I managed to get embroiled in a little debate about evolution on an internet forum the other day, which I quite enjoyed – in spite of the fact that nobody was really taking up the creationism / intelligent design side of things. There was one guy who carried it on a little further, although I was having trouble discerning his viewpoint… I wasted a fair bit of time arguing with him before he dropped this bomb:

Until that day: I think human is not of this place we call ‘earth’. The earth is not a better place from our existence upon it and the earth will send us back to whence we came.

It’s difficult to argue with someone who believes in evolution for all organisms on the planet other than humans; someone who even agrees with the evolution of apes up to a point, but then seems to think that humans were beamed in from the stars. Genetic and fossil evidence are, apparently, ‘not enough’ – despite there being no evidence for anything else! Requesting something that might back up his hypothesis brought this telling response:

There’s that word again: evidence.

Do you really want want to know my thoughts or are you trying to make a point about evidence- or the lack there of? Because you know I have no evidence, I know I have no evidence. I know you know I have no evidence therefore I wonder why you would ask it of me.

Sigh.

In any case, the ramblings of someone who ‘wants to believe’ are not the aspect that I took from this discussion. I enjoyed having the opportunity to look back at some of the wider points of evolution, but I also realised that I’m very happy to be in my little niche. Human evolution, fossils, etc – it’s all very interesting, but the sexy stuff…. well, it’s in sex.

I had the best of intentions when I started this blog – unfortunately, I think I underestimated both the amount of work I would have to do on my first experiment, and my enthusiasm for then writing about it at the end of the day. I haven’t had a day off work since the beginning of September, although I have roped in some helpers which has kept the 12-hour working days to a minimum! Anyway, I have some pretty cool pictures and movies to post when I have some more time, and maybe even some more details on my project… if I can face thinking about it!

Ugh.

A playlist of music that has been keeping me sane can be found here.

The experiment that I have started this week uses Gryllodes sigillatus, commonly known as the decorated cricket (or brown banded cricket).  I aim to look at how the ‘condition’ of an individual (more on ‘condition’ at a later date!) affects the expression of its sexual traits, and shall control this via the animals’ diet.  Unfortunately, these insects are quite happy to supplement their diet through cannibalising their fellow housemates (something that probably could have kept Big Brother going for another couple of series), so they have to be kept in individual containers from within 24 hours of hatching.  General tips on how to keep crickets at home can be found here, which you can supplement with these instructions if you wish to perform your own experiments!

I am using 5cm x 5cm tubs, each of which requires a piece of shelter (one piece of egg carton), water (I use a small plastic tube with a piece of damp cotton wool as a stopper), and a food source.  I am using the top of an Eppendorf tube to store the food, and have ground it to a powder for the nymphs – you can see an example below of the ‘good’ diet on the left (100% ground cat food), and ‘poor’ diet on the right (50% ground cat food, 50% ground oatmeal).  Once the crickets reach adulthood, they can be given larger pellets – this makes it easier to control the mass of the food, as well as reducing the likelihood of the food to go mouldy!

You can also see that each tub has 2 labels, one that gives information on the individual inside, and another that gives its hatch date.  Once you have all your crickety needs, simply arrange in the tub as shown below!

Ensure that you have pierced the lid several times before putting the cricket in there (unless your experiment is cruel and fairly redundant); you can also cut away part of the corners on the tub (as shown in the top 2 corners in the picture above), which makes it easier to remove the lid for quick access.  Time will tell if this also makes it easier for the crickets to open the tub as well.

Once you have prepared this little home, you’re ready to introduce your cricket babies!