amazing

Aug. 28th, 2006 11:20 pm
1. In January on the way to Montreal, Bree and I stopped at a frozen lake. It was frozen solid and there were ice fishermen, camped out on the ice, fishing through holes drilled into the ice. I ran out onto the lake, totally entranced.

2. Walking through the forest on a moonless night with only a single red LED for illumination, tiny little specs of phosphorescent green caught my eye, then a piece of broken wood, the exposed meat of it glowing green, faintly but undeniably. We marvelled. We brought it home to show the chore boys. Foxfire!

3. Fireflies.

4. Jon told me a story, how when he was young he and a friend decided it would be fun to run away from the group they were with, to run into the corn. They got lost. They heard a motorcycle in the distance and thought it was the harvester, invisible, terrifying. * Kastan made me stop the car when she found out I'd never been inside a field of corn. We pulled over, between the highway and the ditches, and slipped into the cornstalks, swaying gently taller than our heads, quiet, infinite, repetative. I was reminded of John McPhee lying down in the midst of curious cattle. The cornstalks are also curious of the human interlopers, but unperturbed.

fireflies

Jul. 8th, 2005 12:19 am
Fireflies rely on precise control of flash timing for two purposes: finding mates, and luring prey.

In the group Photinus, flashing represents a visible courtship signal. Within each species, males and females identify members of the opposite sex based on flash timing.

In the group Photuris, flashing serves an additional purpose. Female Photuris fireflies are highly specialized predators that can facultatively imitate the flash signal given by other species' females. Using this false signal, these predatory females are able to lure in unsuspecting Photinus males, then eat them.
http://ase.tufts.edu/biology/Firefly/

PNAS article with above findings: http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/94/18/9723

also fascinating: http://iris.biosci.ohio-state.edu/projects/FFiles/

Solstice

Jun. 22nd, 2005 11:17 am
I saw fireflies for the first time last night.

March 2020

S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
15 161718192021
22232425262728
293031    

Style Credit

Syndicate

RSS Atom
Page generated Aug. 16th, 2025 11:19 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary