Invertebrate - Blog Posts

I just wanted to repost some isopods together

Yesterday afternoon I dragged my friend to Denge Wood forest. While there, I spotted one of my top five favorite beetles. These lustrous and magnificent little guys are green tiger beetles (Cicindela campestris).

They are incredibly fast predatory beatles that hunt down and eat other insects. The larvae of this beetle live in individual burrows in sandy soil. They flick out the sand around them creating a pitfall that other insects fall into.

So beautiful but deadly.

The college I work for has recently got some hives and they kindly paid for me and my colleagues to do an amazing beekeeping course.

This week I did a solo hive inspection for the very first time, as I was the only trained person on site.

It has been a magnificent, if nerve-wracking experience and I can't wait to do it again next week. I am forever petrified of squishing the queen but I will hopefully get more confident with time.

We have one large hive and one smaller one. The large hive is going strong and each week we have to rearrange everything so they don't run out of space. To do this you move empty frames towards the centre of the brood box so the Queen has access to at least 2 empty frames. For some reason she only likes laying eggs on frames near the centre. You also have to check that there's enough space in the supers as this is where worker bee store most of the honey. If the colony doesn't have enough space then the bees start to get agitated and it can prompt a swarm.

The smaller hive unfortunately lost its Queen when it was being delivered to us. So we are currently trying to raise a new one. To do this we moved over a tester frame containing newly laid eggs and some grubs from our other hive. The worker bees then chose the new Queens and built special large cells for them. we knocked down all but one of these to stop a potential swarm. We then left this hive for 3-weeks to give her a chance to emerge and go on her nuptial flight. On this flight she will hopefully have mated with a number of genetically diverse drones. She has around a 30% chance of surviving this and coming back to the hive. We haven't seen her yet but fingers crossed she's there. The workers had started to make play cups indicating that they are dissatisfied with the lack of new eggs being laid. But it does take a while for her to start laying. As we don't know if she survived I put in two new tester frames with eggs and grubs from the other hive. When I do an inspection next week I will need to check for freshly laid eggs and queen cells. If I see new eggs then I know that the Queen survived, but if not and if Queen cells have been produced then we'll have to start the process of raising a Queen again.

The pictures above are from the smaller hive showing some play cups on a couple of the frames. This shows the workers are irritated at the lack of new eggs being laid. One picture also shows the entrance to the hive and one of the worker bees has pollen on their legs. This is apparently an indication that a new queen is present and is about to start laying.

General Bee info:

The Queen has a store of sperm and can control which eggs are fertilised with a little flap. Unfertilized eggs turn into drones (haploid, reproductive males). Fertile eggs turn into either worker bees (usually non reproductive, female bees) or new Queens. She lays individual eggs into each of the cells.

In a healthy hive, drones are only present in the summertime when the hive has reached sexual maturity. In an unhealthy hive the Queen can start laying drone eggs when she runs out of stored sperm. Queenless workers may also start to lay drone eggs.

When the eggs hatch, worker bees feed and nurture the grubbs with honey and variety of different pollen. It is the worker bees that choose what fertile eggs become Queens. The ones they select as potential new Queens are fed a diet of mostly royal jelly and they build larger cells for them. Workers can also choose when new queen's emerge by standing on top of the flap door to their cell. This prevents them from emerging until the workers deem the time is right.

As time progresses grubs get larger and eventually pupate within their cells. The cells are then capped with wax and the pupae starts to metamorphose internally. When the pupa are fully developed they moult and then chew their way through the wax cap. Young bees can be quite light-colored when they first emerge.

Unfortunately I don't have very many pictures of our lovely hives. It is quite hard to take photos with massive gloves on, and the longer you spend faffing around, the more stressed out the bees get. I only got these pictures because I needed to update my colleagues on certain developments. If the opportunity arises again then I will share any photos here as I think bees are really interesting.

Giant Isopod

Bathynomus kensleyi

The Giant Isopod is an unsettling deep sea creature that crawls along the ocean floor scavenging for animal remains and detritus. These invertebrates are part of phenomenon known as abyssal gigantism, which is the tendency for  deep-sea dwelling invertebrates to be larger than their shallower-water counter parts. The Giant Isopod is found between 310m to 2140m in the ocean. 

Photo credit

https://seatrench.tumblr.com/post/615873390014791680/giant-isopod-bathynomus-sp-source

https://alchetron.com/Giant-isopod

Sea Gooseberry

Pleurobrachia pileus

The Sea Gooseberry is a comb jelly or ctenophore that has two enormous tentacles covered with adhesive cells. When tiny crustaceans, eggs, and larvae brush against the tentacles, the prey are stuck to them. The Sea Gooseberry draws the tentacles to its mouth, and it consumes the prey. These unique organisms can be found as deep as 750 m. 

Pigbutt worm

Chaetopterus pugaporcinus

The Pigbutt worm or the flying buttocks of the sea is spotted floating between 965 m to 1300 m in the deep ocean. It is actually a polychaete (polly-keet) worm species that burrows in the ground as an adult, and floats around the ocean as a baby. The worm feeds itself : by creating a balloon of mucus; collecting particles on the mucus; and then consuming the particles. It is the rarest and thickest worm in the deep ocean, for only ten have been spotted.  

Photocredit: https://roaring.earth/pigbutt-worm/

Googly-eyed glass squid

Teuthowenia pellucida

The Googly eyed squid is a rare oddity that is found in the southern hemisphere. It has a large, spherical head that is filled with water and teeny, tiny tentacles that help propel it through the water. If it comes across a predator, it deflates its head and draws its tentacles into its cavity. On the other hand, it may also fill the cavity with water to increase its size, and intimidate the predator. If all fails, it will ink and try to escape through the darkness. Furthermore, baby squids can be found at the surface (0-600m); then slowly migrate downwards as they mature into adults (1600-2500m). 

Photo credit: http://animaladay.blogspot.com/2011/07/googly-eyed-glass-squid.html

https://faunafabula.tumblr.com/post/5999675353/googly-eyed-glass-squid-teuthowenia-pellucida

Work smarter, not harder!

Crap phone photo but it made me laugh, the big snail was bookin' it (relatively speaking) and the little one was just sat there enjoying the free ride.

Both Garden snails (helix aspersa) I believe.

Black and Yellow Centipede He busy...

Black and yellow, black and yellow...

Working in the morning

Working