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If You Go Down To The Woods Today
There are very few moments in life where a single look can silence you. Good or bad these are few and far between but I can guarantee that they will stick with you forever and I am sure the memory of the moment I am about to write about will stick with me longer after everything else has gone fuzzy. A while back I posted this: So I feel I should now explain. Tap. Tap. Tap. I scrunched up my face and tried to ignore the incessant tapping on my forehead but it kept coming. Whatever was going on with Caroline, the girl I had spent 2 weeks sharing a…
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Televised Animal Cruelty
Another series of ‘I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here’ is over and once again I am left with a bitter taste in the back of my throat. With one notable exception, my discomfort cannot be attributed to the actions of the celebrities but rather to those responsible for the production who continue to to use animals as a source of entertainment with no regard for their welfare. This series included a variety of invertebrates, small mammals, snakes and crabs (to name a few) which formed part of the ‘Bush Tucker Trials’ and were once again thrown into uncomfortable, and often deadly, situations for the sake of our so-called…
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Ophiocordyceps Unilateralis and its Zombie Ants
Not the catchiest title I’ve ever written I appreciate! Many of you will remember my long held appreciation for the life and work of Alfred Russel Wallace and this post is actually going to be dedicated to a discovery of his – the fungus Ophiocordyceps Unilateralis. Cordyceps are a group of parasitic fungi containing over 400 described species. Their hosts are usually insects and each variant often has a particular insect species that it targets. The host of choice for this variant is the Camponotus leonardi ant, otherwise known as the Carpenter Ant, which is found in many forested areas around the world and the two coincide in the tropical forests…
