I rented a car last night. They had to take a photo of me and copy my driver's license. I tried to opt out of the photograph. They handed me back my license and credit card and told me they wouldn't rent me the car.

Hacking challenge: if anyone can find my photo from Budget Rental Cars, I'll start a legal process against them that could be turned into a class action (although I've probably already signed away my rights to do so).

Yeah, sure, mycorrhizal symbioses are cool and all but have you heard about endoparasitoid wasps and their web of relations?!

Not only does the adult wasp inject an egg and venom into the host caterpillar, they also inject a virus with which they've evolved a special relationship. The virus suppresses the immune system of the caterpillar, thereby increasing the chances that the wasp larva survives.

But there's more! The virus also alters the composition of the caterpillar's saliva. This in turn weakens the immune system of the plant that the caterpillar is feeding on, allowing it to grow faster and become a bigger meal for the growing wasp larva inside of it.

And still it goes on... The virus in the saliva of the caterpillar causes the plant to release airborne chemicals. These compounds are detected by a second species of wasp, this one a hyperparasitoid. It uses the chemicals to locate the plant and the host caterpillar and inject it's own egg. The second egg then hatches and begins feeding on the first wasp larva.

I've only just started reading Empire of Ants by Susanne Foitzik and Olaf Fritsche and I'm already awash with fascination.

Things I've learned:

- An ant queen can live up to 30 years!
- Worker ants of some species can live up to eight years (in laboratory conditions)
- The queen mates once (or several times) on her "nuptial flight" and collects all the sperm she will require to fertilise eggs for the rest of her life
- A queen may produce up to 150 million offspring in her lifetime!
- Ants do not see daylight until the latter stage of their life; they progress through roles starting in the nursery and ending with foraging / hunting
- It's estimated that only one out of every 10,000 young queens is successful in founding a new nest

#ants #myrmecology #entomology

a thing over on bluesky reminded me of the first telephone i ever used, which looked something like this

and as an aside, i fucking love niche websites like this

https://telephonesuk.org.uk/phones-1960-80/

https://britishtelephones.com/t746.htm

(I'm pretty sure the one my parents had was the model 746 anyway, the pictures of that one match up with my memory most closely - and it was definitely bright red, no doubt about that)

Tank woman

A protester stands in front of a military vehicle approaching an agricultural facility where federal agents and immigration officers carried out an operation.

Photograph: Daniel Cole/Reuters

@photography
#photography
#US
#ICE
#protest