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Scallop eyes

Many people know of scallops as a tasty seafood, but most have never seen a living scallop. Scallops are diverse, with over 300 species of scallops living on the ocean floor worldwide. They range from shallow waters to areas several hundred feet deep. Scallops, classified as bivalve mollusks, hide some amazing secrets. For one, about [...]

Lettuce Sea Slug – Elysia crispata (Tridachia crispata*)

(*Tridachia is an older outdated genus name for this animal) The beautiful iridescent ruffles in the photo above might look like the leaves or petals of some exotic plant, but in fact they are the ruffled flaps of tissue (parapodia) that outline each side of the back of a two inch sea slug that lives [...]

Swimming, swarming, spawning polychaete worms

Late in the evening around 10:00 PM on March 9, 2002, excitement had broken out in the sea urchin tank in Augsburg’s general biology lab. In the darkness of the night, a multitude of tiny creatures were swarming in the tank. At first it was difficult to tell what these small swimming creatures were. However, [...]

The Hazards of Migration

The weekend of May 12, 2002 was a big one in Minneapolis for migrating birds. Practically overnight, it seemed there were migrating birds everywhere, both in residential neighborhoods and in natural areas such as the Mississippi River Parkway. For example, during the course of an hour-long walk along the West River road about 1.5 miles [...]

Tropical Fungi

I have made several trips to collect, culture and further study an interesting group of wood and leaf-decomposing fungi which are related to, but very different in appearance from, mushrooms. This group, the family Pterulaceae in the Phylum Basidiomycota (mushrooms, rusts, smuts, etc.), is primarily tropical, so my travels have taken me to Costa Rica, [...]

Amorphophallus Konjac

Nearly every year at about this time, Augsburg biology students get to experience one of the smells of the tropics, but this particular scent is unlikely to show up any time soon on the perfume counter. This is not one of the sweet smells we often associate with tropical flowers, but rather the powerful scent [...]

Clownfish Egg

Augsburg’s coral reef aquaria spawn approximately every two weeks through most of the year as long as they are well fed and there are no major disturbances in their tank. These frequent spawnings provide a supply of eggs that can be used to observe developing embryos in the lab or classroom. Small numbers of eggs [...]

Winged Aphid

Aphids are sap-feeding insects that can multiply rapidly when living on appropriate plant species (the many species of aphids have different food-plant preferences). When living conditions are good, most aphids reproduce parthenogenetically, the adult females giving birth to live female offspring without mating. The young reach reproductive age quickly, and population growth in these all-female [...]

Ladybird Beetle Larva

Ladybird beetles are among the most familiar and recognizable of insects, but most people either don’t notice their larvae or don’t realize what they are when they see them. The larvae in fact are very common, spending their time crawling around on plants as they search for small insects such as aphids. Ladybird beetle larvae [...]

Monarch Butterfly

Most people are almost completely unaware of the tremendous diversity of insects that can be found even in a typical city backyard, and indeed, even if an insect is noticed it will likely take an expert to identify it to the species level. But butterflies are an exception. Most North American butterflies can be identified [...]