Browsing Tag 'mating'
Inside the rounded fruit of a fig tree is a maze of flowers. That is, a fig is not actually a fruit; it is an inflorescence—a cluster of many flowers and seeds contained inside a bulbous stem. Because of this unusual arrangement, the seeds—technically the ovaries of the fig—require a specialized pollinator that is adapted [...]
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The male zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) learns to sing in private before performing for a female audience, according to Satoshi Kojima and Allison J. Doupe from the University of California, San Francisco. In addition, juvenile male finches seem to step up the quality of their singing, despite their immaturity, when in the presence of potential [...]
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In the case of the African butterfly Bicyclus anynana, females develop ornate wings and court males if they spend the larval stage in a dry, cool environment. The reverse occurs, according to Kathleen Prudic from Yale University and colleagues, when the butterflies are exposed to wetter, warmer environments. “As expected, female Bicyclus anynana in warmer [...]
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Male jumping spiders (Phidippus clarus) size one another up before engaging in a fight—whether the aggression is based on rights to mating or territory—and in many cases, the pre-fight displays are sufficient to deter physical contact. The males do not nest but instead wander between female nests looking for opportunities to mate. The females, on the other hand, are not nomads—they build nests from silk and leaves in which they wait while they draw closer to sexual maturity.
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A process of producing biofuels that yields brewer’s yeast, researchers’ evidence that human neurodegenerative disorders in Guam in the 1960s were linked to cyanobacteria, President Obama shows support for synthetic biology research and scientists track migratory birds at their farthest recorded distance. Here are highlights in ecology for the last week in May.
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