Update on Calendars + Survey

First an update on the calendars: They are currently at the printers. Hopefully I will have them back and ready to deliver next week.

I have ordered a few extra copies of both the general and the insect calendars, so if you haven't ordered any yet, but will still like one, you still have a chance! They will be available on a first come, first served, basis. They are NZ$16 each + postage. To see the images included in the calendars, please see here.

Second: In the Small Business Management course I am doing, we are currently looking at marketing. One of our assignments includes conducting a market research survey. My survey is about calendars, and if you are able to answer the survey for me it would be much appreciated! Please click here to take the survey. Your answers will not only help me complete my assignment, but will be useful for helping me design my calendars in the future. :)

Thank you!

Calendar time :D

 

Its calendar time again, and I have two 2014 calendars available this year.

• General Theme - A selection of flowers, birds, landscapes and other photos, similar to last years calendar.
• Insects Theme - A creepy crawly themed one because a couple of people suggested the idea and I thought it would be fun - for those more adventurous among us!

 

The calendars will be available for NZ$16 each + postage (if applicable). I will take orders and then get everyone's printed together at the same time (in early-mid November). I will discuss payment options with you when you order. Orders can be sent to amgrassham@hotmail.co.nz Please feel free to ask any questions if you wish :)

Photos in each of the calendars are shown below:

General Theme:


January

February

March 



April




May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Insects Theme:

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

 

Hide and Seek - The Answers

Game 1:

What is this a photo of? Most of you guessed some sort of leaf, and you are right. It is a close up of a Ginkgo biloba leaf with light shining through it.  

Except, strictly speaking, it isn't a leaf at all; Ginkgo trees don't have leaves. Their 'leaves' are actually stems that are flattened, increasing the surface area available for photosynthesis. They therefore have a similar function as leaves do on other plants, but are a bit different structurally.

Gingko biloba is the only extant (living) species in its phylum, Ginkgophyta. To help put this into perspective, there are 630 extant species in the phylum Coniferophyta (conifers) and between 250,000 and 400,000 species in the phylum Magnoliophyta (flowering plants). For a little bit more perspective, the phylum to which we belong, Chordata (vertebrates + a few almost vertebrates), has over 100,000 species. 

Game 2:

Find the bird. It was a bit harder to tell who got this one right, as its hard to know if the thing you are looking at is the same bit I am looking at. Someone even thought they found two birds! Maybe I missed one. So below is the picture with the bird circled, you can check for yourself if its the one you found. :) 

The trick, which at least one person figured out, is to click on the photo to view the photo full size. Then if you look carefully, there is the eye of a waxeye looking at you. 

Waxeyes (Zosterops lateralis) or silvereyes as they are also known, are a small bird that self introduced from Australia, with the first birds recorded in NZ in 1832. They have since spread throughout the country and are quite common. They feed on insects, fruit and nectar. I have previously seen them feeding on apples and grapes, and in the garden at my new place in town I've watched them eating figs and Coprosma berries. 

Hide and seek

I am working on something I think is exciting which I hope to tell you about soon, but I need to make sure it is all going work first, so in the mean time...

I've got a couple of little games for you. They are both photos I've taken recently.

Game #1

What is this photo of? 

Game #2

There is a bird in this picture. Can you find it? 

You may leave your answers in the comments if you wish. If you can get them correct, you will get a high five from me :) I may post the answers in about a week or so. 

Backyard Seed Dispersal: The Plot Thickens

After posting my last post I decided to do a little detective work. There are enough ripe Coprosma robusta fruits around so I picked several and took them apart to see what their seeds look like. Did they look the same as those I found the other day?

Unfortunately, the C. robusta seeds are not only much larger than my bird dispersed seeds, but a different shape. So I can confidently say the bird dispersed seeds I found a few days ago are not C. robusta, like I thought they might have been.  

Then, while picking up Saturday morning's walnuts from the back lawn, I came across some more bird dispersed seeds...

These ones look very much like C. robusta...

But what are these ones???

I tried cleaning off some the pulp off these new ones, and I did eventually succeed, but that pulp was horrible sticky stuff about the consistency of egg whites. It clogged up my tweezers something awful. As I was cleaning them, my mind drifted back to a university lecture I'd had a few years ago. Mistletoes are hemi-parasitic (i.e. they tap into their host tree to obtain water and nutrients, but they still photosynthesise to produce their own sugars). This means their seeds need to land on tree branches to be able to germinate and grow, instead of on the ground like most other seeds. What adaptations do they have to encourage their deposition on tree branches? They have sticky seeds. When a bird excretes a mistletoe seed (whether by regurgitation or defecation) it sticks to the bird instead of dropping to ground. To get rid of the seed, the bird must wipe it off on a branch. Although the sticky seeds I found were on the ground, I wondered if they could be mistletoe...

There is one mistletoe plant here at the farm (a green mistletoe - Ileostylus micranthus), which must have itself been brought in by the birds. So I went out to look at the mistletoe. It was covered in ripe fruit.  I collected several and pulled them apart, and this is what I found...

Seeds and fruit of Ileostylus micranthus.  Two seeds
covered in sticky pulp on the left and three whole fruits on the right.

This is very exciting – the host tree for our mistletoe is dying, and the branch the mistletoe is growing on already looks quite dead. As the mistletoe looks quite healthy one assumes the branch can't be totally dead, but its days are probably numbered. Hopefully the birds will successfully disperse one or two of its seeds to other trees, where they can germinate and grow new mistletoe plants.  

  

So we have bird dispersed C. robusta and mistletoe seeds but what were those original bird dispersed seeds I found? The mystery deepens!

A little seed dispersal treat...

Autumn is here as is evident from the increasing numbers of coloured leaves to be found...

...and an enormous array of toadstools which seem to have sprouted just about everywhere after some recent showers...

We also have an over abundance of apples, the excess of which the sheep are quite happy to consume, and a carpet of nuts beneath the walnut and hazelnut trees. Those nuts we miss picking up quickly become ratty's dinner, as evidenced by broken shells on the back lawn in the morning.

So this evening while I was scouring the back lawn for walnuts to pick up, I found...

For those more innocent among you, it is a bit of bird poop, full of seeds. Me being me, and perhaps because it conjured up memories of extracting seeds from monkey poo for my masters, this got me excited... here is an example of nature in action, ecology at work!

We get many fruit eating birds around here – a mixture of natives like kereru, tui, bellbirds and silvereyes and introduced species including blackbirds, thrushes and starlings - and little native tree seedlings popping up all over the place. And it got me curious... what sort of seeds are these?

Most of the seedlings we get seem to be Coprosma robusta and ake-ake – both of which grow in our garden. Ake-ake has wind dispersed seeds though, so I know straight away these seeds are probably not ake-ake. We also get quite a few kowhai seedlings, but these come in pods and I don't think the birds eat them, although both tui and bellbird love the nectar from kowhai flowers. The kowhai seedlings grow mostly underneath our existing kowhai trees, and have probably grown from seeds fallen beneath the adult trees. We also get koromiko, five finger and Pittosporum seedlings but these are a little less common, and very occasionally we get kaikomako, totara and even kahikatea seedlings. We even have a mistletoe that must have got brought in by the birds. Alternatively, these seeds could be a weed like Himalayan honeysuckle or hawthorn. But my top guess is that these are Coprosma seeds... not only are they common seedlings around here, but they are fruiting in full force at the moment too.

Coprosma robusta berries

Being on the back lawn, these seeds, even if they germinate are unlikely to survive. Even though our lawns are plagued with various seedlings, and some get rescued and planted out around the farm, most of get mown before they are big enough for us to transplant. So I decided to take the bird poo and plant its seeds. It serves a double purpose – the seedlings won't get mown off and I get to satisfy my curiosity and find out what they are. It perhaps even serves a third purpose – you can watch the seeds grow with me, and witness a little seed dispersal action. So stay tuned!

Its all in the name!

So real life has been keeping me busy lately, and I have neglected this place somewhat. Things are still going to be a bit busy for me over the next couple of weeks, as I prepare to move towns, but hopefully once I'm set up in my new place, I'll have a bit more time to focus on getting things organised here.

In the meantime, it was my turn to organise and run the impromptu session at the latest meeting of the public speaking group I belong to. The task I gave them was this....

Imagine you are a brave explorer traveling through uncharted territory... swinging through vines deep in the jungle, or surfing sand dunes miles into the desert, or diving into the ocean's depths, or perhaps just searching your backyard with a magnifying glass... when all of a sudden you see something unusual, different or unfamiliar, and realise you've discovered a new creature, never before seen by human eyes. Your recent discovery has brought you fame, and tonight you are to stand before this gathering of curious fans and tell them about the species you discovered during your adventures. 

Each member was then invited to come up and select a piece of paper from the bowl on the table at the front of the room. Each piece of paper had the scientific name of an organism (and an approximate pronunciation guide, as long latin names can be daunting for the best of us). They then had 90 seconds to tell us about their species. After their speech, I briefly told them what their organism really was. As you can imagine, this was a lot of fun and we were all in fits of laugher at various moments... Indeed it was difficult to read out some of the real descriptions of the species while keeping a straight face.

Although you weren't there to witness the things the other members of the public speaking group came up with, I still thought some of the species names and their descriptions might give you a good giggle :) And you might learn something new ;). Some I chose because they are funny, some I chose for other reasons. I also cannot guarantee my pronunciation guide is 100% correct - it was simply my attempt at how I would pronounce them - the focus of the evening was not on pronouncing them correctly. Anyway, Enjoy!!

•  Chlorocebus tantalus (Chloro-see-bus tan-ta-lus)

I had to include this one because this monkey was the subject of my Master's thesis. It is widespread throughout West and Central Africa, where it feeds primarily on fruits. While they are important seed dispersers, they are considered a pest by many locals, as they like to help themselves to their crops. 

•  Apteryx australis (Ap-ter-rix aus-tra-lis)

The Southern Brown Kiwi. When New Zealand's early explorers first sent reports of the kiwi back to Europe, the people did not believe them. It was only once they were able to send some kiwi pelts back that they realised that such an usual bird really did exist.

• Pieza kake (Pees-a cake)

A small furry fly found in Brazil. Its siblings are Pieza pi, Pieza rhea and Pieza deresistans. The taxonomist who named these flies apparently liked his pizza!

• Oedipus complex (Oh-dee-pus complex)

Also known as the Gamboa worm salamander, it is a species of lungless salamander, found from Costa rica through to Colombia and Ecuador.

• Carmenelectra shechisme (Car-men-ee-leck-tra she-kis-me)

A very small fossil fly found from Baltic amber. It was named after television, film and magazine personality, Carmen Elecktra. The taxonomist apparently explained his choice of name, saying "Both namesakes exemplify splendid somal (body) structure for their respective taxa. The species-group epithet (i.e the second part of the name) is an arbitrary combination of letters."

• Calponia harrisonfordi (Kal-pone-ee-a harrison-ford-eye)

A Californian spider discovered in 1993. Not much is known about it, but it is thought to eat other spiders. It was named after Harrison Ford to thank him for narrating a documentary for the Natural History Museum in London.

• Agathidium bushi (Ag-a-thid-ee-um bush-eye)

A beetle named after President George W. Bush. Bush's vice-president and defence secretary also got beetles named after them - A. cheneyi and A. rumsfeldi. To quote the website, from which I discovered such beetles existed, "Admittedly, the beetles in question eat slime mould, which caused a few titters among taxonomists of a Democrat persuasion, but it is clearly an act of gross speciesism to criticise the dining habits of other organisms."

• Aha ha (A-ha ha)

An Australian wasp, named by one Arnold Menke in 1977. Apparently, Menke described how, when he recieved a package from a colleague containing the insect specimens, he exclaimed, "Aha!" The name was also used for the number plate of Menke's car.

• La Cucaracha (La Koo-ka-ra-cha)

While la cucaracha is the Spanish word for cockroach, this is actually a species of moth. It was named for the Spanish folk song by the same name that became popular during the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920.

• Hebejeebie trifida (Hee-bee-jee-bee tri-fi-da)

A small native shrub, up to 20 cm tall found in Central Otago and Southland. It lives in alpine areas, in meltwater seepages below summer snow banks. (And related to the Hebe's, incase you were wondering).

• Balaenoptera musculus (Bay-leen-opt-er-a mus-cue-lus)

The largest species known to ever have lived on planet earth... the blue whale. The second part of the name - musculus could mean 'muscular', but can also be interpreted as 'little mouse'. Linneaus may well have known this and, given his sense of humour, may have intended the ironic double meaning.

• Mirza zaza (Mer-za za-za)

The northern giant mouse lemur which lives in the North Western dry forests of Madagascar. It is smaller than the closely related M. coquereli, reflected by the name zaza, which is Malagasy for 'child'.

• Circus approximans (Cir-cus approx-ee-mans)

The Australasian harrier that is commonly observed feeding on roadkill on rural roads. It is named for the wide circular flight paths it uses when searching open country for its next meal.

• Euphoria herbacea (Euphoria herb-ae-see-ae)

Is a scarab beetle from North America that visits flowers to feed on nectar and pollen.

• Mops mops (Mops mops)

The Malayan free tailed bat is found in Malaysia and Indonesia. They are insectivorous, and are capable of agile flight manoeuvres rivaling those of insectivorous birds such as swallows.

• Piper nigrum (Pie-per nigh-grum)

Native to southern India, this is the black pepper plant. Its fruits have been used as a spice since antiquity and it is the world's most traded spice.

• Unicorn catleyi (Unicorn cat-ley-eye)

No, the mythical horse-like creature doesn't secretly exist!! This is actually the high mountain goblin spider. This spider lives in the high-altitude semi-desert regions of Bolivia, Chile and Argentina.

• Rhizophora mangle (Rye-zo-for-a mangle)

The red mangrove, a common estuarine plant in tropical and subtropical regions. In some regions, such as Florida, Lousiana and Texas it forms an important part of the coastal ecosystems, threatened by other invasive plants. Yet, in other regions, such as Hawaii, it has itself become an invasive pest.

• Onthophagus hippopotamus (On-tho-fay-gus hippo-pot-amus)

This is a dung beetle from Mexico, so its a little odd that it should be named after the hippopotamus from Africa. Perhaps the beetle is of a large size?

• Glycine max (Gly-cine max)

Is the soybean plant. Native to east Asia, the US is now both the biggest producer and the biggest consumer of soybean products.

• Chaos carolinensis (Chaos carol-eye-nen-sis)

A protozoan, or single celled organism, resembling a giant amoeba, up to 5 mm across. It feeds on bacteria, algae and even small multicellular invertebrates.

• Abra cadabra (Ab-ra ka-dab-ra)

A fossil clam that lived in the seas of the Middle East. Unfortunately, as it is now extinct, it appears it might not have the magical powers suggested by its name.


I hope you've had a good laugh, and gained a little appreciation for the vast array of intriguing organisms we share the planet with :)


* I gathered the species information on this page from wikipedia, curious taxonomy and oddee.com

Different yet Familiar

Hi Everyone :)

Its been over a month since I last posted, so I thought I'd better let you all know I'm still alive. I have a bit of a housekeeping post coming up, with some questions for you, but I'm not there yet. So for now I leave you with something a little different, yet quite familiar to many of you...

For anyone who may not recognise the image above, it is a drawing I did recently, from this photo taken December 2008, during my stay in Nigeria.