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In England Have My Bones [T.H.] White wrote one of the saddest sentences I have ever read: ‘Falling in love is a desolating experience, but not when it is with a countryside.’ He could not imagine a human love returned. He had to displace his desires onto the landscape, that great, blank green field that cannot love you back, but cannot hurt you either. [...] But the countryside wasn’t just something that was safe for White to love: it was a love that was safe to write about.

"It took me a long time to realise how many of our classic books on animals were by gay writers who wrote of their relationships with animals in lieu of human loves of which they could not speak."

Gavin Maxwell’s Ring of Bright Water, for example: the tale of a lonely man on the Scottish coast with an Iraqi otter on his sofa. Or the books of the BBC radio naturalist Maxwell Knight, former MI5 spymaster and closet queen. Doubly disallowed to speak openly of his allegiances, Knight wrote a book about hand-rearing a cuckoo called Goo. His obsession with this small, greedy, feathery, parasitic bird is terribly moving; it was a species made of all the hidden elements of Knight’s life: subterfuge, deceit, passing oneself off as something one is not. [...]

[T.H. White] kept [grass snakes] because ‘it was impossible to impose upon them, or steal their affections’. He loved them because they were misunderstood, maligned, and ‘inevitably themselves.’

----------- Chapter 4, H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald (2014)

Does anyone know other sources that talk about the intersections between queer writers and nature writing? As a queer lady who does exactly that, this passage has always stuck with me.

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Cladonia verticillata 

Ladder lichen, tiered cladonia

So obviously, there’s a lot to unpack here. But stay with me as we take in this adorable little weirdo in all its glory. C. verticillata has wedge-shaped or lobed basal squamules, and fruticose, cup-like podetia that stick straight up. The unique characteristic of these podetia is that they form tiers of cups proliferating from the cup centers like tiny, bizarre fountains. It is grayish-green in color, and brownish or tan in areas touched by sunlight. Apothecia are small and brown, and grow out of the cup margins in small globules. C. verticillata is not particularly common, but occurs in cool, upland, subarctic, boreal, or montane regions around the world, preferring acidic soil and open areas. If I saw a design like this for like, anything in nature, I’d be like “that’s so unrealistic, no way.” But like, she went there, y’all. 

source | source | source | source 

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So elegant

Open mesh cocoons of false burnet moths in the family Urodidae

DO NOT REMOVE PHOTO CREDIT

Photo 1 by Frank Canon \ Instagram - Shared with permission

Photo 2 by Andreas Kay - CC 2.0

Photo 3 by Art Anker - Shared with permission

Photo 4 by Felipe Campos - CC 4.0

Photo 5 by Roberto Guller - CC 4.0

Photo 6 by Matt Parr  - CC 4.0

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Deaf moths evolved noise-cancelling scales to evade prey

https://sciencespies.com/biology/deaf-moths-evolved-noise-cancelling-scales-to-evade-prey/

Deaf moths evolved noise-cancelling scales to evade prey

A particularly fluffy moth species (Periphoba arcaei) displaying highly elongated thorax scales which act as a type of acoustic camouflage against bats. Credit: Thomas R. Neil

Some species of deaf moths can absorb as much as 85 per cent of the incoming sound energy from predatory bats—who use echolocation to detect them. The findings, published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface today, reveal the moths, who are unable to hear the ultrasonic calls of bats, have evolved this clever defensive strategy to help it survive.

Bats hunt at night using echolocation. The technique, which is also known as biological sonar, first evolved around 65 million years ago and enables bats to search for and find prey putting huge predation pressure on nocturnal insects. One defence that many nocturnal insects evolved is the ability to hear the ultrasonic calls of bats, which allows them to actively evade approaching bats.

Many moth species, however, cannot hear. The team of researchers from the University of Bristol wanted to investigate the alternative defences against bats that some species of deaf moths might have evolved.

Using scanning electron microscopy, the team from Bristol’s School of Biological Sciences discovered that the thorax scales of the moths Antherina suraka and Callosamia promethea looked structurally similar to fibres that are used as noise insulation, so wanted to explore whether the thorax scales of moths might be acting in some way to absorb the ultrasonic clicks of bats and dampen the echoes returning to the bat, offering the moths a type of acoustic camouflage.

One of the four species used in the present study (Antherina suraka). The thorax scales on this moth can absorb up to 85% of the sound energy produced by an echolocating bat. Credit: Thomas R. Neil

The team measured that the scales on the body of a moth absorb as much as 85 per cent of the incoming sound energy and that the scales can reduce the distance a bat would be able to detect a moth by almost 25 per cent, potentially offering the moth a significant increase in its survival chances.

Dr. Thomas Neil, Research Associate from Bristol’s School of Biological Sciences and lead author, said: “We were amazed to see that these extraordinary insects were able to achieve the same levels of sound absorption as commercially available technical sound absorbers, whilst at the same time being much thinner and lighter.

A composite image of a moth and a butterfly showing how we can use acoustic tomography to create a picture using sound. The color images show the target species whilst the grey scale is the resultant tomographic image. This technique allows us to measure exactly how much sound is being reflected from certain body parts of a specimen. Credit: Thomas R. Neil and Marc W. Holderied

“We are now looking at ways in which we can use these biological systems to inspire new solutions to sound insulating technology and analyse the scaling on a moth‘s wing to explore whether they too have sound absorbing properties.”

Explore further

Moths survive bat predation through acoustic camouflage fur

More information: Thomas R. Neil et al, Thoracic scales of moths as a stealth coating against bat biosonar, Journal of The Royal Society Interface (2020). DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2019.0692

Provided by University of Bristol

Citation: Deaf moths evolved noise-cancelling scales to evade prey (2020, February 25) retrieved 25 February 2020 from https://phys.org/news/2020-02-deaf-moths-evolved-noise-cancelling-scales.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

#Biology

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Another rewind as I wait for spring and nature to return. Had a great time watching this American Dipper gathering moss, swishing it in the river, then adding it to its nest in Oregon. Birds are just so amazing and this is one of my favorite species.

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One of my favorite birds. So glad I got to see them in the wild and hear some “screaming”❤️

That’s no unicorn…it’s the Horned Screamer (Anhima cornuta)! This South American bird, which can be spotted in the lowlands of the Amazon forest, sports a bonafide horn on its head. Made of cartilage, the horn grows as the bird ages and sometimes even breaks off—then grows back over time. Both males and females have them, and they’re thought to be ornamental. Horned Screamers are mainly herbivorous, but do snack on insects. Photo: Wagner Machado Carlos Lemes https://www.instagram.com/p/B88G1thABTu/?igshid=10ken2flxw2mt

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Found this skittish friend, a wood thrush, near a salt marsh along the shore of Galveston Bay. Wood thrushes are rated Near Threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, having declined in number by 50% since 1966 due to forest fragmentation across North America. Loss of habitat and urban sprawl are absolutely heartbreaking. Over the past few years, I have repeatedly seen my favorite patches of undisturbed wilderness bulldozed for roads, pipelines, and shopping centers. Nature isn’t some museum or a theme park for our leisure; it is a fundamental key to our survival. How can we best prevent habitat loss? I’d like to hear your opinions.

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Sharing old stuff while I wait for spring and new stuff. Loved this butterfly I saw in Panama for it's silvergreen spots. ID of Xenophanes in @inaturalist . There are X. tryxus in the area but I don't know enough to confidently say it's that species.

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What a cool-looking bee!

A domino cuckoo bee (Thyreus lugubris) I saw in my front garden! I was so excited I could only get this one very bad shot. I’m hoping I can try getting some better photos one day when I actually have my camera on me.

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The largest flower in the world, the stinking corpse lily (Rafflesia arnoldi), may look beautiful, but its rotten-flesh scent will make you think twice before gifting it to your significant other! The pungent smell is actually a come-hither to carrion flies, which spread pollen from flower to flower and help this South Asian rainforest plant reproduce. The parasitic corpse flower has no stem, leaves, or roots. Instead of using energy from the Sun to make nutrients, it draws all of its nourishment from its host, a species of vine in the grape family. Photo: SofianRafflesia, CC-BY-SA-4.0 https://www.instagram.com/p/B8ks_wMg8CF/?igshid=1wwinas1wummx

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The original position and mount of the first giraffe I articulated.

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Meet the Spangled Cotinga (Cotinga cayana)! While females of the species come in shades of brown, males have bright turquoise plumage, a purple-colored throat, and black patterning along the body. This South American native forages on fruits and berries throughout the forest and is an important seed disperser in its habitat. Since it prefers to hang out on the tops of the tallest trees, it’s hard to spot from the ground. Photo: Greg Hume, CC-BY-SA-3.0 https://www.instagram.com/p/B8dOv1qAILe/?igshid=16mf2amxcid5m

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Paul Stamets is great in that he has made mycology a little more accessible to laypeople, BUT please understand that the man is a snake oil salesman who presents his own half-baked theories as scientific truths. It’s unfortunate that there aren’t better resources out there for non-scientists to learn more about mycology, especially if you’re interested in learning about fungi that aren’t mushrooms. I hope to change that, someday, when I am not being consumed alive by grad school, but in the meantime here’s a list of decent intro to mycology books (which are relatively technical but don’t let that scare you).

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Found this poem in an office at the museum where I work