Elm sphinx moth caterpillar, nearly the size of my index finger, crawling along our roof below mature elm trees (yes we still have elms on our property). My son kept it during the day. It showed no interest in eating elm leaves but kept moving around. I concluded that it had reached its "wandering stage" at which point it digs down into the ground to pupate and overwinter, before emerging as a ~4 inch moth. So in the evening, we left it on the ground by the elms. Enjoy the long slumber!
Hey look - I don't even need a Futurama-style liquid-filled jar for my head! Should I make this my picture on my lab web site? Nice of a local children's museum to make this photo op that I was just able to squeeze into.
For Friday the 13th, I offer some freaky-looking fungus, which was growing at the ends of logs I had chainsawed the weekend before. Beyond the obvious ring-shaped crusts, there are purple-fringed shelf structures (potentially Trichaptum biforme). If not that, the rings could be Phlebiopsis crassa instead.
Even here in the frosty northern US, I manage to get most of my winter heat from wood, and most of that comes from locally invasive trees in my property like norway maple and black locust.
Our Drosophila museomic study, with Marcus Stensmyr, (
@MarcusStensmyr) is now online!
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002333Got mainly high quality genomes without grinding anything up, including from >200 year old flies representing the oldest known specimens of Dmel, and reflecting its early days in northern Europe. Saw evidence for local genetic differentiation followed by homogenization. Learned new things about known selection genes like CHKov. Found new targets of strong recent selection like Ahcy.
Genomes from historical Drosophila melanogaster specimens illuminate adaptive and demographic changes across more than 200 years of evolution
Genomes from 25 museum specimens of Drosophila melanogaster (some more than 200 years old) reveal that small populations occupying northern Europe gave way to well-connected fly populations across the continent, and also illuminate targets of recent selection, including genes that may have helped this species adapt to novel climates, viruses, and insecticides.
