13th W.E.N.T.W.O.R.T.H.M. CLUB Meeting

22nd June 2009

"appreciating the structural differences that set us apart from the males of the species"
-mscraftee

Dear Everyone,

I apologise for the lateness of the meeting. I've been trying to post this meeting twice and tv.com lost it Third-time lucky? I hope so. I apologise if it's a bit brief, as I have to head to work. I hope you all enjoy

BUSINESS FROM PREVIOUS MEETING

We had two nominations for Man of the Month, Austin Nichols (naughtynats) and Simon Baker (mscraftee). Because this is an anniversary meeting, I did say all nominations would be accepted. So here's our first nominee:

And next Simon Baker:

GiX_MiX (Zala) asked to be a member & nominated David Boreanaz

Naughtynats suggested two nominations, Justin Chambers and Zac Efron. Seeing as anablu agreed with the Zac Efron nomination, I decided to accept Zac Efron Hope that's okay.

Mafalda (Ela) also commented on the meeting I hope you don't mind me adding you to the members list Just let me know if you want to be removed

GENERAL BUSINESS

To apologise for the lateness of the meeting, we'll have two Man's of the Month this month

First up, David Boreanaz

Thank you 12678 (Daria) for suggesting these pics

ANd next up, Zac Efron

Nominations are welcome for the July 2009 Man of the Month

Winterbehaviour (VP) suggested a review of all Man's of the Months for newer (and not so new ) members. What does everyone else think? I could have it planned for next meeting possibly, or the August meeting.

Just wondering, do you prefer me calling you by your usernames or your proper names? I know my username's a bit of a mouthful especially as I've combined two words into one

URGENT: I know the last few meetings have been a bit sporadic in their timing and I apologise, as they are meant to be posted on the second of each month. Unfortunately, I will be away June 27 - July 4 on a field trip and a few days later I will be attending my first proper conference July 7 - July 10. I also have a presentation to prepare as I will be speaking on one of the days of the conference. So I can either post the meeting a little later once again, or I can ask winterbehaviour to step in and try to post the meeting on time I don't mind either way, as long as winterbehaviour (Jodie) isn't too busy and is prepared to do it

Have a great week everyone

Official members

anablu

anbis82

ma_liky

mscraftee

murf1121147

Brittanym1411

tursiopsseries

SassyMax

naughtynats

aleapoffaith

PunkNerd5

winterbehaviour

12678

GiX_MiX

mafalda

All new members are welcome to join

Unoffical "Man of the Month" Members

May: Wentworth Miller

June: Johnny Depp

July: Amaury Nolasco

August: Milo Ventimiglia

September: Tom Welling and Jensen Ackles

October: Robert Pattinson

December: James Lafferty and Gareth David-Lloyd

January: Lee Pace

March: Barack Obama, Robert Downey Jr., Ryan Reynolds and Zachary Levi

April: Hugh Jackman

May: Austin Nichols and Simon Baker

June: David Boreanaz and Zac Efron

Nominations and votes are welcome for the July Man of the Month

Happy WED everyone! For those of you who don't know, today (June 5) is World Environment Day (WED). To me, it's an important day to celebrate, with the global warming we are facing at the moment. I shake my head at public figures who are cynical at what's happening to our planet right now. Although not specialising in climate change, I do know that the data has been published, and more research trying to prove climate change is occurring is just a waste of resources. I'm the first to say that yes, global warming has occurred throughout Earth's history, but the warming we're experiencing at the moment is extremely rapid compared with other global warming events. We all need to do our bit now, as the governments are way too slow in trying to reduce the affects of global warming. My brother and sister get annoyed at me, because I've got into the habit of turning off appliances at the wall, so they have to get off their butt if they want to watch the TV Standby power can make up approximately 10% of someone's electricity's bill, so you can also save money by switching appliances off at the wall. I'm also an avid recycler, making sure that materials that can't be recycled don't get mixed in with the things that are recyclable. Sadly, I live in a block of units, and not everyone reads and understands recyclable vs unrecyclable materials. I think a lot more focus should be placed on this so everyone has a clear understanding and isn't confused, so we can all do our bit. There's a ton of other ways you can help the environment, walking or riding instead of driving, fixing leaking taps, opening windows and curtains instead of turning on the A/C when it's hot, hanging out the washing to dry instead of in a dryer etc etc. I hope everyone has a very Happy WED, and please take care of our planet, it's the only one we have.

Also, I have recently handed in my Honours thesis. I have been meaning to update my research but haven't had time to yet (This week was my week off from uni before I start my job, but I still went in Mon-Thurs! Lol, so much for a holiday). For the last ten months I have been working on these little bugs known as scale insects (and they are "true bugs" so I won't jump down your throat if you call them bugs ). I was working on a particular species, because of the possibility of it being a cryptic species-complex (described as one species but actually being two or more species). Although my individuals appeared to look very similar, the diplod chromosome counts for specimens included 8, 9, 10, 10-11, 13, 16, 20, 23+, 24, 25+, 24-26, 26, 28, 30, 30-32, 36, 42, 82 and 84 (almost all human specimens have a diploid chromosome count of 46). This diversity within a single species is extraordinary. My specimens, which are found on eucalypt hosts, have been found on a number of different host species. There has been a little variation in morphology (characteristics) of my species, and the galls that they make also differ in shape In size (don't worry, I'll include photos, photos will probably explain it better. So, to see if my species was actually two or more species, I used a number of different techniques. I extracted DNA from as many specimens as possible, I spent hours looking down microscopes counting chromosome slides I'd prepared from individuals, and I spent more hours examining each adult female and scoring their characterstics.

First, I had to go looking for specimens. Luckily my supervisor and others helped me collect specimens, because I would have had a poor dataset otherwise. I concentrated on bushland in and around my city, because only eight specimens hadbeen previously collected from the state I live in. It wasn't until February this year that I had any success in finding my specimen in Queensland, and I only managed to collect two live specimens.

Most of the specimens I collected were adult females. This is because the males (even though they also produce galls) are less common, and the adult males only live for several days outside the gall. They look a bit like a mosquito/fly. The adult females can live for five years or more and are a lot larger then the males. They also look like yellow blobs.

So once I had analysed my data, I found a few interesting results. An undescribed species (because it has a weird gall structure) and thought to be related to my species was actually nested within my specimens, but it was clustering separately. My specimens formed six distinct clusters, however, there is the possibility of there being more species because my chromosome counts didn't have a particular pattern.

So basically to sum up my research, my species is actually at least six species, and there is also an undescribed species. Although morphology characters were first described as continuous, for some of the six species preliminary characters can be assigned to tell them apart from the other species. However, because the chromosomes for some species were still quite variable, there could be even more species! I'll keep you posted. Here's some pics

not my species per sae but a clsely related species. I had these females from when they were tiny yellow dots (nymphs). THe black on the gall are ants getting honeydew from the females

One of the galls I collected from my home state.

Another of the galls I collected in Queensland

one of the cells I photographed to take chromosome counts.

Well, I'm off to bed tomorrow, it's getting late here in Australia. Have a great weekend

12th W.E.N.T.W.O.R.T.H.M. CLUB meeting

23rd May 2009

"appreciating the structural differences that set us apart from the males of the species"
-mscraftee

Dear Everyone,

I apologise for the extreme lateness of this month's meeting . This is partly due to me concentrating on my 8,000+ thesis that was due last Wednesday, and I spent a few days recovering (it doesn't help when you're rostered on to work the next four nights!) Partly the lateness is due to the ending of Prison Break and not feeling in the right state of mind to post the meeting . However, I've recovered mentally and physically, so let's get on with the meeting.

Business from Previous Meeting

April Man of the Month was nominated by PunkNerd5 (Rach) - Hugh Jackman

I also proposed a re-election, as many clubs re-elect members to positions annually.

Can I have some seconders please?

General Business

I would like to welcome our newest member 12678 (Daria) to the club.

I would like to welcome back mscraftee who has been M.I.A for a little while, and who wrote the motto for the club I hope you continue to stick around mscraftee

The nominations for positions at the club are as follows:

President: tursiopsseries

Vice-President: winterbehaviour

Treasurer: naughtynats

Secretary: mscraftee

Anyone is free to challenge and/or second the nominations. I will also accept nominations for other positions

We had two nominations for Man of the Month, Austin Nichols (naughtynats) and Simon Baker (mscraftee). Because this is an anniversary meeting, I did say all nominations would be accepted. So here's our first nominee:

n

And next Simon Baker:

Nominations are welcome for the June 2009 Man of the Month

Have a great weekend everyone

Official members

anablu

anbis82

ma_liky

mscraftee

murf1121147

Brittanym1411

tursiopsseries

SassyMax

naughtynats

aleapoffaith

PunkNerd5

winterbehaviour

12678

All new members are welcome to join

Unoffical "Man of the Month" Members

May: Wentworth Miller

June: Johnny Depp

July: Amaury Nolasco

August: Milo Ventimiglia

September: Tom Welling and Jensen Ackles

October: Robert Pattinson

December: James Lafferty and Gareth David-Lloyd

January: Lee Pace

March: Barack Obama, Robert Downey Jr., Ryan Reynolds and Zachary Levi

April: Hugh Jackman

May: Austin Nichols and Simon Baker

Nominations and votes are welcome for the June Man of the Month