If you think "I can't study nature where I live.
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Urban ecology can be a little gross, but all ecologies are gross when you look into it. There is also heroism, great battles and wars are all around you. But you need to tune in to the most common living things in your area first and learn their names and how they live.
By the way this parasitoid wasp? It's a lovely creature. It has dark blue eyes and a waist that'd make a fashion house jealous.
Someone should make a dress based on this wasp. It would win awards.
@futurebird I love one of it's common names too. The ensign wasp. It's like a flag girl. Their search flights and mannerisms are very interesting and unique too. Jet black, dazzling blue eyes... Such an important and beautiful creature.
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If you think "I can't study nature where I live. There is no nature here." there is another way to look at this.
First you are wrong. There is nature everywhere.
But you can think of your anthropocene environment as "easy mode" you won't be overwhelmed with species, you just need to start by learning the big players.
Just last week @twizzt told me about Evania appendigaster which is a wasp that lays it's eggs in the eggs of roaches. I spot it by the rail-road overpass the next day!
@futurebird also, read never home alone. It's a great book and eye opening. The nature inside your own domicile is vast and abundant!
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@futurebird I love one of it's common names too. The ensign wasp. It's like a flag girl. Their search flights and mannerisms are very interesting and unique too. Jet black, dazzling blue eyes... Such an important and beautiful creature.
@twizzt @futurebird I am in good company. Evanid wasps have some of the most beautiful blue eyes on any animal.
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@twizzt @futurebird I am in good company. Evanid wasps have some of the most beautiful blue eyes on any animal.
@ubi @futurebird in Sri Lanka, they are just black. Unfortunate
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@ubi @futurebird in Sri Lanka, they are just black. Unfortunate
@twizzt @futurebird I've never seen a black eyed evanid, that must be a good character to differentiate species.
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@twizzt @futurebird I've never seen a black eyed evanid, that must be a good character to differentiate species.
@ubi @futurebird I just threw one in the trash as it was smashed. I seen not to have a single observation on iNat. Very odd. I see them regularly
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@futurebird I was actually trying to find info on this the other day. The only tool I had at hand was Google so I came up empty. These walls are huge for egg parasitoids too so do they eat most of all the eggs?
Being in a country that doesn't care about copyright, I have a hard time not just stealing papers so I can read about these things.
I have learned that some roaches *do* just leave their ootheca laying around. And these wasps can find them? How? Can they smell them? That seems like a trick worth learning if you wanted to do low impact pest control...
In fact, the roaches that carry them around do so *because of these wasps*
It's an arms race!
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Urban ecology can be a little gross, but all ecologies are gross when you look into it. There is also heroism, great battles and wars are all around you. But you need to tune in to the most common living things in your area first and learn their names and how they live.
By the way this parasitoid wasp? It's a lovely creature. It has dark blue eyes and a waist that'd make a fashion house jealous.
Someone should make a dress based on this wasp. It would win awards.
@futurebird @twizzt Tangential question: why do wasps have such narrow waists? (Or do they?)
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@futurebird @twizzt Tangential question: why do wasps have such narrow waists? (Or do they?)
The big hymenopteran innovation is the ovipositor, which is also a stinger in some cases.
What makes it powerful is the precision that wasps, bees and ants have with their sting or eggs.
The thin flexible waist makes this possible.
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@futurebird I was actually trying to find info on this the other day. The only tool I had at hand was Google so I came up empty. These walls are huge for egg parasitoids too so do they eat most of all the eggs?
Being in a country that doesn't care about copyright, I have a hard time not just stealing papers so I can read about these things.
@twizzt @futurebird if you contact the author they will often send you the “preprint” version of the article for free. They own it, don’t make money (the publisher does), and they just want to do science and get read
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@futurebird @twizzt there was a great book I had as a kid by Gerald Durrel called The Amateur Naturalist in which he went chapter by chapter showing you how to find interesting biomes just outside your front door. Was an amazing thing for a kid to encourage exploration.
@GavinChait @futurebird @twizzt Ever watch the show about his family? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Durrells
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I have learned that some roaches *do* just leave their ootheca laying around. And these wasps can find them? How? Can they smell them? That seems like a trick worth learning if you wanted to do low impact pest control...
In fact, the roaches that carry them around do so *because of these wasps*
It's an arms race!
I have this running fantasy of somehow injecting myself into the high end purse design industry, and making a purse that costs like 5k and getting all the right people to be seen with it but it looks *exactly* like a roach ootheca.
Kind of long game for a joke... but it would be SO worth it to see celebrities carrying giant egg sacs on the red carpet!
Who will help me? We deserve this.
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I have this running fantasy of somehow injecting myself into the high end purse design industry, and making a purse that costs like 5k and getting all the right people to be seen with it but it looks *exactly* like a roach ootheca.
Kind of long game for a joke... but it would be SO worth it to see celebrities carrying giant egg sacs on the red carpet!
Who will help me? We deserve this.
@futurebird @twizzt
So I just had to look it up, you know, a new word for me. -
@futurebird @twizzt
So I just had to look it up, you know, a new word for me.That image is one for praying mantis... I don't think it'd work as a fashion item.
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That image is one for praying mantis... I don't think it'd work as a fashion item.
@futurebird @twizzt they had roaches farther down.
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@futurebird @twizzt they had roaches farther down.
It could work! Do you see the vision?
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I have this running fantasy of somehow injecting myself into the high end purse design industry, and making a purse that costs like 5k and getting all the right people to be seen with it but it looks *exactly* like a roach ootheca.
Kind of long game for a joke... but it would be SO worth it to see celebrities carrying giant egg sacs on the red carpet!
Who will help me? We deserve this.
I can hear the ad campaign now (B-52's):
"Egg Sack, baby, Egg Sack!
That's where it's at! The Egg Sack.
Stand right there in the middle of the room
All eyes on you with your Egg Sack, baby!"Montage of fiendishly, beautifully, hip people walking around quirky neighborhoods with their egg sacs.
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I can hear the ad campaign now (B-52's):
"Egg Sack, baby, Egg Sack!
That's where it's at! The Egg Sack.
Stand right there in the middle of the room
All eyes on you with your Egg Sack, baby!"Montage of fiendishly, beautifully, hip people walking around quirky neighborhoods with their egg sacs.
"It's not just a bag, it's a CLUTCH (of eggs)"
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It could work! Do you see the vision?
, even -
@futurebird how can I go about identifying plants without asking someone who knows? Are there books or resources that can help with this? These aren't obscure plants. They are common. I just don't know their names.
@loathsome_dongeater @futurebird I recommend iNaturalist. Submitting photos through the web or app really helps.
