Weekend Reading June 4

Right in line with my recent post about the difficulty in defining "species" the great Carl Zimmer one ups me with a story on a "species" of poison arrow frog.

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/06/12/poison-camouflage-and-the-rainbow-of-evolution/

Lots of animals are capable of producing fluorescent light.  Lightning bugs are the first animal that comes to mind for most of us in North America, other parts of the world have glowworms, jellyfish, or bioluminescence in the water.  Deep sea fish can also glow under certain conditions but they do so by using symbiotic bacteria.  Now the first vertebrate organism (vertebrate means they have a backbone) that can fluoresce has been found - a Freshwater Eel.  The exciting part of the story is in the biochemistry but there is a really neat photo in this link:

http://www.nature.com/news/first-fluorescent-protein-identified-in-a-vertebrate-1.13190

Have you heard about Colony Collapse Disorder and the Disappearing Bees?  While there is still a lot of debate about what is causing the decline in bee populations this link shows one very clear problem.

http://myrmecos.net/2013/03/21/an-aerial-view-of-the-problem/

What If?  answers the question what would happen to the Earth if the sun suddenly switched off?  Be sure to hover your pointer over images for more snarky goodness.

http://what-if.xkcd.com/49/

Here are some good photos of a caterpillar who keeps the exoskeleton of old heads when it molts.  Even I think this is a bit creepy.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/colinhutton/8419407107/