Celebrate diversity

This blog is devoted to one species (if, indeed, it can be called a species). But that does not mean that I do not appreciate diversity here; quite the opposite.

This year is the International Year of Biodiversity, and I intend to be celebrating it as much as possible. Last month, columnist Olivia Judson put it this way:

This, then, is what the International Year of Biodiversity should be about: it should be about conveying the excitement of discovery in biology, coupled with an intimate knowledge of the majesty of nature. For we must start cherishing our fellow life forms, and treating them well: we need them, in more ways than we probably imagine. Their loss makes the planet — and ourselves — poorer.

So please be up-standing, raise your glasses and join me in a toast to: “Other Life Forms!”

And let’s make sure that in the years ahead, we don’t need to change it to “Absent Friends.”

Over the course of this year, I plan to feature other organisms from time to time, and see if I can’t draw some sort of link between them and Marmorkrebs.

2009 was tied for the best year ever in Marmorkrebs research

I’m going to take a risk that another paper about Marmorkrebs is not going to come to my attention in the next three days.

I admit to being a little disappointed, because I thought around this time last year that the line would be continuing an upward trend, rather than staying flat.

Invertebrate Rearing, a new journal

A new journal is a tricky thing to get up and running, so I am pleased to plug Invertebrate Rearing. Editor Ed Baker is getting the first issue ready to go, and you can still get something in for the first issue if you submit by 10 January 2010.

This journal may have in an unfilled niche in the realm of animal care professionals. My impression is that most of the journals in this field tend to focus mammals or fish, with those working on fish usually having a strong aquaculture emphasis rather than research.

Collecting invertebrates

There has been plenty of reason to discuss the pet trade on this blog, mainly in the context of accidental release of unwanted pets like crayfish. It is just as important to realize, however, that there are also problems at the other end of the pet trade pipeline. For that reason, I wanted to put in a quick pointer to a new article on invertebrate collection for the pet trade. You can also find a brief summary at the Conservation Maven blog.

If Cosmo had a crayfish edition

One of my students informed me that she’d seen a crayfish in a recent issue of news stand favourite, Cosmopolitan.* This got me thinking about the kind of articles that might be accompanying the photo...

“The best SEX you’ve NEVER had: Is parthenogenesis for you?”

“Marbled is the new black: Sexy crustie winter colours”

“Jet set: The glamorous life of an invasive species”

“Swamp fever: The truth about hybridization”

“Do these claws make my uropods look fat? Dieting and your rigid exoskeleton”

“10 swimmeret secrets that will drive him wild!”

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* I was unable to get a copy of the original picture, because I was not comfortable reading through every page of Cosmo while standing in the line at Wal-Mart.

Crayfish of Crater Lake

Just a quick pointer to the Wild Muse blog, which has a nifty story about Native American legends about crayfish in Crater Lake, and the real species living there.

Crayfish in Canada

I’ve updated the web page listing North American laws on crayfish to include all the Canadian provinces. It appears that Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Ontario have laws concerning crayfish use, with Manitoba and Saskatchewan having fairly broad prohibitions.

While I’m here, I’ll note that I’ve moved the files for the main websites, Marmorkrebs.org and MarbledCrayfish.org, from a commercial server to one provided by my academic institution. This change should be unnoticeable, but there’s always the possibility that things will get confused in the transition. If you want to make sure you’re seeing the most recent files, the direct link is:

http://www.utpa.edu/faculty/zfaulkes/marmorkrebs/