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