Friday, May 9, 2008

Cercopidae

Getting into the lecture was not a problem, although I did show up way to early when there were only 2 other people there and I thought that i had totally blown my cover so I ran away, and took a walk down the street to get some coffee. When I got back, they were about ready to began and there were at least 12 people there so it was not a problem. They sold every copy they had of the guide (3 copies) and the Peter Haggard autographed mine for me, which made me happy. They mentioned that they were low on funds, and although I don't want to join the society, I will probably send them a thank you note with a small contribution since they let me stick around.

I found the first spittle bugs (cercopidae) of the season in our backyard yesterday. These are very small, about a millimeter long. I put together this time lapse of them doing what they do best.




Spittlebugs are found on all kinds of plants. The nymphs will make bubbles with excess sap they they eat from plants by pumping air into it. This gives them a hiding place from would be predators such as paper wasps, which I have seen eating them. When they are adults, they resemble leafhoppers and I read somewhere that they can jump higher than anything else on earth (you know, to scale).

Also, I forgot to post this next video when I made it last october. The good thing about the USB microscope is that the LED's don't produce a lot of heat. The lamps I was using before did, and sometimes that led to less than satisfactory results. Watch the snail embryos inside of the eggs struggle to stay alive as the moisture leaves their unborn bodies (try and wrap your head around that, pro-lifers/pro-choicers! When DOES life begin? These are aware of pain, or perhaps they are simply boiling.)



The microscope was lacking a tripod mount, so i glued a 3/4" nut to the bottom of it today and it seems to have worked very well in holding it in place. It looks like it might be slipping just a little but, or the plant is growing in the video, which would be weird since it's just a bit of the branch being pinched by some Mr. Hands and in a jar of water.

1 comment:

JimmyB said...

Haha! Oh man, they are boiling. How awful and hilarious. Man, I do like your time lapse stuff, so awesome.