Page 17 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #05

WILD NEWS

Q INSECTS
Torresian crows The
are masters
CAMO of dissection. EXPLAINER
CAUSES 6FLHQWLĶF WHUPV SXW LQWR SODLQ

CONFUSION (QJOLVK IRU WKH UHVW RI XV
Few colour schemes are as EMBRYOPHAGY
obviously a warning to steer Sibling rivalry doesn’t get
clear as the striking orange much more intense than
and black bands of the toxic this. Pregnant females are
cinnabar moth caterpillar. But not always attached to their
appearances can be deceptive. embryos by a placenta.
According to new research, A smattering of molluscs,
the colours can also work as worms and sharks provide
effective camouflage – it nourishment via a more
just depends on how close grisly route – they produce
you are to them. excess embryos and
University of Bristol Q INVASIVE SPECIES let them eat each other
researchers have investigated until only one remains.
Caterpillar: Matt Cole/FLPA; crow: Ian Sutton/Flickr/CreativeCommons; shark: Mirko Zanni/Getty; millipedes: Virginia T ech
the pattern’s effect on the CANE AND ABLE Embryonic sand tiger
visual system of starlings. sharks come prepared
At close range, the patterns Australia has a new ally in “Crows avoid contact with for the bloodshed with
are striking and obvious. But the battle against invasive the ooze by grasping them fearsome dentition. If the
from greater distances, the cane toads. The biggest by the limbs or even the embryos have diferent
orange bands merge together, toad in the world is a lethal bony brow above the eye, fathers, embryophagy
making the insect hard to temptation for many a avoiding the body itself,” might be an e cient way
pick out against the foliage of native Australian predator - Wilson says in Australian for a female to ensure she
their foodplant, ragwort. This some, such as the northern Geographic. “These clever produces ofspring with
might reduce the chances of quoll, have been poisoned birds have learnt to roll the best of them.
attracting predators that are en masse to the point the toads onto their backs,
unaware of the significance of endangerment. sometimes doing so
of the warning signal. But not Torresian crows. repeatedly if the luckless
It also turns out that the Photographer Steve Wilson toad tries to hop away.
caterpillars’ black bands are not has captured these adaptable Crows know which bits to
actually black. “We found them corvids carefully preparing the eat – fleshy thighs, tongues,
to in fact be an extremely dark amphibians for consumption intestines – and how to get
green,” says lead researcher so as to avoid the toxins at these from below without
James Barnett, “which may hint exuded from neck glands. contacting the lethal parts.”
at how these colours evolved Sand tiger sharks
from a cryptic ancestor.” SOURCE Australian Geographic LINK http://bit.ly/2Fmvvha have their siblings
for supper.
SOURCE: Royal Society Open Science
LINK http://bit.ly/2G2M3Mq

NEW SPECIES These chemical
weapons factories
SPOTLIGHT vary in colour.
COLOURFUL CHERRY MILLIPEDE

WHAT IS IT? Here’s a new species that took
more describing than most. It comes in at least
six distinct colour schemes – more than any
other known millipede. The striking patterns
advertise the fact that they are packed with
From afar, cyanide and other deadly toxins.
starlings WHERE IS IT? These thumb-sized beauties
cannot spot bulldoze their way around the forest floor of south-
a cinnabar. west Virginia’s Cumberland Mountains. The colour
variations seem to have arisen for reasons of
mutual mimicry with a variety of other toxic species.

SOURCE Zootaxa LINK http://bit.ly/2oPaANy
BBC Wildlife 17