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Post by starlightcriminal on May 17, 2011 7:31:12 GMT -8
It really depends on ploidy I bet. A "simple" organism doesn't necessarily have a simple genome (the reverse can also be true- look at Cheetahs). In medicine, mice are regularly inbred to create knockdowns and such for research. It has no noticeable effect after many pairings save if you have caused a mutation on purpose that might be fatal in the homozygous individuals or something like that. But "naturally" it has no noticeable affect on mice at all after many many generations.
I frequently wonder this when I am collecting males that my females call in- often I have released multiple males (native AND local of course) before a female ecloses and in some cases I strongly suspect that some of the males I released have returned to mate with their sister (eeewwwwww.....). If a moth will only fly a mile or so to find a female then it stands to reason that quite a few might come right back. Anyone able to confirm or refute this?
I think that the whole "inbreeding caused all my caterpillars to die" or "made the adults eclose poorly" is something we think when we can't explain the loss. I would wager that it is most often user error, not poor genetics, that is the culprit but since we can't ID the exact problem we like to think it was something out of our control.
I'm with Bob- probably most often from overcrowding and having a less than a spotless eclosure. You can't see virus/fungal spores any better than you can see the genotype of a moth.
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Post by starlightcriminal on May 17, 2011 7:17:38 GMT -8
lol
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Post by starlightcriminal on May 17, 2011 7:10:59 GMT -8
Sometimes the yellow is more or less prominent (more like a thin brown line than yellow) although I personally haven't seen one completely lacking in some form of contrast between the margin and dorsal sides of the elytra. I'm not particularly aware of these other than as pests though, it's always possible that I have overlooked a particular morph. It is the only species in that genus in our area I believe, you're sure it's not Dytiscus? Very similar, don't know if there is a completely dark species in the SE US or not. Nasty little buggers, always on the look out when I'm working in my ponds.
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Post by starlightcriminal on May 17, 2011 6:08:36 GMT -8
Awesome, I will be in Panama January of next year and would love to add a collecting component to my trip.
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Post by starlightcriminal on May 17, 2011 5:11:49 GMT -8
It is very hard to cope with problematic individuals, every society has its own approach and I can't say that one is much better than the other on either end of the spectrum. What makes a punishment appropriate and where do you draw the line?
My suggestion- all criminals, any sort, get shoved into a glassine envelope and dropped into a jar of acetone for a week. Then we can push a pin through them and put them on an international wall of shame (with complete and accurate collecting data, of course). They could be organized by offense- the Redhandidae, Guiltybyassociata, Politicianiini, Pettythievorea, and so on.
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Post by starlightcriminal on May 16, 2011 8:45:37 GMT -8
The question is not whether being Cameroonian makes a person dishonest- the question is why, be they native Cameroonian, Nigerian, Chinese or Inuit, are the scams run through the country of Cameroon. Why not just run the scam from Nigeria or the like? Is it a regulation issue?
There are jobless, computer literate people all over the world, including the US. But I have not run into an insect scam that asked me send money to Algeria before, only Cameroon. I personally wonder if there is more exposure to insect trade in that country so the idea popped up there first or if it simply that regulations are strict enough nearby to make any offerings automatically suspicious, as with certain Ornithoptera. Maybe it is just that Goliathus is the most valuable and happens to be found most often there. Just curious.
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Post by starlightcriminal on May 16, 2011 8:38:46 GMT -8
I would add that I think a "well known dealer" would not be subjected to so many questions because he/she would not have so many causes for suspicion. A dealer garners a reputation by have some very simple ways of verifying the quality/existence of stock. There are lots of ways to do this- a reference, a custom photograph, etc. etc. It's only a hassle to provide one these if you have to go through the effort of photoshopping some terrible faux or setting up fake references for a scam. I don't think asking for a reference is humiliating- a good dealer would be proud of his business not inconvenienced by making a sale.
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Post by starlightcriminal on May 16, 2011 5:04:35 GMT -8
Down here in the south we often ride alligators to work... kind of similar, although technically a ratite like an ostrich would be closer...
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Post by starlightcriminal on May 15, 2011 12:21:59 GMT -8
ditto
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Post by starlightcriminal on May 13, 2011 17:11:48 GMT -8
What is the general focus of everyone's collection- I know we all get sidetracked (or do we?)- but what parameters govern your collecting?
My focus- I have a few I am basically inventorying. Everything I can find within the bounds of some specific areas I frequent that I find particularly interesting (and free to collect in).
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Odonata
May 13, 2011 17:05:44 GMT -8
Post by starlightcriminal on May 13, 2011 17:05:44 GMT -8
Thanks for the tip.
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Post by starlightcriminal on May 13, 2011 17:04:46 GMT -8
That's a simple function then= likelihood of success and cost against value of the specimen. How you assess "value" is really the question- are planning to recoup by selling or are you just trying to get something for yourself cheaper than the market price (if there is one- if not, then how do you know how much it is worth?).
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Post by starlightcriminal on May 13, 2011 16:58:41 GMT -8
Not from scratch in a lab yet, but we have examples of the rest of the steps in nature already- in viruses. That's just a brief matter of time. It doesn't imply anything about the status of God mind you, just that with what is here on earth we can recreate the origin of life. How all that stuff got here is not my department at all. But I know lots about life from the cellular level down, that is my terrain.
I sincerely hope advances in medicine can help whatever ails you. A bit off topic, but have you seen the "regenerative" organs we can make now? They take an organ from a donor that is deceased too long for a transplant or has some other issue, such as incompatibility with the potential recipient. Then they basically wash the genetic material and organelles away with detergent, leaving behind only the cytoskeleton. Finally the membranous structure is flooded with healthy cells from the recipient and cultured until the structure is refilled with newly differentiated cells that function just like the original organ, only matching the donor exactly. A little spark and you have a beating heart. They're doing this at Wake Forest I believe. There's hope for every disease I strongly believe, you could very well be in the tropics soon. The question of money, insurance, etc. etc. has to be resolved of course, but that's a whole other thread... this one was interesting enough, right?
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geology
May 13, 2011 13:58:56 GMT -8
Post by starlightcriminal on May 13, 2011 13:58:56 GMT -8
Told that generally you can try: " www.brightok.net/~rockman/ look at this site, there are lists of places your friend could go to find different types of minerals. Click on the Oklahoma flag, it breaks down Oklahoma into counties and what rocks/minerals are there"
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Post by starlightcriminal on May 13, 2011 13:58:07 GMT -8
That's interesting, it's really not how publishing works though. It isn't done at Norman, publishers lie elsewhere. I have personal experience.
Ice caps most certainly are not growing at large. The is measurable retreat on all fronts. May up in inches at the poles in a tiny patch, that I don't know one way or the other. But I do know that the mass of ice as a whole is shrinking rapidly and the sea levels are going up rapidly (as the people of Tuvalu about that one). I don't know what pictures you saw but I see videos in real time of huge chunks of ice floating off into the ocean all the time. Not to mention the polar bear cubs starving with no ice anymore, and so on and so on. So if you want to rely on pictures, well...
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