Sunday, January 23, 2011

Synchronicity, Insects

Was striding down the length of the gym (some kind of exercise from Tensie), listening to Primus' Southbound Pachyderm when spotted on the ledge National Geographic open to the page with all the migrating Monarch butterflies in one of their trees. For those of you who haven't heard this amazing story - the butterflies fly only one way - either North or South. Arrive and mate and produce a bunch of caterpillars who eat & pupate & become again butterflies. This next generation flies back the other direction and, despite never having been there before, stop at all the same exact trees on the way.
Even more amazing is the story of the grasshoppers and locusts. Scientists had categorized them as different genus/species - grasshoppers are small, green, live individually, and hop to get around. Locusts are big, dark brown/black, swarm, and fly. Then one day a scientist happened to notice a locust hatch out of a grasshopper egg. !!! Same genotype, just different gene expression and thus different phenotype. Triggered by running of food ie environmental stress. !!!