Beetle full of parasites and Still lives!

This photograph does the rounds pretty regularly, and it's usually described as showing the parasitization of a Cereal leaf beetle (Oulema melanopus) by Tetrastichus julis, a parasitoid wasp. They eggs are laid within the beetle, where the hatch and feed on it while it's alive. Eventually they burst out, killing the beetle.

Now, all this is true. However, the beetle isn't quite as full to the brim with parasites as it looks. The truth, believe it or not, is even stranger. There's just ONE parasitic larva in this photo, and you can clearly see it at the front. The rest of that squirmy mass inside the beetle? That's its fecal shield.

Yes, you read that correctly. A shield of fecal matter. Believe it or not, this is pretty common in leaf beetles. They deposit their fecal matter on their own backs. There, it acts as a deterrent to predators, prevents desiccation and provide camouflage.

Amniotic sac remained intact as the birth progressed

This photograph has been doing the rounds on social media for the last few months, but what's really going on?

A Greek doctor snapped this amazing image during a caesarian section. Unusually, the amniotic sac remained intact as the birth progressed. Typically it breaks, but this time it did not -leading to the baby not even being aware it had been born. Until the amniotic sac breaks, the baby will continue to receive oxygen and nutrients from the placenta.

This baby was born safe and healthy.

Two-faced cat earns Guinness record

Frank and Louie is a cat who was born with two faces, so he has two names. Does that mean he has 18 lives?

It almost seems so now that he has earned a spot as the longest lived Janus cat in the new edition of the Guinness World Records (Guinness has dropped the word “book” from the name in this digital age). The cat's owner is a Worcester woman named Marty Stevens who has owned Frank and Louie since a local breeder brought him into Tufts Veterinary Clinic to be euthanized when he was a day old. Marty was a veterinary nurse at Tufts at the time and offered to take him home.

The prognosis, however, was not good. Janus cats, named after the Roman god with two faces, are extremely rare and seldom live more than a few days after being born. Often they die within hours. But under Marty's dedicated care Frank and Louie flourished. He turned 12 years old on Sept. 8.

Frank and Louie has two mouths, two noses and two normal eyes with one larger non-functioning eye in the center. “That was the first eye to open up when he was two days old so I had a little Cyclops for a while,” Marty said. That's not an endearing image, and, as often happens with animals and even people who are not exactly like everyone else, Frank and Louie often draws a shocked reaction from onlookers. But that first impression quickly fades.

“He's just so affectionate and sweet he usually wins people over,” Marty said.

The cat has two faces, but only one head and brain, so the faces react in unison and not as separate entities. Also, two faces doesn't mean two cans of cat food every morning. The cat's right side — or Frank's side — is connected to an esophagus while Louie's isn't, so Frank eats for two.

If you look at the cat from the left he looks completely normal. Look at him from the right and he does as well. It is only when you look straight at him that you can see how unusual he is — so different he attracted worldwide attention after a local news story and video about him was picked up internationally about six years ago. One of those articles captured the attention of British cryptozoologist and science writer Karl Shuker, whose books include “From Flying Toads to Snakes with Wings: In Search of Mysterious Beasts, Bizarre Creatures and Mystery Animals” and “Mystery Cats of the World.”

Mr. Shuker also happens to be the life sciences consultant for Guinness and it was he who submitted details of Frank and Louie for inclusion in the 2012 edition as the world's longest surviving Janus cat. It is a term, he said in an email to the Telegram, that he coined several years previously in relation to cats born with diprosopia, or two faces on a single head. Though rare, it is a phenomenon that occurs in many species, Mr. Shuker says, including humans. Mr. Shuker said he was thrilled to learn the cat was still alive when Marty tracked him down by email after finding his blog. She wanted to tell him that the cat had been included in the 2012 Guinness edition.

She was surprised to learn it was he who submitted the cat's information.

The Guinness entry on Frank and Louie says the cat lives in Millbury, Ohio, and had reached the age of six by 2006, the last year for which Mr. Shuker could find press accounts. The cat and Marty actually lived in Millbury before moving to Worcester.

Even in 2006, Frank and Louie was the world's longest living Janus cat.

As a newborn kitten the size of a hamster, he wasn't expected to live 12 days let alone 12 years. Because he had to be fed every two hours, Marty carried him in a shoebox everywhere she went, including work, feeding him with a special veterinary kitten formula. She had to put a tube down into his stomach and injected the formula with a syringe. Veterinarians advised her not to get her hopes up.

“But every day he got stronger,” Marty said. “He just kept beating the odds.”

There wasn't a special celebration Sept. 8 because cats, after all, aren't exactly party animals. “I just kept calling him ‘birthday boy' all day,” Marty said. 

Bionic eye prototype unveiled

A team of Australian industrial designers and scientists have unveiled their prototype for the world's first bionic eye.

It is hoped the device, which involves a microchip implanted in the skull and a digital camera attached to a pair of glasses, will allow recipients to see the outlines of their surroundings.
If successful, the bionic eye has the potential to help over 85 per cent of those people classified as legally blind.
With trials beginning next year, Monash University's Professor Mark Armstrong says the bionic eye should give recipients a degree of extra mobility.
"There's a camera at the front and the camera is actually very similar to an iPhone camera, so it takes live action for colour," he told PM.

"And then that imagery is then distilled via a very sophisticated processor down to, let's say, a distilled signal.
"That signal is then transmitted wirelessly from what's called a coil, which is mounted at the back of the head and inside the brain there is an implant which consists of a series of little ceramic tiles and in each tile are microscopic electrodes which actually are embedded in the visual cortex of the brain."
Professor Armstrong says is it is hoped the technology will help those who completely blind, enabling them to navigate their way around.
"What we believe the recipient will see is a sort of a low resolution dot image, but enough... [to] see, for example, the edge of a table or the silhouette of a loved one or a step into the gutter or something like that," he said.
"So the wonderful thing, if our interpretation of this is correct - because we don't know until the first human trial - [is] it'll of course enable people that are blind to be reconnected with their world in a way.

How does the bionic eye work?

A digital camera (1) embedded in the glasses will capture images.
An eye movement sensor inside the glasses (2) will direct the camera as you turn your head.
Digital processors (3) will modify the images captured by the camera.
A wireless transmitter will then present the image that you are "looking at" to a chip that has been implanted at the back of the brain (4).
The chip will then directly stimulate the visual cortex of the brain with electrical signals using an array of micro-sized electrodes.
The brain will learn to interpret these signals as sight.
Source: Monash University

"There's a number of different settings ... so you could set it to floor mapping for example and it creates a silhouette around objects on the floor so that you can see where you're going."
A challenge the designers have had to overcome is ensuring the product was lightweight, adjustable and enabled users to feel good about themselves.
"We want to make it comfortable and light weight and adjustable so that different sized heads and shapes will still manage it well and have those sort of nice aspects," Professor Armstrong said.
"We don't want a Heath Robinson wire springs affair on somebody's head.
"It needs to look sophisticated and appropriate, probably less like a prosthetic and more like a cool Bluetooth device."
The first implant is scheduled to go ahead next year which is expected to be followed by clinical trials, research and user feedback to the team.
The development of a bionic eye was one of the key aspirations out of the 2020 summit that was held in 2008.
Professor Armstrong says it is "amazing" that a prototype for the technology has already been achieved.
"To be honest when I heard about that 2020 conference and all of the people there, I thought it was a little bit of a hot air fest if you know what I mean," he said.
"But I've been proven completely wrong.
"Some of the initiatives from that, this is a major one for sure, have been brought to fruition and it's wonderful for Australia and equally wonderful for Monash University."

Hummingbird Nest Facts

Hummingbird nests are amazing architectural creations that protect and nurture some of the most delicate birds. It may only be 5-8 weeks from the time nest construction begins until the maturing birds leave home, but observing hummingbird nests can be a rewarding and enchanting experience for birders.

 

Where to Find Nests

Hummingbirds choose safe, sheltered locations for their nests, ensuring that the hatchlings are protected from sun, wind, rain or predators. The most common nest locations are in the forked branch of a tree, along thin plant branches or sheltered in bushes. Hummingbirds are resourceful, however, and may build nests in unique locations including on wires or clotheslines, in porch lamps, on top of wind chimes or even on the top of a cactus. When choosing a nest location, the female bird may land on it repeatedly to test the stability of the perch that, if chosen, must support not only her weight, but also the weight of the nest and her growing chicks.

The height of the nest varies greatly depending on the bird species and what suitable nesting locations are available. Hummingbirds typically build their nests from 3-60 feet above the ground, and the nest may be located up to a half mile away from preferred food sources if no closer sites are suitable.

Hummingbird Nest Construction

Hummingbird nests are built entirely by the female bird – male hummingbirds do not have any part in raising chicks once the initial act of copulation is complete. The female, however, will spend several hours a day for 5-7 days collecting materials to build her nest. The most common nesting materials found in hummingbird nests include:

• Moss and lichen

• Plant down from thistles, dandelions or cattails

• Spider silk

• Cotton fibers

• Small bits of bark or leaves

• Feathers

• Fuzz or hairs from leaves

These materials are woven together into a dense cup that is frequently decorated with moss, lichen or other materials for camouflage. The edge of the cup is curved inward to protect the eggs from tipping out in high winds, and the spider silk used to bind the nest together gives it elasticity to enlarge as the hatchlings grow.

Exact nest dimensions vary depending on the species of hummingbird and the materials used to create the nest, but most hummingbird nests are 1.5 inches in diameter, or roughly the size of a walnut or golf ball.

Nests Over Time

After the eggs are laid, the nest must stretch to accommodate the young birds’ growth. Hummingbirds typically lay two eggs that are roughly half an inch long, but once hatched the birds grow rapidly and the nest must accommodate their changing size, since young hummingbirds will not leave the nest until they are nearly the size of adult birds. The spider silk used in the nest’s construction helps give it elasticity to expand with the birds’ growth, and the female parent will frequently patch and repair the nest even after the chicks have hatched.

Most hummingbird nests last for only a single brood of eggs or for one season if multiple broods are laid, though if the location is suitable the female or her offspring may return year after year to rebuild the nest nearby or even on top of the remains of the previous nest. Old nesting material may be recycled for new construction, and the birds will often steal nesting material from other hummingbirds as well.

Hummingbirds are not cavity nesters and they will not use birdhouses, but they do build sturdy cup-shaped nests that can protect their tiny hatchlings. By understanding what hummingbird nests are made of and how they are constructed, birders can more easily recognize one of these unique constructions and savor the opportunity to observe a young hummingbird family.