Of Current Interest

I just posted on my other blog about baseball, Fenway Park and vernal pools.  Have a read if you dare.

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Kinky Sex

I described some of the difficulties aquatic invertebrates face in finding mates.  These are pretty much the same in ponds, lakes and oceans.  It is more intriguing in highly turbid ponds but the method of doing the process by scent and taste works whether there is sufficient light or not.   Not being able to see [...]

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Sex in the Pond

Now that I’ve described male and female Daphnia separately, it is time to bring them together.  Yes, I come to the topic of sex.  It is not as simple as it might seem.  Remember, the majority of invertebrates that live in vernal ponds have rudimentary eyes at best and finding a mate is potentially difficult.  [...]

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Where Do Little Boys Come From?

I don’t want to get mired in the genetics of Daphnia (although fascinating) but rather move on to other topics about vernal pools.   But before I do, I want to finish a few last thoughts on invertebrate sex.  That means a few words on males, where they come from, and how they do what they [...]

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Males as sexual disorder vectors

As I mentioned in my last post, obligately parthenogenetic (asexual) Daphnia produce males that are functional but functionless to the females that produce them.  Their functionality was suggested by one simple test and then proven by another much more complicated.  Both of these tests are interesting stories.
Our first question was whether superfluous males still produced [...]

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What Life Without Sex Reveals

It has been a few weeks since my last post and it is time to pick up my pen (or laptop) and continue my story.  When I last wrote, I was describing the life cycle of Daphnia.  I described the normal life cycle of cyclic parthenogenesis, asexuality followed by “normal” sex, and the rare condition [...]

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