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venerdì 19 febbraio 2021
# life: to eat each other's wings within mating pairs (among wood-feeding cockroaches Salganea taiwanensis)
venerdì 9 dicembre 2016
# s-gene-behav: short horns for large results (in giant hissing cockroaches)
<< males from two species of giant hissing cockroaches from Madagascar may have evolved different physical characteristics based on their strategies for winning a female >>
<< "These cockroaches are acting like red deer in the rut, competing for females by combat, but if they don't have the size and strength to win fights outright, they can try and sneak mates. A male cockroach seems to be adapted to be either a lover or a fighter, and what's interesting is that they do this before they become fully adult, at the final moult." >> Kate Durrant.
<< Animals that must compete for a mate can do so in various ways: some males will defend a female from rival males by force, while others will sneak past larger males and mate with females behind their backs >>
<< These two strategies, 'fighters' and 'lovers', are associated with different behaviours and characteristics >>
AA << found that the Flat-horned cockroach, which is small with short horns (as its name suggests), was non-aggressive and had large testes, which indicates that it is more likely to avoid fighting by mating with females behind the backs of larger males, while the Wide-horned cockroach, which is large and heavily armoured with large horns, was highly aggressive in combat between males and was not well-endowed in terms of testes size >>
Species of giant cockroaches employ different strategies in the mating game. Nov. 8, 2016
http://m.phys.org/news/2016-11-species-giant-cockroaches-strategies-game.html
Kate L. Durrant, Ian M. Skicko, et al. Comparative morphological trade-offs between pre- and post- copulatory sexual selection in Giant hissing cockroaches (Tribe: Gromphadorhini). Nature. Scientific Reports 6, Article number: 36755. Publ online Nov. 07, 2016. doi: 10.1038/srep36755
giovedì 22 febbraio 2018
# evol: cockroaches, the most detailed information about their evolutionary history
<< As a widespread group of insects with a fossil record dating back 300 My, cockroaches provide an ideal model for testing hypotheses of vicariance through plate tectonics versus transoceanic dispersal >>
AA << analyses provide evidence that both vicariance and dispersal have played important roles in shaping the distribution and diversity of these insects >>
Thomas Bourguignon, Qian Tang, et al. Transoceanic Dispersal and Plate Tectonics Shaped Global Cockroach Distributions: Evidence from Mitochondrial Phylogenomics. Molecular Biology and Evolution. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msy013. Feb 06, 2018.
https://academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/molbev/msy013/4827068
Oxford University Press. Cockroach ancient geographic and genomic history traced back to last supercontinent. Feb 6, 2018
https://m.phys.org/news/2018-02-cockroach-ancient-geographic-genomic-history.html
domenica 25 settembre 2016
# s-bot: human brain waves to remotely control nanobots inside a cockroach
<< This is wild: a team of Israeli scientists developed a contraption that uses a person's brain waves to remotely control DNA-based nanorobots — while the nanobots were inside a living cockroach >>
Arnon S, Dahan N, et al. Thought-Controlled Nanoscale Robots in a Living Host. PLoS ONE 2016 11(8):e0161227. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0161227
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0161227
also: imprinting and recalling inside a single network of brain cells with thin beam of light (as if switching on a TV )
http://flashontrack.blogspot.it/2016/08/s-brain-imprinting-and-recalling-inside.html
sabato 3 novembre 2018
# behav: to avoid zombification (among humble cockroaches)
<< The emerald jewel wasp (Ampulex compressa) is renowned for its ability to zombify the American cockroach (Periplaneta americana) with a sting to the brain. >>
<< many cockroaches deter wasps with a vigorous defense. Successful cockroaches elevated their bodies, bringing their neck out of reach, and kicked at the wasp with their spiny hind legs, often striking the wasp's head multiple times (..) >>
<< Thus, for a cockroach not to become a zombie, the best strategy is: be vigilant, protect your throat, and strike repeatedly at the head of the attacker. >>
Catania K.C. How Not to Be Turned into a Zombie. Brain Behav Evol. 1-15 Oct 31, 2018. doi: 10.1159/000490341
https://www.karger.com/Article/Abstract/490341
Karate kicks keep cockroaches from becoming zombies, wasp chow. Vanderbilt University. Oct 31, 2018.
https://m.phys.org/news/2018-10-karate-cockroaches-zombies-wasp-chow.html
Also
<< cockroaches aren’t a nuisance. They’re "gregarious insects" that can teach us about how groups approach collective decision-making. >>
Erin Blakemore. Cockroaches Have Personalities, Too. Smithsonian.com Feb 4, 2015.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/cockroaches-have-personalities-too-180954140
domenica 8 gennaio 2017
# s-ecol: a solitary Chemist against a "Cockroach Inverse Wave" hypothesis
<< La soglia minima per “bocciare” un dipendente è fissata a quota 50 punti, mentre a Genchi (dottor Gioacchino Genchi, chimico) era stata assegnata una valutazione di 58,01: in pratica mancavano i presupposti legali a supporto dell’ incredibile sanzione inibitoria, per il semplice fatto che il dipendente non aveva demeritato neanche nel punteggio che gli era stato assegnato dai suoi superiori. >>
Lino Buscemi. Sicilia, “sull’isola la matematica è relativa: lo strano caso del dottor Genchi”. F. Q. 7 Gen 2017
<< percio' e in definitiva se (beninteso, se e solo se) costui evitera' (#1) sara' per svista di dis tratto (#2) e non per altro ... >> Anonymous, XX e.V.
(#1): azzeramento
(#2): burocrate
venerdì 23 febbraio 2018
# brain: cockroaches, a spatial representation of the olfactory space
AA were able << to show - for the first time - the existence of a spatial representation of the olfactory space in the brain of a cockroach >>
University of Konstanz. Spatial perception of odorants in cockroaches. Feb 19, 2018.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180219103904.htm
AA << identified 12 types of pheromone-responsive projection neurons (..), each with spatially tuned receptive field >>
Hiroshi Nishino, Masazumi Iwasaki, et al. Spatial Receptive Fields for Odor Localization. Current Biology 2018; 28 (4): 600 - 608.e3. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.12.055. Feb 8, 2018.
http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(17)31688-3
lunedì 26 febbraio 2018
# behav: cockroaches, more about
AA have found << that not only do cockroaches have unique individual personalities, but their differences can also have an impact on group dynamics >>
AA << suggests that varying degrees of personality differences in individuals is likely part of what allows cockroaches to adapt to new surroundings so easily. Brave individuals may forge a new path, while those that are shy remain behind, safe, should a nasty fate await those who venture out >>
Bob Yirka. Study shows cockroaches have individual personalities that impact group dynamics. Feb 4, 2015.
https://m.phys.org/news/2015-02-roaches-individual-personalities-impact-group.html
<< Many studies on collective behaviour underestimate the role of individual personality and, as a result, personality is rarely analysed in the context of collective dynamics. Here, [AA] show evidence of sheltering behaviour personality in a gregarious insect (Periplaneta americana), which is characterized by a collective personality at the group level >>
Isaac Planas-Sitja, Jean-Louis Deneubourg, et al. Group personality during collective decision-making: a multi-level approach. Proc. R. Soc. B 2015; 282 20142515. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2014.2515. Feb 4, 2015.
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/282/1802/20142515
Also
# s-behav: the beetle Carabaeus lamarcki, dancer and sky analyzer. May 14, 2016.
http://flashontrack.blogspot.it/2016/05/s-behav-beetle-carabaeus-lamarcki.html
Also