Hey all,
thought I'd share a few pictures of what takes up most of my time and thoughts these days... Warramaba!!!
I'll have to force myself to keep the text brief and use 'small words', but in a nutshell, I'm working as a research assistant in the molecular science division of CESAR (centre for environmental stress and adaptation research), the Warramaba 'hoppers are our research interest and in a nutshell in a nutshell, we're looking at their genetics, due to the fact that they are genetically very interesting.
Funnily enough, a big focus of our research is hybridisation and interactions between populations of closely related populations/species, very much on the topic of the conflict ("discussion") around here lately, which was what prompted me to put these up, not that they'll be too informative, but at least they're pretty and very funky.
There are five different species shown, all from the same genus. My boss is currently naming four of them (the other already has a name: Warramaba virgo). I begged him to name Warramaba P151 W.sdajii, but unfortunately, he refused! (W.P151 is the one with the face which from the middle out is white, purple, red, yellow - my favourite!)
Dorsally, they are just as variable as facially and many are extremely beautiful, which sometimes makes me forget why I'm researching them.
All these pics are of females, four of the five species shown are sexual, the males have faces like the conspecific females, the fifth is parthenogenetic (females only).
thought I'd share a few pictures of what takes up most of my time and thoughts these days... Warramaba!!!
I'll have to force myself to keep the text brief and use 'small words', but in a nutshell, I'm working as a research assistant in the molecular science division of CESAR (centre for environmental stress and adaptation research), the Warramaba 'hoppers are our research interest and in a nutshell in a nutshell, we're looking at their genetics, due to the fact that they are genetically very interesting.
Funnily enough, a big focus of our research is hybridisation and interactions between populations of closely related populations/species, very much on the topic of the conflict ("discussion") around here lately, which was what prompted me to put these up, not that they'll be too informative, but at least they're pretty and very funky.
There are five different species shown, all from the same genus. My boss is currently naming four of them (the other already has a name: Warramaba virgo). I begged him to name Warramaba P151 W.sdajii, but unfortunately, he refused! (W.P151 is the one with the face which from the middle out is white, purple, red, yellow - my favourite!)
Dorsally, they are just as variable as facially and many are extremely beautiful, which sometimes makes me forget why I'm researching them.
All these pics are of females, four of the five species shown are sexual, the males have faces like the conspecific females, the fifth is parthenogenetic (females only).
