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The ladybird project
Nov. 10th, 2008 12:39 pmIs there any more put-upon animal than the antelope? I watched a wildlife documentary last night, and if the antelopes weren't being eaten by lions, cheetahs or hyenas, they were allowed by the wildebeest to have first go at crossing a fast-flowing, high-banked, crocodile-infested river. Thanks for that, wildebeest, I'm sure they were thinking; you're all heart.
(Actually, last week, the same program showed the wildebeest being utterly baffled by the whole concept of crocodiles. They know to do this great pan-African trek and instinctively know that lions mean danger, but have no herd memory* of what happens when they meet a crocodile, which I thought was interesting. What an unpleasant surprise for them.)
Doing the ironing last week, I found myself watching a show I don't normally watch - a science-y magazine program - during which I discovered that there is an Australian Ladybird Taskforce. How delightful would it be to work there?
The good folk of the Ladybird Taskforce weren't just alerting people to their existence, though. No, they were inviting participation in a national ladybird survey, with 'a very real chance that you may discover a new species'. Hearing that I thought, oh, wouldn't that be great?, and promptly forgot all about it... until I was reading in the garden yesterday and looked up and saw a little orange ladybird trundling along a nearby leaf. Ooh! I took a photo, compared it to the photos on the website and discovered (drum roll) that I had a Coccinella transversalis, one of the most common of the native ladybirds. So that was nice, if a bit dull. I wanted to find a new species.
* Or 'implausibility memory', as I'm sure we all remember from my collective noun phase.
(Actually, last week, the same program showed the wildebeest being utterly baffled by the whole concept of crocodiles. They know to do this great pan-African trek and instinctively know that lions mean danger, but have no herd memory* of what happens when they meet a crocodile, which I thought was interesting. What an unpleasant surprise for them.)
Doing the ironing last week, I found myself watching a show I don't normally watch - a science-y magazine program - during which I discovered that there is an Australian Ladybird Taskforce. How delightful would it be to work there?
The good folk of the Ladybird Taskforce weren't just alerting people to their existence, though. No, they were inviting participation in a national ladybird survey, with 'a very real chance that you may discover a new species'. Hearing that I thought, oh, wouldn't that be great?, and promptly forgot all about it... until I was reading in the garden yesterday and looked up and saw a little orange ladybird trundling along a nearby leaf. Ooh! I took a photo, compared it to the photos on the website and discovered (drum roll) that I had a Coccinella transversalis, one of the most common of the native ladybirds. So that was nice, if a bit dull. I wanted to find a new species.
* Or 'implausibility memory', as I'm sure we all remember from my collective noun phase.