Evolution in action!

[Boerseun]

In just a few generations, the male crickets on Kauai underwent a drastic genetic change that rendered them incapable of belting out courtship songs, according to a new study.

 

 

 

Typically, male field crickets sport curved wings, and by rubbing a sharp ridge of one wing with a rough part of the other, the cricket produces a mating call.

 

 

 

But this serenade also attracts a parasitic fly. Once the insect spots a singing cricket, it deposits larvae onto the cricket. The larvae burrow into the cricket’s body, where they mature and subsequently kill the cricket as they emerge from its body.

 

 

 

Researchers led by Marlene Zuk, of the University of California, Riverside, have monitored the crickets on Kauai since 1991. With each visit, the team heard fewer and fewer singing crickets. Then, in 2003 they realized the crickets were abundant but 90 percent of the males had flat wings.

 

 

 

The scientists figure that the quiet mutation protects the crickets from the parasitic fly.

 

 

 

But how do they attract females? Turns out, the flat-winged male crickets have altered their behavior so they can mate successfully. The song-less males rely on the few male crickets with “normal” wings. By congregating around a serenading male, the silent crickets enable females to find and mate with them.

 

 

 

"Instead, the behavior of the flatwings allows them to capitalize on the few callers that remain, and thus escape the fly and still reproduce," Zuk said. "This is seeing evolution at work.”

Well, there you go. Quite interesting, and indeed an example of evolution in action! Now if only I could post News Items...

[Jay-qu]

you would need to be an editor for that :D

 

Isnt the news in brief section open to anyone?

 

Would you call this advanced natural selection? or is it the same thing?

 

I did a project on natural selection and one of the best examples was mosquitoes becoming resistant to DDT spraying.

[Tormod]

Yeah, you can post in the News in Brief, mate.

[Boerseun]

var

BOERSEUN : string;

THE_END_OF_TIME : real;

COUNT : real;

 

begin

BOERSEUN := "1D10T";

THE_END_OF_TIME := (insert symbol for Infinity, you LaTex freaks); COUNT := 0;

begin

COUNT := COUNT + 1; IF COUNT < THE_END_OF_TIME then

writeln("BOERSEUN IS AN ", BOERSEUN);

end;

end.

 

I'll stop this gratuitous self-flagellation, and post in the "News in Brief" section next time, 'mkay?

 

But in any case - what are these amourous mute crickets gonna do when the last vocal dude croaks? They'll have to move quick in inventing another mating mating strategy, else that's gonna be the last of 'em!

[Tormod]

Now, I'd never call you an 1D10T. I got one of these newfangled spellcheckers and that one wouldn't pass muster. :D

[Tormod]

But in any case - what are these amourous mute crickets gonna do when the last vocal dude croaks? They'll have to move quick in inventing another mating mating strategy, else that's gonna be the last of 'em!

 

I guess half of them enters the oldest profession on Earth, while 1% goes into the pimping industry. :hihi:

 

(Sheesh I am in such a good mood today).

[Jay-qu]

lol it took me a sec to see what that algorithm actually did :hihi: