Um, before we attempt any additional analysis of the meaning of this, is this intended to be a question about bug whangers? (A simple yes or no will suffice)
Jeez, Colibri is now seeing questions where there ain’t none! Pretty far gone, I’d say, for such a symbol tosser.
You want a question? I just heard on the news that Al Gore has been nominated for President of Harvard (along with one of those characters in Doonesbury and whoever else). However, so-and-so said he wasn’t qualified because he didn’t have any “academic standing”. Question:
Given all them “chairs” they got stuck around them yooneyversitease, wouldn’t academic «sitting» suffice? All them wealthy pollytishuns seem to’ve sat for at least four years at Ivy League collitches – at least drinkin’ with there frat buddies.
Ray (No Wang buggers.)
No Wang buggers? No wucken furries. Ok I’ll ask a bug whanger whatza: The male bagworms you describe have long appendages as obscured by Slug. Are close relatives similarly endowed (suggesting a variant of sexual selection via length) or not so endowed (suggsting specialisation along such lines)? What are the prospects for shorter, but armour-piercing weapons?
[sub]Ok, it’s a stretch, but colibri really seemed to want to plough this furrow.[/sub]
Nanobyte said:
Hey, I followed that one. I would have worked in grand quivering of the jello. I was stuck myself on the charity aspect - you took a different track that worked better. Snickers.
Thanks, picmr, you are a gentleman and a scholar (even if you are antipodean).
BTW, I have no particular predilection for bug whangers. But I would prefer to discuss topics that were at least peripherally touched on in Cecil’s original article, such as caterpillars, metamorphosis, parthenogenesis, neoteny, or the repulsive axolotl. We have already wasted far too much time on bulldozers, Sorbian poetry, etymology, and execrable puns. And I suggest that any attempt to hijack this thread into a discussion of politics is worthy of a hearty vapulation. 
I should make it clear that the bagworm’s actual copulatory organ, the bit that actually enters the females’ genitalia (analogous to a penis, but termed in entomology an aedeagus), is not itself disproportionately long. The “copulatory apparatus” refers to modifications to the end of the abdomen that allow it to be extended to great length (as I mentioned, up to three times the male’s resting body length), in order to put the aedeagus within striking distance.
In the more “primitive” bagworm species, that is, those in which the female looks like an ordinary moth and mates in a normal fashion while perched on the outside of the case, the male does not have this kind of modified extensible abdomen. His aedeagus is not significantly different in size from those species which mate with the female while she is in the bag.
Why exactly evergreen bagworms should go about mating in this bizarre fashion is rather obscure. There doesn’t seem to be any particular reason why the female needs to reverse position in the bag so that her genitalia are away from the opening. And the genital end of the pupal case is apparently not sealed, since in at least some species the female deposits her eggs outside the case (although within the bag). If the female pupated with her business end next to the bag opening, presumably the male would not need such a elaborate apparatus to reach her.
When you say “shorter, armour-piercing weapons” I presume you are thinking along the lines that as an alternative the male might become adapted to probing directly through the top end of the bag and end of the pupal case. I don’t see any reason why this shouldn’t work, but bagworms don’t seem to do it.
The mention of “armour-piercing weapons” does allow me to bring up the common bedbug, however. In this annoying pest “the male wears a spike like a hypodermic needle in front of his penis. When the female bedbug happens to bump into him, he stabs her in the back and his sperm enter her blood stream and travel through it to her eggs.”
For future reference, I commend to you this site, which provides a handy Gaelic Curse Engine. Using this fascinating tool, I was able to generate the following malediction:
Go gcreime na gráinneoga cealgrúnacha do thóin bheagmhaitheasach!
Which means:
“May the malevolent hedgehogs gnaw at your worthless butt!”
The possibilities are almost endless.
Here’s how engineers can get any kind of bug they want (and many they don’t). Don’t think they’ve dispensed Viagra a lot to these creatures yet and I don’t think cocoons are in style yet. This program portion appeared locally (SF) on KQED last night.
Ray
If you’ve ever watched praying mantids mate (a spectator sport I highly recommend), the female, uh, I hesitate to call them genitals… I’m feeling at a loss for vocabulary here… the bottom of the female appears to open up and envelope much of the abdomen of the male.
Jill
Then she eats his brains.
ps – Colibri and Nanobyte, why don’t you two just get a room?
(and don’t tell me what you do once you get in there)
The reasons are obvious, of course, why this method cannot be extended to humans, the male brain being the portion already enveloped.
I apologize if I have spoiled the party by referring directly to the column. I’m pretty new to this whole posting thing, if I’m out of line ca-ca-ca-cocoon you forgive me? Sorry about that, I’m a still a little nervous. What bugs me is that there is no closing quotation mark in the paragraph which Cecil begins with his remark that George is just getting wormed up. I suppose it doesnt really matter that much but Id like to know who is saying what and without the punctuation its a little difficult see
Paronomasia is obviously contagious. I would suggest you retire to a cool dark place and rest until the attack passes.
While I don’t have my Chicago Manual of Style handy, since the following paragraph is a direct continuation of my own remarks I don’t believe a “close quote” is necessary. Why an “open quote” might be necessary at the beginning of the following one is one of those little mysteries of English composition.
Depends on whether you are using the verb “eat” in the literal or the figurative sense.
Interestingly enough, the male praying mantis’s copulatory technique actually becomes better after his head has been removed, along with certain corresponding inhibitions.
[[Interestingly enough, the male praying mantis’s copulatory technique actually becomes better after his head has been removed, along with certain corresponding inhibitions.]]
Okay then, worth a try.
Gee, Colibri, I thought you were an ornithologist.
Why the apparent predilection for bugs (if not their
whangers in particular)?
Well, this is not an axolotl, but it is still pretty darn
repulsive looking. It crawled out from under one of the
laser systems here at the lab and was brought to me for
identification. The best I could manage was “insectile”.
It might be a caterpillar. It looks neotenic to my inexpert
eye, assuming, I suppose, that it has already undergone
metamorphosis. (That’s four out of six. Am I on topic?)
I didn’t take the pictures so don’t blame me for the poor
focus. The critter was about 5cm in length and quite
aggressive. I guessed it might be an immature dragonfly
based on the eyes and forelimbs, but when I showed the
pictures to my son --who knows all the local naiads-- he
contradicted my guess. Not that he could name it either.
Not being well connected entomologically, I had given up
trying to figure out what it might be until this thread
took the turn that it did. I’d have posted this sooner,
but I had to learn how to write HTML first.
Anybody here seen anything like this before?
- jam
Racking my brain for your personal info from the laser thread: you’re speaking to us from Japan, right? So this is an Oriental bug of some kind?
Just narrowing it down for Colibri when he gets here…
I have an Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Insects and Spiders, but if it’s Japanese, that’s not much help.
My first instinct, too, is to say “stonefly” or “caddisfly” or “dragonfly” nymph of some kind. But those are stream-dwelling bugs; what’s it doing in a laser lab?
In Japan I am. Seen lots of local critters I have. And
while none of this bug’s parts seems overly exotic, the
combination is conspicuously unsual. Even for Asia.
One remote possibility is that it came in with one of the
lasers. We routinely send them back to Canada for
refurbishment in large wooden crates. (I don’t remember
any shipments that week but that is not conclusive.)
A perspicacious question! We are on a small island (maybe
40 or so hectares) on the edge of Tokyo Bay. This is a
heavily industrialized area with no open freshwater
anywhere nearby. Oily seawater is within 300m however.
But I doubt this animal can swim. (Thread merge!)
Not counting the caterpillar-like legs, there are four
obvious adult-insect-style legs. There may be six, but
the foremost pair are so short that I’m not sure if they
are legs or mouthparts (maxillary palpus?) The cerci(?)
and large posterior segments were carried parallel to the
ground during “normal” locomotion. It liked to strike
brash poses as shown in the pictures. It produced a kind
of silk but not in any organized way, such as might
suggest a cocoon.
Sadly, the specimen did not grow into anything
recognizable and died within a week of being captured.
- jam
MOVIE TRAILER:
INTERIOR: Jam’s office. CLOSE UP of dead critter floating in jar on Jam’s desk.
PAN TO: Jam and Bimbo in close embrace.
JAM: Sure am glad that thing is dead!
BIMBO: Me, too! Kiss me! [They kiss]
PAN TO: CLOSE UP of dead critter–it twitches.
VOICEOVER: You only THINK it’s dead…
CUT to WAREHOUSE INTERIOR
ZOOM IN to wooden crate labeled “Laser Equipment”
CLOSE UP of crate – critter crawling out and plopping onto floor, then another, and another…
[Twilight Zone music up]
Waitaminute! How did I miss this!? And how did you, DDG?
That thing turned up on an artificial island in Tokyo Bay!
And it bears more than a passing resemblance to…
…Mothera! (Of Godzilla movie fame.)
Ack! I’ve suddenly noticed that the sound my words are not
synchronized with the movement of my lips!
Waitanotherminute. I’m a scientist type and we never get
to kiss the bimbette. I wanna new scriptwriter. Methinks
we better find one who can get this thread back on topic or
risk being detoured to MPSIMS…
- jam
Just popping in a moment to comment on Jamoross’ mystery bug page: Your “thumbnail” pictures are all the same image as you “full-sized” versions. It’d be a lot easier on the download if you created smaller versions in your image editing software (there should be a “resize” option somewhere), and used those for the thumbnails, instead. It’s awfully good, though, for a first attempt at HTML.
As to what it is, were I to identify it, I would say that it’s obviously a miniature dragon. Have you observed it engaging in any incendiary behavior?
Its not enough my computer should be full of bugs; I should have to have all these characters in little white coats running around in it, lugging microscopes. . .only to wax poetic instead of simply looking at these critters’ model numbers [on the bottom left side of the thorax] and agreeing with what they are? They obviously escaped from the nearest Japanese robot-toy factory.
Ray
Cripes!
Jamoross, I sincerely hope you have that thing sealed in a lead-lined vault. It looks to me like one of the aliens from The Puppet Masters or something.
I hate to admit it, but for the time being at least I’m stumped. It definitely appears to have an adult-like front part attached to a larval-type back half. (Darwin was once shown a composite insect glued together from bits and pieces of several different kinds. He stroked his beard thoughtfully, and then said “Ah yes! I’ve got it now! It’s a humbug!”) I’ll take your word for it that it was alive and moving about.
The long front legs definitely seem to be adult-type. I can’t be sure whether it has large adult-type compound eyes or not. But those other things along the abdomen seem to be “prolegs,” or larval-type leglike organs found only in caterpillars. And I’m not sure what to make of those cerci on the end.
What it looks like to me is a dragonfly-type nymph front half stuck onto a caterpillar’s abdomen. I wish I could see the mouthparts more clearly.
The ID may have to wait until next week when I can consult with my Smithsonian colleagues, unless of course Doug Yanega happens to wander in here. We do have a Japanese entomologist hanging about the shop, and she may know.