The Gordian Worm

The Gordian Worm youtube video

The Gordian Worm is a very long, very slender insect parasite that gets its common name because it is sometimes found tangled up in what almost seems to be a living gordian knot. It is also known as a Horsehair Worm because of the typically ill-informed folklore that "the long, thin hairs of a horse's mane or tail [can fall] into the water trough as a horse [drinks] and later [come] to life."

The scientific name for this animal is Nematomorphora. In its larval stage it is a parasite of grasshoppers and crickets. What happens is that the eggs hatch into tiny larvae which are then encysted on submerged grass or other plants. When these are eaten by grasshoppers or crickets, the Nematomorphora larvae grow inside the host until they eventually break free into the adult worms. Exactly how these worms grow as long as they obviously do is not explained in my source material.

Interestingly there are occasional instances of Gordian worms infecting humans--though these seem to occur only in the Far East and are apparently instances of pseudoparasitism. I.e., a person accidentally or intentionally eats an infected grasshopper or cricket. This introduces the worm into the human, but the worm is incapable of thriving in its new host.

For a truly fascinating introduction to horsehair worms and similar parasites, watch this YouTube video: Horse Hair Worms: http://youtu.be/so8ScD6m1MI
Sources:
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2012.html
http://www.nematophora.net

The Water Bottle Money Can't Buy`

Cyclists need water. Moreover they often need to drink water while pedaling down the highway at over 20 mph. Yet the design of the usual sports bottle requires one to tilt one's head up sharply, risk taking one's eyes off the road, and both squeeze and suck on the bottle to get a few precious sips of H2O. It's sad. And dangerous.

Enter "The Water Bottle Money Can't Buy." To make this bottle, you need a section of 1/4-inch silicon or poly tubing that is about an inch longer than your water bottle is deep. Drill a 1/4-inch hole through the lid of the bottle and another 1/8-inch hole a little distance away. Now slide the tubing into the bottle and you have a hydration system that is much easier and safer to use.

You can drill your 1/4-inch hole right through the nozzle of a regular sports bottle for a professional-looking bottle. Or you can do what I have done and recycle a 20-ounce Gatorade bottle. Either one is a big improvement on an ordinary sports bottle.

Cell Phone Macro Photography

When I am out and about in nature, I prefer to carry light-weight, minimal equipment. Typically, I'll have a water bottle, a pair of 8x25 close-focus binoculars, and my cell phone (an inexpensive Samsung s390g). The camera on the cell phone takes two megapixel snapshots. When the light is good and I am able to hold the phone steady, these snapshots are adequate.

To photograph insects and wildflowers, however, additional magnification is essential. It turns out that with the aid of an inexpensive loupe such magnification is relatively easy to achieve. Here is a pair of pictures of my cell phone set up for macro photography:

As you can see, the loupe is attached with a rubber band to the phone so that the lens of the loupe is centered over the lens of the cell phone's camera. The only trick to taking fairly decent macro photographs is to hold the phone at the right distance from the object being photopraphed. With this loupe that distance is about three or four inches.

Here is a photo that provides a sense of the degree of clarity and magnification that I can achieve. (I usually set the camera's timer to two seconds so that I can get the distance just right and hold the phone steady enough to eliminate motion blur.)

Click to see full-scale photo

Clearly the loupe does create some distorting curvature along the edges, but the clarity seems fairly good.

Here is a link to a portfolio of pictures of wildflowers on our property that I have taken with cell phone macro photography:

Click to go to Picasa folder

The flower in the center of the first photo is almost unbelievbably small, as is the beetle perched atop the flower!