Iridescent Bees, Wasps, Ants and Sawflies...

Hi. Welcome (back) to Weirdbeautiful.
This is just a short personal post- I am happy to announce the publication of my book with Prof. Jean-Pol Vigneron (of The University of Namur), "Iridescent Bees Wasps Ants and Sawflies: structural colouration in the Hymenoptera".

This scientific book was the result of a 6-month preliminary-study (plus the time it took to write up)of colouration in bees, wasps, ants, sawflies and various of their relatives- ichneumon flies, for example. It was really to fill a gap in the scientific literature. The abstract will shortly be available on my website; a full-length preview is online at the printers's website [here], where copies are onsale.

Interview with Jean-Pol Vigneron now on sale in UK

Good Morning, Welcome to Weirdbeautiful,
Greetings from Belgium, where I am spending the week talk biophysics with staff at the University of Namur.
I am happy to say that my interview with the head of this department- Prof. Jean-Pol Vigneron- is now on sale in the UK in Practical Reptile Keeping magazine-

http://www.practicalreptilekeeping.co.uk/pages/main.php?nav=magazine

I posted a little while back about this interview-
http://victorianeblik.blogspot.com/2010/01/rickets-reptiles-and-insect-echnology.html

Rickets, Reptiles and Insect-echnology

Good Morning. Welcome to Weirdbeautiful.

This week, the news seems to be full of medical, rather than wildlife stories.
The latest one of interest (to me, at least) is this one about a dramatic rise in the rates of rickets in school children-
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20100121/thl-rickets-rise-for-inactive-children-d831572.html
You can find links to other major science news/stories of the week further down this page.

The big wildlife story at the moment is still this one-
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18397-transparent-frogs-tiny-geckos-and-snailsucking-snakes.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

about "Reptiles and Amphibian Ecology International"'s study of wildlife in the western Ecuadoran cloud forest. The scientists found a host of new and unusual animals so it has been all over the news.

For my part, I did an interview yesterday with Prof. Jean-Pol Vigneron of the University of Namur (FUNDP)for Practical Reptile Keeping magazine. Prof. Vigneron has done a great many studies on colouration in various animals- especially insects and has been instrumental in developing a number of products- including coloured paper, paints and glass coatings- from his discoveries- so I had a long talk to him about that. The tortoise beetle above- Charidotella egregia changes colour from transparent to red when threatened and is one of the things that Prof. Vigneron has studied. Image copyright J-P.Vigneron, 2009, all rights reserved.