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I was sent a link today for a Brownewell Photography which specialises in 360° photography, including taking photos of type specimens. The previews on the site are composed of 20-30 photographs to give the illusion of 360°, which works well enough. You are given rotational control of the photos through Flash, as opposed to some other 360° images which use GIFs that you cannot control.

A quick search for 360 degree photography came up with a site (Red Door VR) which sells photographic turntables that had “click stop” intervals. They also recommended the program Object2VR to produce panoramas with Flash-based controls.

I think we will start to see more of these panoramic specimen images, although the major constraint will be the time it takes to produce them.

Part of the work I do at the Natural History Museum involves the preparation for construction of taxonomic database on Coreidae, a family of ‘true bugs’ (Hemiptera) known colloquially as squash bugs or leaf-footed bugs. One aim of the database is to include photographs of as many important museum (type) specimens as possible, allowing researchers to view the specimens without having to travel to the museum or request to have the specimens sent through the post.

The Swedish Natural History Museum, Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet, holds a number of these type specimens. As I was already going to be in Stockholm, my supervisor and I thought it would be good to visit the museum.

The entrance to the Swedish Natural History Museum, Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet.

The curators in the entomology department were very welcoming and helpful, answering many questions and allowing me to study some of their Hemiptera. Hopefully I will get to visit for longer this summer and photograph more of their specimens.

One of the photographed Coreidae, Bostrostethus annulipes © Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet

The desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria (Orthoptera: Acrididae), is one of the most important crop pests in the world. It usually lives in relative solitude but under certain conditions it starts to swarm, causing significant loss of vegetation and crops.

Locust nymph eating lettuce

The swarming response results in a number of changes in the locust: alteration of the normal camouflage to more striking colouration and the change in behaviour that causes them to gather together into a swarm (called a band if they are nymphs).

Scientists knew about the physical stimuli which causes swarming but were uncertain about the underlying biochemical changes. The physical stimulus was experimentally demonstrated using a small paintbrush to ‘tickle’ the locusts and found that the hind femora was the most effective site for inducing swarming (Simpson et al, 2001).

The hind femora caused the highest percentage, 76% to 100% (shown in red), of S. gregaria to exhibit swarming behaviour (adapted from Simpson et al, 2001). © Malin Nikunlassi

Recently scientists discovered the major component of the signalling pathway which results in swarming: the neurochemical serotonin (Anstey et al, 2009), a neurotransmitter found in many organisms, from insects to humans.

Serotonin - based on the amino acid tryptophan with an additional hydroxyl group (OH) marked in red. © Malin Nikunlassi

Knowledge about the role that serotonin plays may provide new novel ways of controlling the locusts without resorting to mass spraying of pesticides.

For additional reading on locusts and grasshoppers as pest species, visit the International Society for Pest Information which has a number of freely available full text resources.

References:

Simpson S.J., Despland E., Hägele B.F. and Dodgson T. (2001) Gregarious behavior in desert locusts is evoked by touching their back legs. PNAS 98: 3895-3897

Anstey M.L., Rogers S.M., Ott S.R., Burrows M. and Simpson S.J. (2009) Serotonin Mediates Gregarization Underlying Swarm Formation in Desert Locusts. Science 323: 627-630

Following on from two earlier posts (first post, second post) I tried the three invertebrate snacks that I got from Selfridges and, using the correct binomial names (as two of the names were wrong on the packaging), here are my thoughts:

I was disappointed with the very mild curry taste of the thai green curry crickets (Acheta domesticus) which didn’t taste like thai green curry at all, more like mild curry powder, but had an inoffensive taste overall. This was an interesting species to try because it is commonly sold in pet shops as reptile/invertebrate food and will happily live on many things (including vegetable waste) making it a viable invertebrate to culture for human food.

Edible insect: chocolate covered scorpion

The chocolate covered scorpion (Mesobuthus martensii) was fairly pleasant; the crunchy texture of the scorpion went well with the chocolate, making it feel like a biscuit. There was a very subtle taste of something savoury but it was masked by the taste of the chocolate. I would eat these again and so would my girlfriend.

Edible insect: giant toasted ant

A number of my friends tried the giant toasted ants (Atta cephalotes) and none of them liked the taste or the smell. I was the only one that liked them but they do have a very strong and distinctive taste, so I can see why they didn’t get universal taste bud acclaim! I think the packet description is fairly accurate, “… similar to crispy bacon with an earthy taste”.

I had a good time trying these and I intend to pursue the topic of insects as a food in further posts. If you’re interested in reading a bit more about insects and food now, have a read of Bug Girl’s latest post on cochineal, an insect derived food colouring.

I shall add some photos to this post soon.

Earlier in December I wrote about a new range of snacks that Selfridges had started to sell, and during a Christmas trip to London I visited Selfridges to buy some. I (and some friends) will be eating them soon to provide you some more photos and to describe how they taste.

Tenebrio molitor lollypops: part of the Selfridges display of invertebrate snacks (Copyright Elizabeth Livermore)

All of the snacks were from edible, an alternative online food shop, and were a little cheaper to buy at Selfridges than from the edible website.

I checked the packaging and found that the species names did not follow the proper protocol for binomial nomenclature: all names were either entirely in lowercase or uppercase, and none were italicised. The class of the scorpion was listed incorrectly as ‘INSECTA’ when it should have been Arachnida.

From left to right: Giant toasted ants, £12.45; Thai green curry crickets, £2.44; and a chocolate covered scorpion, £4.64.

I also investigated the species names (Giant toasted ants: Atta cephalotes, Thai green curry crickets: Acheta domestica, and the chocolate covered scorpion: Buthus martensii) and from my brief searches, A. cephalotes seems correct but the other two are synonyms.

I checked A. domestica in the Orthoptera Species File and it is listed as an unjustified emendation of A. domesticus. I found an entry for Mesobuthus martensii on the UniProt Taxonomy database where it listed B. martensii as a synonym.

I guess edible are not quite as good biologists as you would hope.

I have been hunting for some books on Amazon and remembered about Pemberley Books, a fantastic natural history bookshop based in Buckinghamshire that has an extensive range of well-priced entomology books.

They have an online shop which I would recommend as I’ve had efficient service from them before and the staff are very helpful.

Learn more about a different insect order for the new year!

Last Friday (5th December) the London Lite newspaper wrote an article on a new range of snacks being sold at Selfridges, including some quotes from people tasting them:

“If someone gave that to me for Christmas I’d run out of the room.”

“It’s not as bad as it looks, once you get past the thought of it and the funny texture.”

What were they talking about?

A range of invertebrate snacks! You get to choose from*:

Barbeque-flavoured Worm Crisps, £2.75 (Tenebrio molitor!)
Chocolate Covered Giant Ants, £4.95 (Atta laevigata)
Mopani Worms, £11.95 (Imbrasia belina)
Oven-baked Tarantula, £15.99 (Haplopelma sp.)
Scorpion Vodka, £12.95 (Buthus martensii)
Thai Green Curry Crickets, £2.55 (Acheta domestica)

I think I’ll be making a trip with my girlfriend to Selfridges over Christmas to try some. Would you try any?

I think entomophagy is quite an interesting concept/topic because I remember reading (sorry, no citation at the moment) that the energy/protein conversion of insects is fairly good compared to most farmed animals. Are they tasty enough to eat as a regular dietary component? I shall report back…

*I found another site that listed more details about what I think are the same products as I couldn’t find them on the Selfridges website.