A fly that buzzed around during the time of dinosaurs is being described as a new family, genus and species of fly never before observed.

This artist's rendering of a 100-million-year old insect shows the unusual horn on its head topped by three eyes.

Image by George Poinar/Courtesy OSU

"A single, incredibly well-preserved specimen of the tiny but scary-looking fly was preserved for eternity in Burmese amber, and it had a small horn emerging from the top of its head, topped by three eyes that would have given it the ability to see predators coming," Oregon State University said in a statement about the discovery.

"No other insect ever discovered has a horn like that, and there's no animal at all with a horn that has eyes on top," said George Poinar, Jr., a professor of zoology at OSU, who announced the new species in the journal Cretaceous Research.

"It was probably a docile little creature that fed on the pollen and nectar of tiny tropical flowers," Poinar said. "But it was really bizarre looking. One of the reviewers of the study called it a monster, and I have to admit it had a face only another fly could have loved. I was thinking of making some masks based on it for Halloween."

This ancient "unicorn" fly that lived 100 million years ago in Burma has a "horn" in the center of its forehead, capped with three small eyes.

Photo by George Poinar/Courtesy OSU

The fly lived in the jungles of Myanmar and was found trapped in amber that was from 97 to 110 million years old, OSU said. "The gooey, viscous tree sap that flowed down over the fly and later turned to stone preserved its features in lifelike detail, including its strange horn topped by three functional eyes."

Strange evolutionary adaptations

"If we had seen nothing but the wings of this insect, it would have looked similar to some other flies in the family Bibionomorpha," Poinar said. "But this was near the end of the Early Cretacous when a lot of strange evolutionary adaptations were going on. Its specialized horn and eyes must have given this insect an advantage on very tiny flowers, but didn't serve as well when larger flowers evolved. So it went extinct."

Poinar named the new fly Cascoplecia insolitis--from the Latin "cascus" for old and "insolates" for strange and unusual.

The fly also had other very unusual characteristics, the study found, such as an odd-shaped antenna, unusually long legs that would have helped it crawl over flowers and extremely small vestigial mandibles that would have limited it to nibbling on very tiny particles of food.

This image of an ancient fly in amber more closely shows the strange horn on its head, topped by three eyes.

Photo by George Poinar/Courtesy OSU

Pollen grains found on the legs of the fly suggest that it primarily must have fed on flowers.

"This fly lived during the time of the dinosaurs, but also in a period when Triassic and Jurassic species were becoming extinct, modern groups were appearing and angiosperms, or flowering plants, were diversifying. Some of the characteristics of the fly were common to other families found around that time, but others were extremely different--especially the horn with eyes on top," OSU said.

The specimen found in amber was well-preserved, lacking only the rear left portion of the abdomen and a portion of the left hind leg. It's rare to find specimens with essentially a complete body as well as wings, scientists noted in the report.

The fossil came from an amber mine in the Hukawng Valley of Myanmar, first excavated in 2001.

"This 'unicorn' fly was one of the oddities of the Cretaceous world and was obviously an evolutionary dead end."

Poinar is an expert on insects and other life forms that have been preserved in amber, and has used them as clues to create detailed portraits of ancient ecosystems.

"None of the specialized body characters of Cascoplecia occurs on previously reported Cretaceous bibionids," the report concluded. "This 'unicorn' fly was one of the oddities of the Cretaceous world and was obviously an evolutionary dead end."

By James G. Robertson, National Geographic Digital Media

A New York Times story yesterday brought this video to our attention, which we found both fascinating and disturbing.

Wildlife filmmaker Vanessa Serrao returned from Belize with a special souvenir after she was bit on the head by a mosquito carrying a botfly egg, according to reporting by the Times.  As a wildlife filmmaker, she took the opportunity to film her husband removing the larva from her scalp.  The resulting video has been viewed more than 200,000 times on YouTube, not including the video on her own Web site.

Serrano says in the video that the botfly uses a process called phoresy to reproduce.  The botfly lays eggs on a mosquito, which hatch when near the body heat of a potential host.  The larva drops off the mosquito, burrows under the host's skin and feeds there for about a month before tunneling out again and transforming into an adult botfly.

Watch the video...if you dare!

Autumn leaves of trees in North America often turn red. But in Europe the leaves mostly go yellow. Scientists think that the regional difference can be explained by the geographic orientation of each continent's mountains.

NGS photo by Robert Sisson

A new theory provided by Simcha Lev-Yadun of the Department of Science Education-Biology at the University of Haifa-Oranim in Israel and Jarmo Holopainen of the University of Kuopio in Finland proposes taking a step 35 million years back to solve the color mystery, says a news statement by the University of Haifa.

"According to the theory provided by Prof. Lev-Yadun and Prof. Holopainen, until 35 million years ago, large areas of the globe were covered with evergreen jungles or forests composed of tropical trees," the university said.

"Trees also began an evolutionary process of producing red deciduous leaves in order to ward off insects."

"During this phase, a series of ice ages and dry spells transpired and many tree species evolved to become deciduous. Many of these trees also began an evolutionary process of producing red deciduous leaves in order to ward off insects."

Scientists have determined that leaves turn yellow when the green pigment, chlorophyll, recedes prior to the onset of winter, as trees prepare to shed their leaves for the cold weather. Leaves that turn red are the result of trees producing anthocyanin, a red pigment, which some scientists think is an evolutionary response that deters insects from laying their eggs in the trees.

Whatever the reason for leaves turning red, it occurs a lot more commonly in North America than in Europe. Could it have something to do with the physical geography of the continents?

North-South Mountain Chains

"In North America, as in East Asia, north-to-south mountain chains enabled plant and animal 'migration' to the south or north with the advance and retreat of the ice according to the climatic fluctuations," said the University of Haifa. "And, of course, along with them migrated their insect 'enemies' too.

"Thus the war for survival continued there uninterrupted.

"In Europe, on the other hand, the mountains--the Alps and their lateral branches--reach from east to west, and therefore no protected areas were created. Many tree species that did not survive the severe cold died, and with them the insects that depended on them for survival.

"At the end of the repeated ice ages, most tree species that had survived in Europe had no need to cope with many of the insects that had become extinct, and therefore no longer had to expend efforts on producing red warning leaves."

According to the scientists, evidence supporting this theory can be found in the dwarf shrubs that grow in Scandinavia, which still color their leaves red in autumn.

NGS illustration by Walter A. Weber

"Unlike trees, dwarf shrubs have managed to survive the ice ages under a layer of snow that covered them and protected them from the extreme condition above. Under the blanket of snow, the insects that fed off the shrubs were also protected--so the battle with insects continued in these plants, making it necessary for them to color their leaves red."

The research was published in the journal New Phytologist.

German scientists have built a flight simulator for flies to better understand how the insects see and coordinate their movements. What they learn might be of use in developing robots that can move around their environment.

Photo courtesy USDA

"A fly's brain enables the unbelievable--the animal's easy negotiation of obstacles in rapid flight, split-second reaction to the hand that would catch it, and unerring navigation to the smelly delicacies it lives on," says Technische Universität München in a statement about the research.

"Researchers have long known that flies take in many more images per second than humans do. For human eyes, anything more than 25 discrete images per second will merge into a continuous movement. A blowfly, on the other hand, can perceive 100 images per second as discrete sense impressions and interpret them quickly enough to steer its movement and precisely determine its position in space.

"Yet the fly's brain is hardly bigger than a pinhead, too small by far to enable the fly's feats if it functioned exactly the way the human brain does.

"It must have a simpler and more efficient way of processing images from the eyes into visual perception, and that is a subject of intense interest for robot builders," TUM says.

Photo courtesy USDA

Robots have great difficulty perceiving their surroundings through their cameras, and even more difficulty making sense of what they see, TUM adds.

"Even the recognition of obstacles in their own work space takes too long. So people still need to protect their automated helpers, for example, by surrounding them with safety enclosures."

A more direct, supportive collaboration between human and machine is a central research goal of the "excellence cluster" named CoTeSys, Cognition for Technical Systems, a collaboration of about a hundred scientists and engineers from five universities and institutes in the Munich area of Germany.

To understand how flies see and process their coordination, the CoTeSys group built a flight simulator for flies.

"Here they're investigating what goes on in flies' brains while they're flying. Their goal is to put similar capabilities in human hands--for example, to aid in developing robots that can independently apprehend and learn from their surroundings," TUM says.

Photo by David Braun

On a wraparound display, the researchers present diverse patterns, movements, and sensory stimuli to blowflies. The insect is held in place by a halter, so that electrodes can register the reactions of its brain cells, enabling the researchers to observe and analyze what happens in a fly's brain when the animal whizzes in criss-cross flight around a room, TUM says.

Moving pictures displayed here simulate flight for an immobilized fly; electrodes give researchers a window into the fly's neural activity and vision processing.

Photo courtesy Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology

The first results show one thing very clearly: The way flies process the images from their immobile eyes is completely different from they way the human brain processes visual signals, the university adds.

"Movements in space produce so-called 'optical flux fields' that characterize specific kinds of motion definitively.

"In forward motion, for example, objects rush past on the sides, and foreground objects appear to get bigger. Near and distant objects appear to move differently.

"In each hemisphere there are only 60 nerve cells responsible for this; each reacts with particular intensity when presented with the pattern appropriate to it.

"For the analysis of the optical flux fields, it's important that motion information from both eyes be brought together. This happens over a direct connection of specialized neurons called VS cells. In this way, the fly gets a precise fix on its position and movement."

Image courtesy Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology

"Through our results, the network of VS cells in the fly's brain responsible for rotational movement is one of the best understood circuits in the nervous system," explains Alexander Borst, a neurobiologist from the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology.

Under the leadership of Martin Buss and Kolja Kühnlenz, the TUM researchers are working to develop intelligent machines that can observe their environment through cameras, learn from what they see, and react appropriately to the current situation, the university explained.

"Their long-range aim is to enable the creation of intelligent machines that can interact with people directly, effectively, and safely. Even in factories, the safety barriers between humans and robots should fall. To that end, simple, fast, and efficient methods for the analysis and interpretation of camera pictures are absolutely essential."

TUM researchers are developing small, flying robots whose position and movement in flight will be controlled by a computer system for visual analysis inspired by the example of the fly's brain, the university said.

Robot Asks for Directions

Antoher TUM-built mobile robot, the Autonomous City Explorer (ACE), was challenged to find its way from the institute to Marienplatz at the heart of Munich--a distance of about a mile--by stopping passers-by and asking for directions. To do this, ACE had to interpret the gestures of people who pointed the way, and it had to negotiate the sidewalks and traffic crossings safely, TUM said.

"Increasingly natural interaction between intelligent machines and humans is unthinkable without efficient image analysis. Insights gained from the flight simulator for flies--through the scientific interplay CoTeSys fosters among researchers from various disciplines--offer an approach that might be simple enough to be technically portable from one domain to the other, from the insects to the robots."

Photo courtesy LSR/TUM

Wildlife is under serious threat across the planet, despite the commitment by world leaders to reverse the trend of biodiversity loss by 2010, according to a detailed analysis of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.

Asian Wild Ass (Equus hemionus). Threat category Endangered

Photo © Jean-Christophe Vié

The IUCN assessment, which is published every four years, has been released just before the deadline governments set themselves to evaluate how successful they were in achieving the 2010 target to reduce biodiversity loss.

Deadline will not be met

The IUCN report, "Wildlife in a Changing World," shows the 2010 target will not be met, the organization said in a statement today.

"It's time to recognize that nature is the largest company on Earth working for the benefit of 100 percent of humankind--and it's doing it for free.

"Governments should put as much effort, if not more, into saving nature as they do into saving economic and financial sectors."

IUCN is the world's oldest and largest global environmental network. Based in Switzerland, it is a democratic membership union with more than 1,000 government and NGO member organizations, and almost 11,000 volunteer scientists in more than 160 countries.

Its report analyzes 44,838 species on the IUCN Red List and presents results by groups of species, geographical regions, and different habitats, such as marine, freshwater and terrestrial.

The Red List is the most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of species. It is based on an objective system of assessing the risk of extinction for a species. Species listed as Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable are collectively described as threatened.     

"A minimum of 16,928 species are threatened with extinction."

The updated list shows 869 species are Extinct or Extinct in the Wild, and this figure rises to 1,159 if the 290 Critically Endangered species tagged as Possibly Extinct are included, IUCN said.

"Overall, a minimum of 16,928 species are threatened with extinction."

Considering that only 2.7 percent of the 1.8 million described species have been analyzed, this number is a gross underestimate, IUCN added. "But it does provide a useful snapshot of what is happening to all forms of life on Earth."

Shoebill (Balaeniceps rex). Threat category Vulnerable  (

Same-sex behavior is a nearly universal phenomenon in the animal kingdom, common across species, from worms to frogs to birds, according to a review of existing research, funded by the University of California, Riverside.

"It's clear that same-sex sexual behavior extends far beyond the well-known examples that dominate both the scientific and popular literature: for example, bonobos, dolphins, penguins and fruit flies," said Nathan Bailey, the first author of the review paper and a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Biology at UC Riverside.

A female-female pair of Laysan albatross. Females cooperatively build nests and rear young when males are scarce, according to biologists at the University of California, Riverside.

Photo by Eric VanderWerf

However, the review paper points out, "same-sex behaviors are not the same across species," and that researchers may be calling qualitatively different phenomena by the same name.

"For example, male fruit flies may court other males because they are lacking a gene that enables them to discriminate between the sexes," Bailey said. "But that is very different from male bottlenose dolphins, who engage in same-sex interactions to facilitate group bonding, or female Laysan Albatross that can remain pair-bonded for life and cooperatively rear young."

An example of existing research was a study by Sara Lewis, an evolutionary ecologist at Tufts University, published in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology in November, 2008. Read the National Geographic News report about it: Homosexual Beetle Activity Offers Reproductive Edge. The picture above shows two beetles in a homosexual encounter.

Photo courtesy Sara Lewis, Tufts University

Published June 16 in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution, the review of existing research by Bailey and Marlene Zuk, a professor of biology at UCR, also finds that although many studies are performed in the context of understanding the evolutionary origins of same-sex sexual behavior, almost none have considered its evolutionary consequences.

    "Same-sex behaviors--courtship, mounting or parenting--are traits that may have been shaped by natural selection."

"Same-sex behaviors--courtship, mounting or parenting--are traits that may have been shaped by natural selection, a basic mechanism of evolution that occurs over successive generations," Bailey said. "But our review of studies also suggests that these same-sex behaviors might act as selective forces in and of themselves."

A selective force, which is a sudden or gradual stress placed on a population, affects the reproductive success of individuals in the population, a UCR news release about the research explained.

"When we think of selective forces, we tend to think of things like weather, temperature, or geographic features, but we can think of the social circumstances in a population of animals as a selective force, too," Bailey said. "Same-sex behavior radically changes those social circumstances, for example, by removing some individuals from the pool of animals available for mating."

Bailey, who works in Zuk's lab, noted that researchers in the field have made significant strides in the past two and a half decades studying the genetic and neural mechanisms that produce same-sex behaviors in individuals, and the ultimate reasons for their existence in populations.

Evolutionary Consequences

"But like any other behavior that doesn't lead directly to reproduction--such as aggression or altruism--same-sex behavior can have evolutionary consequences that are just now beginning to be considered," he said. "For example, male-male copulations in locusts can be costly for the mounted male, and this cost may in turn increase selection pressure for males' tendency to release a chemical called panacetylnitrile, which dissuades other males from mounting them."

According to UCR, the review paper:

• Examines work done to test hypotheses about the origins of same-sex behavior in animals.
• Provides a framework for categorizing same-sex behavior, for example, is it adaptive, not adaptive, occurs often, infrequently?
• Discusses what has been discovered about the genetics of same-sex behavior, especially in the model organism, the fruit fly Drosophila, and in human beings.
• Examines connections between human sexual orientation research, and research on non-human animals, and highlights promising avenues of research in non-human systems.

The reviewers expected the research papers they read for their article would give them a better understanding of the degree to which same-sex behaviors are heritable in animals, UCR said.

Genes vs. Environment

"How important are genes to the expression of these behaviors, compared to environmental factors?" Bailey said. "This is still unknown.

"Knowing this information would help us better understand how the behaviors evolve, and how they affect the evolution of other traits. It could also help us understand whether they are something that all individuals of a species are capable of, but only some actually express."

Bailey recommends that fellow evolutionary biologists studying same-sex behavior in animals adopt some of the research approaches that have been successful in human studies, UCR said.

"We have estimates, for example, of the heritability of sexual orientation in humans, but none that I know of in other animals," he said. "Scientists have also targeted locations on the human genome that may contribute to sexual orientation, but aside from the fruit fly, we have no such detailed knowledge of the genetic architecture of same-sex behavior in other animals."

Bailey and Zuk plan to begin experimentally addressing some of the many issues raised in their review.

Said Bailey, "We want to get at this question: what are the evolutionary consequences of these behaviors? Are they important in the evolution of mating behavior, or do they just add extra 'background noise'?

"We are pursuing work on the Laysan albatross, in which females form same-sex pairs and rear young together. Same-sex behavior in this species may not be aberrant, but instead can arise as an alternative reproductive strategy."

Related National Geographic News stories:

Homosexual Activity Among Animals Stirs Debate

Damselfly Mating Game Turns Some Males Gay

Rattlesnakes Show Strong Family Bonds, Study Says

Homosexual Beetle Activity Offers Reproductive Edge

I met Wagner a couple of times during the bioblitz and we talked about beetles, a subject he knows a lot about.

The two tiger beetles in this specimen bottle were found by a colleague of Wagner's under tree bark. They're a nice size, Wagner remarked, because many of the beetles he ordinarily works with are the size of pin heads.

Different types of tiger beetle larvae prefer different types of soil, Wagner explained. That's why different beetles are found in different habitats.

So what is the behavior that gives tiger beetles their common name? "They're tigerlike predators," Wagner said. "They lurk around and rush out to grab things that are passing, chewing them up like tigers," he said.

Who knew that these pretty irridescent beetles were such beasts!

Watch Wagner describe these tiger beetles in this video:

Video and photo  by David Braun

Hissing cockroach picture courtesy Ohio State University

Mites living on Madagascar hissing cockroaches help decrease the presence of a variety of molds on the cockroaches' bodies, potentially reducing allergic responses among humans who handle the popular insects, according to Ohio State University.

Scientists cultured and identified fungi on the cockroaches' body surfaces with and without mites and discovered that the presence of these mites reduced the molds by at least 50 percent, the university said in a news release today.

"Many of these same researchers reported a year ago that 14 different types of mold were present on and around this species of cockroach, including several fungi associated with allergies and others that can cause secondary infections if they enter the lungs or an open wound," the release said.

The mites eat saliva and organic debris that collects between the cockroaches' legs, eliminating material that would foster mold growth on the insects' bodies. The mites don't appear to actually eat any mold.

"We haven't proved yet that this helps the cockroaches, but reducing the fungi present on their surface is beneficial overall," said Joshua Benoit, a doctoral student in entomology at Ohio State and a co-author of the study. "By suppressing the molds, the mites have a role in reducing allergic reactions to cockroaches."

The research is published in the current issue of the journal Symbiosis.

he Madagascar hissing cockroach, or Gromphadorhina portentosa, grows to between 2 and 3 inches long and 1 inch wide, and makes its characteristic hissing sound if it is squeezed or otherwise feels threatened, the news release said. "Its gentle nature, large size, odd sounds and low-maintenance care have made the species a popular educational tool and pet for years."

Photo of mites on Madagascar hissing cockroach courtesy Ohio State University

When Benoit and colleagues discovered the molds on cockroach surfaces in a previous study, they recommended that people wash their hands after handling the cockroaches and emphasized the need to keep the insects' cages clean. Because the mites do not completely eliminate fungi, the researchers continue to recommend that people sensitive to molds use care in handling Madagascar hissing cockroaches.

"It turns out that not all colonies of Madagascar hissing cockroaches harbor the mites, a species called Gromphadorholaelaps schaeferi. Researchers do not know why that is," the release said. "But the cockroaches that do harbor mites also harbor fewer molds on their bodies."

In the study, female cockroaches with mites had 64 percent fewer fungal colonies than those lacking mites. In males, the difference was 31 percent, and in nymphs, or younger and smaller cockroaches, there were 24 percent fewer fungi.

"The presence of the mites caused a reduction in all fungi on the surface, not just a select few kinds of fungus," said Jay Yoder, a professor of biology at Wittenberg University and lead author of the study.

About 20 to 25 mites live on each adult cockroach. The scientists experimented by adding more mites to the insects' surfaces, but found that more mites didn't result in a more significant reduction in molds.

"The number on each insect is based on the food available," Benoit said.

In captivity, Madagascar hissing cockroaches thrive on dog food and fruit. Benoit said they tend to slobber on themselves when they eat, leaving saliva and organic debris in crevices along the lower middle portions of their bodies for the mites to eat. The mites are in particular need of the moisture in the food--meaning they eat up water and nutrients that molds need to establish themselves and grow.

"The mites also obtain moisture from spiracles through which the cockroaches breathe," the release added. "The mites cannot live anywhere else but on the surface of the Madagascar hissing cockroach. Chemical cues from growing nymphs offer signals that a new host is large enough to house a colony of mites. When a host cockroach dies, the mites wander aimlessly on the carcass until they die, too."

The birds and the bees don't celebrate Valentine's Day, of course, but some certainly have bizarre mating rituals.

Some of the stories National Geographic News published about this over the years included pandas watching porn, damselfly mating games that turn males gay, spiders that glow with fluorescence in the presence of potential mates, gorillas mating in the missionary position, and a video of wild sharks mating. Read on ...

1. Panda "Porn" to Boost Mating Efforts at Thai Zoo

A Thai zoo hoped that "panda pornography" would spark romance between its two giant pandas, which were married by proxy in an elaborate Chinese-style ceremony, we reported in November 2006.

NGS stock photo by Michael Nichols

Chuang Chuang and Lin Hui had called Thailand's Chiang Mai Zoo home for the past four years. Zoo officials hoped that the warm Thai climate would spark the pandas' hormones and trigger their desire to mate, our contributor Brian Handwerk wrote.

"But the animals, on loan from China for ten years, have yet to start a family. A first mating attempt earlier this year failed to produce offspring, and the pandas have remained platonic pals since then -- prompting officials to launch their unique plan," Handwerk reported.

"They don't know how to mate, so we need to show the male how through videos," project chief Prasertsak Buntrakoonpoontawee told the Reuters news service.

Chuang Chuang, the six-year-old male, was to view films of other mating pandas when scientists judged him to be relaxed and receptive -- perhaps just after a tasty dinner.

"If all goes well, the racy video will be both instructional and inspirational, showing Chuang Chuang the reproductive ropes and causing him to see five-year-old Lin Hui in an entirely different light," our report said.

Did it work?

After panda porn failed to spark amour, Thai zoo authorities turned to artificial insemination in the hope of impregnating their lone female giant panda, the Associated Press reported a few months later.

Illustration by S.S. Firmage/NGS

Bees, butterflies and other little critters that spend their lives buzzing around flowers provided worldwide economic value of about $215 billion in 2005, French and German scientists announced today.

"This figure amounted to 9.5% of the total value of the world agricultural food production," they said in a paper published in the journal Ecological Economics. 

A tiny wasp that lays its eggs in living caterpillars belongs to one of the most astoundingly diverse groups of insects on Earth.

"It's been estimated to have [50,000] to 60,000 species, which is about the same as all vertebrates -- all fish, birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles -- which is a lot," says University of Illinois entomology professor James Whitfield, who led the taxonomic study.

Photo by Won Young Choi

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Malaria Research Institute have identified a previously unknown virus that is infectious to Anopheles gambiae--the mosquito primarily responsible for transmitting malaria.

The virus is apparently harmless to mosquitoes, but researchers have already demonstrated that it can be manipulated. They successfully altered it to express harmless green fluorescent protein in adult mosquitoes which could be easily spotted under the microscope.

Image courtesy Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health