Tuesday 7 February 2012

Same Old Song?

Scientists, led by a Montealegre Zapata, have reportedly re-created the song of a large bush cricket that lived in NW China 165 million years ago, in the Jurassic era (http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/feb/06/mating-call-extinct-bush-cricket?INTCMP=SRCH). This large insect, it has been deduced from fossil evidence, would have produced a 6.4 KHz mating call, which would have been clearly in the human hearing range (many current bush crickets, like the one illustrated, produce calls nearer 20 KHz).

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What's In a Critter's Name? 11. Comma butterfly

The Comma butterfly ( Polygonia c-album) gets its name from the punctuation-like mark, on the underside of its wings.