Circus of the Spineless #35: Regeneration, Renewal, Reinvigoration

Like the planarian of the 8th grade science science fair projects I used to judge, or the arm of a sea star in our deep blue realm. - Yes We Can

Like a tardigrade outside the International Space Station, frozen under the permafrost of Antarctica or dessicated on a moss-covered pine. - Yes We Can

Like a crayfish molting in order to grow, a hermit crab searching for a new shell, a polychaete building tube of mud and stone - Yes We Can

Like the metamorphosis of a lepidopteran, a beetle and dragonfly; a physical change brings about a change in habitat, a change in lifestyle. The Circus of the Spineless is a celebration of all creatures missing the backbone, started in 2005 by Tony and Nuthatch. Last fall the management was unable to keep up with life and managing the blog carnival. I decided to take it over last week in order to keep the spirit alive and keep together the cohesion of a tight-knit, excellent community of nature bloggers. There is nothing out there that is like the Circus of the Spineless. Being a purveyor of that particular "95%" of animal life it was only appropriate!

Please contact me by leaving comments at the Circus of the Spineless or emailing me at kzelnio at gmail dot com. Now, on with the show!

A N N E L I D A

Over at Deep Sea News, I wrote about new research on the origin of dwarf males in populations of the bone-devouring zombie worm from outer space. Otherwise known as the lovable and cuddly Osedax. They are so spiffy, students at Duke Marine Lab made a nice little ditty about these worms, posted at Southern-Fried Science!

A R A C H N I D A

Daniel over Biochemical Soul found a wee little spider tending her eggs in his house. It certainly isn't one that you want to get too close to!

C E P H A L O P O D A

Inspired by a recent seminar from Roger Hanlon at UCONN, Eric describes in fantastic detail the current state of camoflage research in cephalopods.

C N I D A R I A

Peter from Deep Sea News recently described a new species of deep sea coral. Head over there to read about his take on describing this beautiful new species and watch the video of the actual discovery! He follows it up with another post telling all about how he came to choose on the name for his new species, and what exactly goes into naming a new species.

D E C A P O D A

Bora from A Blog Around the Clock posted about two intriguing studies on the circadian rhythms of aggression in crayfish. The first is a study he published with his colleagues in a blog post a few years ago and the second is research published recently by a German group. After great head-to-head summaries of each research an interesting discussion about citing blog posts in journal articles ensues.

I N S E C T A

Christopher, curator of the excellent Catalogue of Organisms, has a superb article on insect larval evolution. Go there and learn the difference between holometabolous and hemimetabolous development. There will be an exam later!

I N S E C T A - C O L E O P T E R A

Ed Yong at Not Exactly Rocket Science has an amazing summary of new research on an amazing new "dung" beetle. Its not what you think it is. This is one of the must-read stories from the last month!

I N S E C T A - D I P T E R A

Mo from Neurophilosophy shows there can be beauty in what some might call obnoxious pests. Male and female mosquitoes sing and harmonize a lovely duet. Find out more about this melodious new research!

I N S E C T A - H Y M E N O P T E R A

GrrlScientist from Living the Scientific Life has an awesome video of scientist excavating the "kingdom of the ants". Go there to see how a colony thrives in the wild!

I N S E C T A - N E U R O P T E R A

Duncan from the Ben Cruachan blog has an amazing insect I've never seen before! Hint: Is it a lacewing or is it a mantis?? Que raro!

I N S E C T A - O D O N A T A

Tyto Tony posts some beautiful pictures of dragonflies from Australia. Keep out for vicious red one!

I N S E C T A - O R T H O P T E R A

Another home-run article by Ed Yong on new research showing that serotonin is the trigger for swarming behavior in desert locusts. It is an amazing story and not quite as simple as one might think.

I N S E C T A - P H A S M A T O D E A

Christopher, curator of the Catalogue of Organisms, discusses how parsimony can sometimes be misleading, especially in the case of stick insect wing morphology. See also Alex's (from the fabulous Myrmecos) post on character reversal in ants, which Christopher cites.

I N V E R T E B R A T A - O E C O L O G I A

Wandering Weeta visited the seashore and documented a fine piece of natural history of the local shore ecology in the dead of Winter. Head over to discuss what the heck all these washed up tubes might be!

Weeta also has a battle royale between a carpet beetle and spider in the aptly titled "catching the food is only half the battle"!

* Editor's Note: I had originally planned to go out and search for posts myself but thanks to the efforts of several bloggers, twitterers and nature blogging enthusiasts all the posts today were actually submitted within 24 hours of my going public with the announcement! That is quite astonishing to me! Thanks alot Nature Blogging community for keeping this up and making it happen!

M I S C E L L A N I A

GrrlScientist and myself gave a presentation on Nature Blogging at the recent Science Online '09 conference. We would love it if people headed over to our blogs (links in last sentence) and contributed to a discussion on nature blogging.

Go to Deep Sea News to find out where to buy an awesome marine invertebrate clock and SCAMIT's 2009 calender, proceeds of which benefit local taxonomists in southern California.

Though not submitted, I highly recommend reading:

• Anything from the Echinoblog, like Giant Green Brittle Stars of Death!! When They ATTACK - AGAIN!!
• Sea Anemone Venom May Help Treat Multiple Sclerosis at Wild Shores of Singapore
• Insect Genitalia: An Entomological Obsession at Bug Girl's Blog
• A Mauveful of Tentacles at The Annotated Budak
• How a Slug Secretly Makes It's Shell at Snail's Tales
  

A HUGE thank you to Daniel from Biochemical Soul who altruistically produced this wonderful carnival badge for the Circus of the Spineless! I uploaded a larger version on the Circus homepage for future hosts and announcers. Great job Daniel!

Next edition of the Circus of the Spineless will be hosted at the Invertebrate Diaries. Please send your submissions edwbaker at googlemail dot com.