussels and settle to the substrate in sandy or muddy slow moving regions. It is thought that the main purpose of the parasitic stage is not actually for nutrition and growth, but for transportation and distribution since the larvae would be unable to fight even a weak river flow to hold position or fight upstream, but attached to a fishes gills they can expand upstream or at least maintain position. This is borne out to some degree by recent expansion of L. subangulata up current in some locations.Of course a video is highly warranted here, so courtesy of M.C. Barnhart, I give you the close cousin of L. subangulata showig off her superconglutinate. The orange-nacre mucket (Lampsilis perovalis, the species in the video, is one of only 2-3 other species known to create a superconglutinate.

References:Roe, K., Hartfield, P., & Lydeard, C. (2001). Phylogeographic analysis of the threatened and endangered superconglutinate-producing mussels of the genus Lampsilis (Bivalvia: Unionidae) Molecular Ecology, 10 (9), 2225-2234 DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-294X.2001.01361.xBogan, A., & Roe, K. (2008). Freshwater bivalve (Unioniformes) diversity, systematics, and evolution: status and future directions Journal of the North American Benthological Society, 27 (2), 349-369 DOI: 10.1899/07-069.1... Read more »

Roe, K., Hartfield, P., & Lydeard, C. (2001) Phylogeographic analysis of the threatened and endangered superconglutinate-producing mussels of the genus Lampsilis (Bivalvia: Unionidae). Molecular Ecology, 10(9), 2225-2234. DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-294X.2001.01361.x  

Bogan, A., & Roe, K. (2008) Freshwater bivalve (Unioniformes) diversity, systematics, and evolution: status and future directions. Journal of the North American Benthological Society, 27(2), 349-369. DOI: 10.1899/07-069.1  

Barnhart, M., Haag, W., & Roston, W. (2008) Adaptations to host infection and larval parasitism in Unionoida. Journal of the North American Benthological Society, 27(2), 370-394. DOI: 10.1899/07-093.1  

  • October 15, 2009
  • 06:56 PM
  • 410 views

Iceland Scallop

by Eric Heupel in The Other 95%

Time to celebrate the funding of Mrs. M.'s project, Coral Reef Flip Books, part of the Ocean Bloggers Oceans in the Classroom Initiative. Yesterday I asked for input on which card to feature, and the results are in: with 33.33% of the "vote" the Scallop of Hearts gets the next preview here. I should note that the picture on this card is likely to change before the final version, when we hopefully will get an image of a live animal without too many epibionts (organisms that live on the surface of another living organism, generally a commensal relationship) on the valves.Classification for the Icelandic ScallopKingdomAnimaliaPhylumMolluscaClassBivalviaOrderOstreoidaFamilyPectinidaeGenusChlamysSpeciesC. islandicaRangeIt is thought that the Chlamys genus originated in the Pacific and expanded into the Atlantic. Fossil Chlamys shells have been found dating to the Miocene in California. In the Atlantic ocean fossilized shells of the Icelandic scallop (Chlamys islandica) have been found from the late Pliestocene, when it ranged as far south as Long Island in the west Atlantic and to the Mediterranean in the east. Today it is found from Hudson Bay to Cape Cod in the western Atlantic and along the coast of Norway in the eastern Atlantic. It is also found in the fjords and waters of western Greenland and Iceland.The Iceland Scallop (C. islandica) is the northernmost occurring of the major commercial species in the Pectinidae family, occurring in sub-arctic waters of the Atlantic. Several similar species, once thought to be subspecies of C. islandica, are found in similar areas of the sub-polar Pacific. In many areas of C. islandica's range, it is, or has been, a major fishery species. In recent years however in much of its range the fisheries have collapsed. FisheriesIn most of Norway the fishery for the Icelandic scallop suffered complete collapse in just three seasons and has only recovered in one location. In Iceland the stock is (as of 2008) only at 13% or less of its size just one decade earlier. The causes of the rapid decline in Iceland have been investigated by several researchers. They have determined that overfishing has had a strong impact on the stocks, but the effect has been magnified because of two environmental factors. A protozoan parasite is affecting large numbers of adults, causing increased adult mortality. Sea bottom water temperatures have increased more than 2°C, possibly contributing to both adult mortality and very poor juvenile recruiting years for the past four years. Because of all this, the fishery was recommended for closure in the 2009 and 2010 seasons. North American stocks have not fared much better in recent years, with strong declines in stocks. The sharp stock declines worldwide coupled with the fact that they are only wild-fished using dredges, which extensively alter the hard bottom habitats where they live, have caused organizations, such as the Blue Ocean Institute, to recommend avoiding this particular species when possible.BiologyIcelandic scallops have separate sexes (gonochoristic) from birth, whereas most scallop species are hermaphrodites. Reproduction is by broadcast spawning, which is cued by rising ocean temperatures in June and July. After 6-10 weeks of floating as planktonic life, the larvae settle to hard sand and gravel surfaces. When settling they preferentially attach to dead hydroids, live hydroids, and algae using byssus threads.Growth rate varies seasonally, by age, and across the species range, but the scallops generally reach maturity at 5 or 6 years old and can live in excess of 23 years.Icelandic scallops are largely sedentary, often with large and dense coatings of epibionts, such as sponges and tube worms. One thing that interests me right now about the Icelandic scallop, mainly because I'm spending my days doing a lot of GIS work now, is that the species is extremely temperature sensitive, with both high and low temperature limits. As the sea surface and bottom temperatures change, the stock densities and distribution of the scallop change as well. Similarly, it has known constraints in salinity, current flow velocities, depth and sediment types. This makes the Iceland scallop a good choice for a GIS-based habitat suitability modeling, using the range of potential climate change parameters to predict future range contractions or expansions and areas where stock recovery efforts or aquaculture are most likely to succeed over the long term. Of course I also love scallops for their beautiful eyes, and yes... their taste!I think this is one of my favorite recipes. I don't recall where it comes from originally or I'd credit it. Just make sure to use farmed or wild caught Bay scallops (Argopecten irradians) or Giant scallops (Placopecten magellanicus), not Icelandic scallops.12 scallopsSea Salt2-3 tbsp olive oil (virgin)4 tbsp chopped onion1-2 tbsp chopped garlic (we go 3, we love garlic!)1 dry bird pepper (or use dried thai pepper)3 tbsp parsley 3 tbsp diced prosciuttoSaffronSherryFish Broth (splash)12 clams Sprinkle pinch of sea salt over scallops and let sit 5 minutes. In preheated pan on medium heat, add oil, onions, garlic and thai pepper. Cook until onions are wilted. Add scallops and pinch of saffron. Continue to cook on medium 3 more minutes. Add splash of fish broth, splash of sherry, clams and prosciutto. Cook additional 30 seconds to 1 minute. Serve with rustic bread.ReferencesArsenault, D., Giasson, M., & Himmelman, J. (2000). Field examination of dispersion patterns of juvenile Iceland scallops (Chlamys islandica) in the northern Gulf of St Lawrence Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the UK, 80 (3), 501-508 DOI: 10.1017/S0025315400002198GARCIA, E. (2006). The Fishery for Iceland Scallop (Chlamys islandica) in the Northeast Atlantic Advances in Marine Biology, 51, 1-55 DOI: 10.1016/S0065-2881(06)51001-6Jonasson, J., Thorarinsdottir, G., Eiriksson, H., Solmundsson, J., & Marteinsdottir, G. (2006). Collapse of the fishery for Iceland scallop (Chlamys islandica) in Breidafjordur, West Iceland ICES Journal of Marine Science, 64 (2), 298-308 DOI: 10.1093/icesjms/fsl028... Read more »

Arsenault, D., Giasson, M., & Himmelman, J. (2000) Field examination of dispersion patterns of juvenile Iceland scallops (Chlamys islandica) in the northern Gulf of St Lawrence. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the UK, 80(3), 501-508. DOI: 10.1017/S0025315400002198  

GARCIA, E. (2006) The Fishery for Iceland Scallop (Chlamys islandica) in the Northeast Atlantic. Advances in Marine Biology, 1-55. DOI: 10.1016/S0065-2881(06)51001-6  

Jonasson, J., Thorarinsdottir, G., Eiriksson, H., Solmundsson, J., & Marteinsdottir, G. (2006) Collapse of the fishery for Iceland scallop (Chlamys islandica) in Breidafjordur, West Iceland. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 64(2), 298-308. DOI: 10.1093/icesjms/fsl028  

WROBLEWSKI, J., BELL, T., COPELAND, A., EDINGER, E., FENG, C., SAXBY, J., SCHNEIDER, D., & SIMMS, J. (2009) Toward a sustainable Iceland scallop fishery in Gilbert Bay, a marine protected area in the eastern Canada coastal zone. Journal of Cleaner Production, 17(3), 424-430. DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2008.08.004  

  • October 25, 2009
  • 01:08 PM
  • 410 views

Crepidula Fornicata

by Eric Heupel in The Other 95%

We've got two new Ocean Inspired Donors Choose projects that have been funded in the Oceans in the Classroom Challenge! The first one that was funded on Thursday was the awesome Invertebrates in my Tank project that will provide lots of kids with the opportunity to explore one of our favorite subjects: marine inverts! The Inverts in my Tank card is the 6 of Spades — The Slipper Snail, Crepidula fornicata.Classification for the Atlantic Slippersnail KingdomAnimalia PhylumMollusca ClassBivalvia OrderOstreoida FamilyPectinidae GenusChlamys SpeciesC. islandicaI pulled this card for several reasons. First it has the cutest little veliger larvae. Second, it is all over the place here in Long Island Sound. And lastly, it is a prime example of a reproduction strategy that is comparatively rare in the animal world in general, but much less so in molluscs: protandrous sequential hermaphroditism. You may recall Dr. M's recent post, "Who likes protandric hermaphrodites?", in which he described the strategy, while reporting new findings about Idas washingtonia, a deep-sea clam.Like I. washingtonia, the Atlantic Slippersnail (Crepidula fornicata), is a protandric sequential hermaphrodite. While they strongly resemble limpets externally, and are often called slipper limpets, they are indeed gastropods that are common inhabitants of the sub– to intertidal area of New England rocky coasts where they are often found in stacks, like the one pictured, from 3 to 20 individuals. Unfortunately, they are also an invasive species becoming all too common in areas outside its native range, where their filter feeding capabilities may negatively affect native and aquacultured filter feeding molluscs.As Dr. M described in his post, many protandrous sequential hermaphrodites change sex based on size. A prevailing theory (the size-advantage hypothesis) predicts that a species will change its sex at a particular size that allows the individual higher reproductive success. Generally, this means smaller Atlantic Slippersnails are males and larger ones are females. It is energetically expensive for females to produce large, energy–rich eggs. It is very common in the marine realm that older, larger females produce more eggs of larger size and higher quality with resultant higher success rates. For guys to produce sperm is a comparatively inexpensive expenditure of energy. Even a wee lad can produce enough sperm of suitable quality to reproduce successfully. (Whether or not a female will have him, of if his sperm can out compete a larger male's sperm, is a different issue.)C. fornicata follows this trait — for the most part. When the planktonic veliger larvae metamorphose and settle to the bottom, they are attracted to chemical cues produced by the adults. This guides most settling juveniles to land on, or very near, existing individuals or stacks. They then make their way (ever slowly) to the top of the stack and mature into young males. In paternity studies the oldest, largest males (sometimes the same size as females) are responsible for the majority of the viable larvae from females in the stack (upwards of 83% of larvae coming from one father). Younger males further up the stack do have some successes, though, and the more males (and more larger males) in a stack the more sperm competition appears to play a significant role in each individual's success and the less dominant the dominant male becomes. At a certain point these large dominant males may be better off as females sharing the reproductive success among a few females instead of many highly competitive males.If a settling juvenile misses the chemical cues or for some other reason does not stack onto an existing individual or group, it will mature through a very brief male phase then become female, hopefully attracting juveniles from the next batch to settle on to it. Given that there are solitary (small) post settlement females and that some older males in a stack are as big as their female stackmates, size is clearly not the sole cue for sex change in C. fornicata. There is some plasticity in the change and social interaction appears to play a strong role on the size of the individual undergoing sex change.You can probably see why sequential hermaphroditism is such an interesting area of study. There are several general hypotheses, but there are also so many individual variations on those general themes, that it seems we will never run out of study material!And now a word for our Challenge this monthIf you have contributed to the Oceans in the Classroom Challenge - Thank you so much!! These posts and previews are for you! You have helped the Ocean Bloggers make a difference in at least 300 kids' lives. (More considering many projects have reusable multi-year assets!)If you have not yet given to the Donors Choose Oceans in the Classroom Challenge, please consider giving today. I know times are tough. I am a grad student with a family to feed. Believe me, I get how tough it is. Still every amount is welcome and appreciated. For my family's donation it means I have to brown bag it for two weeks. But you know, that's a small price to pay in exchange for knowing that we are exposing hundreds of kids to the science of the ocean. There is even a kindergarten class project in there - Commotion in the Ocean. Talk about a great time to open a kid's mind to the ocean and science!! If 25 readers give just $10 each, we'll help a dedicated young teacher expose 18 high poverty area kindergarten kids to science and the ocean.There is a chance, still, to get an additional $2,000 dollars of matching finds donated by HP, but it will only happen if we can get to $2,000 donated from the Ocean Bloggers readers today. It won't be easy, but it's a great chance to really increase our impact! Please give to the Challenge!ReferencesProestou DA, Goldsmith MR, & Twombly S (2008). Patterns of male reproductive success in Crepidula fornicata provide new insight for sex allocation and optimal sex change. The Biological bulletin, 214 (2), 194-202 PMID: 18401001Richard, J., Huet, M., Thouzeau, G., & Paulet, Y. (2006). Reproduction of the invasive slipper limpet, Crepidula fornicata, in the Bay of Brest, France Marine Biology, 149 (4), 789-801 DOI: 10.1007/s00227-005-0157-4
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Proestou DA, Goldsmith MR, & Twombly S. (2008) Patterns of male reproductive success in Crepidula fornicata provide new insight for sex allocation and optimal sex change. The Biological bulletin, 214(2), 194-202. PMID: 18401001  

Richard, J., Huet, M., Thouzeau, G., & Paulet, Y. (2006) Reproduction of the invasive slipper limpet, Crepidula fornicata, in the Bay of Brest, France. Marine Biology, 149(4), 789-801. DOI: 10.1007/s00227-005-0157-4  

  • October 26, 2009
  • 01:48 AM
  • 103 views

Nautilus Night - Cephalopod of Diamonds

by Eric Heupel in The Other 95%

Ok. I said for each of the Ocean in the Classroom projects fully funded I would put up a post about one invert from the deck of cards I have been working on, along with a sneak peak at a card. So, since the Making Waves, Oceans and Landforms got fully funded, and in honor of Nautilus Night I bring you the Cephalopod of Diamonds - The Chambered Nautilus.Classification for the Chambered NautilusKingdomAnimaliaPhylumMolluscaClassCephalopodaOrderNautilidaFamilyNautilidaeGenusNautilusSpeciesN. belauensisSome interesting facts about the chambered nautilus (and other extant nautiloids):The 6-7 (there is still debate on the status of one species) extant species of nautilus come from two genera, the 4-5 smooth nautilus'(genus Nautilus) and the 2 species of hairy nautilus (genus Allonautilus - literally "other nautilus").They are the only remaining cephalopods that retain an external shell, which they use for defense and as a buoyancy control system. The shell, with buoyancy control, was a significant weapon evolutionarily, as it afforded the early cephalopods the protection of a thick shell yet the advanced buoyancy control unchained them from the sea floor as most of the periods marine arthropods were. Modern nautilus are generally found on steep coral reef slopes at a depth of 200-400m during the day. They rise at night to feed near or at the surface, using the adjustable buoyancy of their gas filled shells to good effect during the vertical migration.Unlike other cephalopods, the nautilus do not have a lensed eye. The nautilus eye is more like a pinhole camera, leading to the hypothesis that it uses olfaction to find it's prey (mostly shrimp and other crustaceans along with some small fish.)Nautiloids also have upwards of 90 tentacles (compare with 8 arms of octopods and 8 arms an two tentacles of squid and cuttlefish.)Last bit for this post is their lifespan and reproduction. Most cephalopods are short lived with overall lifespans of even the Giant Pacific Octopus being around 2-3 years. For most studied cephalopods natural death from old age occurs after mating, (and for females egg guarding), which is only done once (called semelparity). Nautilus can live in 15-20 years and mate year after year (iteroparity). The nautilus are the ancient lineage of the cephalopods, descendants of and most like the orthocerids and other nautiloids that were a major predator of the seas in the Ordovician period. Modern nautiloids are the only cephalopods that retain their external shell and are often considered to be "living fossils" as they are very similar in appearance to the ammonites and nautiloids that emerged half a billion years ago in the Cambrian. However recent molecular studies are casting some doubt on the appropriateness of the "living fossil" moniker. Studies published in the past couple years have revealed that the 6-7 extant species of nautilus evolved much more recently, around 2 million years ago, in the seas around New Guinea. They then Sinclair, B., Briskey, L., Aspden, W., & Pegg, G. (2006). Genetic diversity of isolated populations of Nautilus pompilius (Mollusca, Cephalopoda) in the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries, 17 (2-3), 223-235 DOI: 10.1007/s11160-006-9030-x



... Read more »

Sinclair, B., Briskey, L., Aspden, W., & Pegg, G. (2006) Genetic diversity of isolated populations of Nautilus pompilius (Mollusca, Cephalopoda) in the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries, 17(2-3), 223-235. DOI: 10.1007/s11160-006-9030-x  

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