Stick Insects: Metachronal Gait and Introducing Stumpy
Latest edition in my occasional stick insect updates, and finally I’ve convinced one of them to do something other than a tripod gait on video. In the literature they seem to use first instar specimens because they are less prone to behaving like, well, sticks! In the pursuit of the videos below I did end up with one 10 minute film of one insect refusing to move despite any number of prods and pushes. Also below, one of the insects has lost a leg, and as it has already reached it’s final adult stage will not grow a new one… I managed a couple of seconds of gait filming before it too ran out of steam, I’ll try and get a longer analysis at some point but since some of my students are about to hand in an assignment which contains a question on possible gaits of a five legged insect I thought I’d post this one as a teaser. (more…)
Shortened URL: http://go.dave-wood.org/39
George Rollos: World 1760
The latest addition to my collection, another world map from the Pickwick Gallery in Stratford-Upon-Avon from where I source most of my new additions. Title “An accurate map of the world drawn from the best authorities”.
This one is taken from the “Geographical Dictionary”, 1760, engraved by George Rollos and as far as I can ascertain drawn by Sieur Robert de Vaugondy, geographer to the French king. These smaller hemisphere maps (the map measures approx 30cmx16cm, or 12″x6″) are difficult to find in good condition since they are usually folded at the front of folios so would get thumbed through over the centuries. This one is, as far as I can tell, in perfect condition (the apparent fading above is due to uneven light while scanning since it was already framed). (more…)
Shortened URL: http://go.dave-wood.org/36
A Tale of Hotlinking
For the uninitiated, “hotlinking” (also known as inline linking) is where you embed an image in a web page, but instead of that image being on the same server, the page links to an image elsewhere on the web and downloads it from there each time. Great you might think, I don’t have to worry about storing the image on my server, and I’m not going to have lots of bandwidth problems since it’s not being retrieved from there either! Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite work like that since it means that the person who is hosting the image is having to pay for the bandwidth each time that image is downloaded from your page (i.e. each time that web page is accessed). There is also the risk that the person you’re ripping off can have some fun… (more…)
Shortened URL: http://go.dave-wood.org/35
March Stick Insect Update
Another update on the stick insects in my office since they are now getting towards adult size, as you can see from the thumbnail to the left (where there is a 20p coin for reference). There have not been any deaths since transferring to the cage so there are still currently 17 insects of varying sizes due to the delay in hatching for some of them. The one shown is one of the larger ones, and is representative of the majority being a vibrant green with the distinctive red patches on the forelegs now quite apparent. There are some however of a brown colour, I’ll try and get a photo of one of them for next time (although you can see one in one of the shots below from inside the cage). (more…)
Shortened URL: http://go.dave-wood.org/34
