(no subject)

[theweaselking]

Crickets on Hawaiian Island Develop Silent Wings in Response to Parasitic Attack

A random mutation becomes dominant in less than 20 generations, as crickets who sing are found and eaten.

Warning: Graphic picture of larva eating a cricket, that gets REALLY FRICKIN HUGE if you click on it.

Comments

[lots42.livejournal.com]

A few times, I foolishly flicked off lizards off the screen from the opposite side. Then I saw that I wasn't being mean, they landed safely. So I did it a few more times because it was funny. Now the lizards run from my flicking fingers.

I have created a master race.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Only if running away from your fingers is inherited and, more importantly, if all the lizards were missing to be the master race was a fear of your fingers.

If those two things are true, then yeah, you might really be fucked.

Intraspecific social parasitism

[frith]

Coool! What will happen next? If parasites wipe out all the calling males, will the females no longer be able to locate males and the population go extinct? Will a threshold drop in the host population trigger a crash in parasite density, allowing a rebound in calling crickets? Will a crash in calling cricket morphs select for less virulent parasites? Will the parasites develop alternate means to locate silent crickets? Interesting times ahead! This is population ecology at its finest.