Carnival of the Blue #39

You want it? Come and get it, Punk.

It is my pleasure to host this month’s edition of the Carnival of the Blue. I absolutely love the ocean, and I am impressed with how well my fellow bloggers are able to convey their own genuine sense of maritime wonder through writing. Without further ado, let’s put on our mask and fins and dive headlong into the best of July’s ocean blogging…

Mike Lisieski has a great review about Cephalopod polarization vision on his new-ish, but awesome, blog: Cephalove. I feel a little dirty linking to something about Cephs other than videos of them getting demolished by mantis shrimp.

John at A DC Birding Blog, brings us a post about a research program tracking a beach-nesting shorebird, the Piping Plover. Bonus: Adorable Plover chicks.

David Shiffman (WhySharksMatter) at Southern Fried Science celebrates the 4th of July with a great post about the early history of marine biology in the US of A. Pioneering American naturalists Agassiz and Bache support the strong correlation between awesome facial hair and awesome science.

Speaking of great facial hair, Dr. M at Deep Sea News brings us an article about a fish that can rock one mean stache. Unsurprisingly, the lady-fish are helpless to resist the allure of such refined, unadulterated manliness – err fishliness.

Kevin Z, also at Deep Sea News, injects some science into a news story about a Lions Mane Jellyfish that broke up and stung 100 different people on a New Hampshire beach: Thus becoming the single most exciting event in the state’s history.

Zen Faulkes at NeuroDojo reports on some sloppy popular science fear mongering and lazy taxonomy surrounding a recent study about the effects of various drugs on an Amphipod Crustacean.

Chuck at Ya Like Dags? raises a series of questions about fishery management and the dogfish and skate populations in Georges Bank, a crucial American fishery. Could population increases be the result of invading Canucks?

Here is a second contribution from David Shiffman; read this article before you start feeling too warm and fuzzy about dolphin-safe tuna. Find out about the monumental hidden costs of keeping non-endangered dolphins out of tuna nets.

Angelo Villagomez at Saipan Blog takes us on a guided tour of the Smithsonian’s offsite collections warehouse in Silver Springs (a true naturalist’s Mecca). He finds that it differs considerably from Dan Brown’s depiction of the facility in his novel, The Lost Symbol.

Speaking of the Smithsonian, here is the first ever Carnival of the Blue submission from their new Ocean Portal Blog. Christine Hoekenga sees though popular misconceptions, and tells us why sharks should be revered rather than feared.

Susannah, at the Wanderin’ Weta Blog visits Canada’s Crescent Beach to brave the Molluscan hordes. Don’t panic, and remember to bring a towel so you can clean up after the snail orgies and parasitic flatworms.

Hannah Waters at Culturing Science contributes an excellent article about dimethylsulfide (DMS). She uses awesome hand drawn figures to illustrate this inconspicuous compound’s integral entanglement with ocean ecology.

Al at Deep Type Flow goes for a swim with a Whale Shark, and shares with us the feeling of pure wonder that he experiences. His dance with a giant highlights the sense of awe that grounds so many of us in marine science.

Finally, you can check out some photos and videos I took of two species of mantis shrimp: Gonodactylus platysoma and Gonodactylus chiragra. I am especially proud of the slow-motion video of G. chiragra striking the wall and knocking himself across the tank.

The next edition of the Carnival of the Blue will be hosted by Angelo at the Saipan Blog. The theme for his carnival will be ‘Carnival of the Blue XL: Top of the Food Chain Edition’, and he is looking for posts about predation, especially by sharks. Start submitting your great ocean blogging to the Carnival of the Blue automatic submission form.

Thank’s once more for allowing me to host this great carnival. I hope to see you all again soon, out in the Wild Blue.

Photo: Kate Feller

Circus of the Spineless #52 is up

Check out the latest issue of the Circus of the Spineless, over at Kind of Curious.

Carnival of the Blue #36 is up

The 36th edition of Carnival of the Blue is up at Observations of a Nerd. Go check it out for more salty science than you can shake a bamboo shark at! Next month’s Carnival of the Blue will be at Blogfish. Submit articles via this automatic submission form.

Circus of the Spineless #50

Welcome to the 50th entry in the Circus of the Spineless carnival series. This was the first carnival I ever participated in, and now I’m thrilled and grateful to be hosting CotS as my (relatively) new blog’s very first carnival.

I’ve loosely organized this carnival according to taxonomy and order of submission. Let’s dive right on in to the wonderful world of the invertebrata, beginning with some squishies.

Phylum: Annelida
Class: Clitellata

GrrlScientist, from Living the Scientific Life, starts us off with a moderately gag-worthy post about a nose-dwelling leech, Tyrannobdella rex. This is potentially the most terrifying T. rex I have ever heard of.

Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda

Dave Ingram, of Dave Ingram’s Natural History Blog, shares photos and musings about a herd of Grovesnails (Cepaea nemoralis) in his post, Glorious Grovesnails.

Jill Wussow, who writes the improbably named blog, Count your chicken! We’re taking over!, also brings glorious photos of some slippery snails, Redwood Sidebands (Monadenia fidelis).

Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Order: Diptera

I’ll kick off the large batch of arthropod submissions with probably the biggest news in the inverte-blogosphere this past month:

This is the end
Dipteran friend
This is the end
My winged friend, the end
Of our taxonomic plan, the end
Of paraphyly that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I’ll never look into your ommatidia…again

David Winter, at The Avatism, brings us two posts about the taxonomic cataclysm brewing over the Drosophila genus. First, he describes the scientific importance of this Nobel Prize winning insect, and then the fallout surrounding its likely re-naming.

Joan Knapp, at Anybody Seen My Focus?, spotted a truly bizarre fly visiting a flower he was photographing. He managed to snap a few shots and identify this flying fuzzball as a bee fly, Sparnopolius confuses

Order: Hymenoptera

Ted MacRae, of Beetles in the Bush, posted an ant identification Pismire Puzzle. This myrmecine mystery set off an entomologically-epic commentary thread. (I think this entry just fried my alliteration cortex)

The Geek in Question, at Fall To Climb, brings us this post about a mutualistic relationship between ants and aphids. For once the hymenopterans aren’t picking on the helpless aphids.

Roberta Gibson, at Wild About Ants, describes some gall-forming wasps that apparently trick aphid gall-tending ants into protecting their homes without reward. Wasps are possibly the true jerks of hymenoptera.

Zen Faulkes, at NeuroDojo, lends support to my ‘wasps are jerks’ hypothesis with an article about jewel wasps (Ampulex compressa) that commit atrocities of mind control against cockroaches.

Order: Hemiptera

Matthew, at Backyard and Beyond, brings us more gall-forming goodness in his post about aphid and wasp galls found in Brooklyn, of all places. Exciting nature can be lurking anywhere!

Order: Lepidoptera

Chris Grinter, at The Skeptical Moth, goes moth tasting in the Napa Valley and photographically samples some intoxicating vintages of Adelidae fairy moths.

Order: Orthoptera

Joy Kidd, at The Little House in the Not-So-Big Woods, relates her hunt for an elusive Northern Green-Striped grasshopper that seemingly possessed the ability to will itself invisible amongst the leaf-litter.

Zen Faulkes, at NeuroDojo, gives us a second submission about big love among some very big wetas (Deinacrida rugosa). Bonus (possibly?): Fleetwood Mac.

Order: Coleoptera

Fred First, at Fragments From Floyd, inadvertently risks his finger to give us a look at an oil beetle (Meloidae). Also know as blister beetles, they excrete the caustic compound, cantharidin.

Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida

Ed Young, at Not Exactly Rocket Science, discusses the weird mating dynamics of wasp spiders (Argiope bruennichi) and finds males are less likely to be eaten after having sex with their sisters.

Subphylum: Myriapoda
Class: Diplopoda

Dave Ingram, of Dave Ingram’s Natural History Blog, came across a an almond-smelling millipede (Harpaphe haydeniana). It turns out that the smell is cyanide, a defense mechanism for the many-legged forager.

Adrian Thysse, at The Bug Whisperer, got a fancy new macro flash and tried it out on a millipede (genus Cylindroiulus). The little Diplopod proved a willing subject and even yielded a bonus arthropod, tiny mite parasites, attached to its legs.

Subphylum: Crustacea
Order: Decapoda

Kevin Zelnio, at Deep Sea News, has a post about the bizarre visual system of hydrothermal vent shrimp. Their retina has moved to their carapace and may be used to sense blackbody radiation from the vents.

That does it for this month. Thanks for reading, I hope I did the half-centennial of Circus of the Spineless justice.

Next month’s carnival will be at Deep Sea News, so start sending those fine folks your submissions.

Send me your Circus of the Spineless submissions!

I will be hosting the Circus of the Spineless blog carnival here on May 1st. Please send me your best inverte-centric posts so that they can be included. This is my first carnival hosting and I’d like to make a good showing with lots of awesome articles from all the great invertebrate researchers and enthusiasts across the blogosphere.

Couple o’ Carnivals

Circus of the Spineless #47 is up at Xenogere and Scientia Pro Publica #24 is up at 360 Degree Skeptic. They are chock-full of awesome science blogging goodness. Go check them out!

Next month’s Circus of the Spineless will be here at Arthropoda. Don’t feed my procrastination impulse, start sending me your submissions now!

Carnival of the Blue #34

Carnival of the Blue #34 is up at Southern Fried Science, courtesy of David. In addition to my stomatopod strike post there are articles on sharks, fish, nudies, barnacles, and the terrifying phenomenon of GLOBAL DRAINING!

I observed global draining first hand this past weekend when I was collecting fossil shark teeth on the shore of the Chesapeake Bay. Though advantageous for fossil collection, the receding waters are a serious problem. We must act before our oceans are completely empty!

Circus of the Spineless #48

The Circus of the Spineless #48 is up at The Modern Naturalist, courtesy of Matthew Sarver. I’m pleased to see that it is an almost all-arthropod CotS this month, with articles about ants, butterflies, copepods, tiger beetles, crayfish, and more. I’m looking forward to reading them all, but I’m kicking myself for forgetting to submit something this month.

Go check it out!

Scientia Pro Publica # 21

The 21st edition of the Scientia Pro Publica (‘science for the people’) is up at Living the Scientific Life. This carnival focuses on science writing for the everyman, and includes well written articles about a broad spectrum of scientific topics. In the arthropod camp, there are articles about parasite flies and butterflies; as well and some great submissions about evolution in honor of Darwin Day. Go check it out!

Carnival of the Blue #33

The 33rd edition of the Carnival of the Blue is up at Deep Sea News. There are posts about hermit crabs, the aquatic inspirations for Avatar, krill, and many other great non-arthropod topics. As a bonus, Miriam demonstrates her skills as a composer of swashbuckling drinking songs by presenting all the submissions as verses to “Roll your leg over“. Go check out all the great marine blogging!