My name is Logan Luce; I am a senior biology major at the University of Minnesota Morris. I am taking a developmental biology course from P.Z. Myers, a man who moonlights as a horrible amalgamation of scientist and atheist, blogger and firebrand. P.Z. has decided to have all of his developmental students start blogs, presumably for the purpose of mocking the diminutive number of hits that we can eke out of the internets. He has hinted that the final exam will be crashing a poll.
A bit about me and the name of this blog: I am primarily interested in ecology and evolutionary biology, and am fascinated by insects and dinosaurs. If you assume that my interests are the same a prototypical 8 year old boy, you would be close to the mark. A naiad is the larval stage of an insect in the orders Odonata, Ephemeroptera or Plecoptera. These insects exhibit incomplete metamorphosis, so the larvae appear similar to the adult except for the lack of fully developed wings or genetalia. Unlike the larvae of other some related insects (such as grasshoppers) naiads do not live in the same environment as the adults that they later become. A naiad may begin as a badass killing machine that hunts in the bottom of a lake, but it will become a badass killing machine that hunts in the sky. Development from a naiad involves moving from freshwater into the air, losing gills and gaining wings, while still maintaining a similar sort of form. As an undergrad that hopes to become a grad student doing cool research on neat bugs someday, I commiserate with the naiad. I don’t want to change too much, but I’m looking foreword to moving to a new environment and the possibility of gaining wings...
and 360 degree vision...
and the ability to hunt and kill on the fly.
(That's what grad school is like, right?)
Love the picture. Best 1st blog entry ever...
ReplyDelete"I’m looking foreword to moving to a new environment and the possibility of gaining wings...
and 360 degree vision...
and the ability to hunt and kill on the fly."
Boy, this one's gonna be a fun read :]
ReplyDeleteYes. Awesome initial blog entry.
ReplyDeleteBut now you have set the bar rather high for yourself, haven't you? :D
"genetalia"
ReplyDeleteCombine "genetics" and "genitals" and pick an "e" or an "i"?
"I’m looking foreword"
Maybe PZ could write a foreword, but you should look "forward".
Fix things and ignore my comment?
"presumably for the purpose of mocking the diminutive number of hits that we can eke out of the internets."
ReplyDeleteOr because the ability to communicate science makes for better scientists? ;)
They look like a raindrop :)
ReplyDeleteA good first post. Good luck on your efforts to become a badass killing machine. You could start by training mosquitoes to be vegatarian.
ReplyDeleteDragonfly 69?
ReplyDeleteNifty blog name, fun puns, self-depracation, nerd humor, vaguely naughty-esque insect photo...you're gonna be just fine! Good luck with your blog!
ReplyDeleteSeem like you'm gonna be one badass, boy ;-)
ReplyDeleteKeep it up.
The second paragraph is brilliant.
ReplyDeleteHooray for bugs and dinosaurs! Brings me back to my 5-10 year old days as well. Dream of dinosaurs, observe insects.
RIGHT!
ReplyDeleteI demand to know what that insect on the photograph is doing to the other insect. In detail. No really seriously, no one has ever explained this dragonfly sex stuff to me - which bit is the genetalia of which insect, is the male on top? and is the head in anyway directly involved? Who does the steering when they fly in this position?
Keep it up. If your love of insects and dinosaurs/palaeontology persist, we may meet in a professional capacity some day!
ReplyDeleteHere's a question for you. Why do you suppose some people call them naiads and others call them nymphs? (Some people even call them larvae but, to me, that's the juvenile of a holometabolous insect.)
Wonderful, thank you.
ReplyDelete=8)-DX,
ReplyDeletemale dragonflies and damselflies (the order Odonata) are unique in that they possess secondary reproductive structures on the bottom of their last thoracic segment. Sperm is transferred into this structure before mating begins. This frees up the end of his abdomen so it can be used to grab the female behind the head, while the female attaches her abdomen to the male's secondary genitalia for the transfer of sperm. This is called the wheel position--really. In the above picture, the blue one is male and the green one is female. I have not the slightest idea why they do it that way... Maybe it feels real nice?