Spider Mimics Moth According to a report by the University of Kentucky, the bolas spider (adult female) emits chemical attractants that mimic the sex pheromones of its moth prey, a form of aggressive chemical mimicry. Specific questions to be addressed include the following: (1) Does the spider's emitted signal change over the course of a night to correspond with the predictably different diel patterns of sexual activity of its principal prey species? (2) Does the emitted signal vary seasonally to correspond with predictable changes in abundance of its prey species? (3) Do hunting tactics and the emitted signal vary plastically with unpredictable prey availability?.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

‘High’ on Bugs?

• Drug addicts in the Philippines are going “buggy.” They are chewing live bugs to get high. Due to strict antinarcotic laws and stiff prices, addicts are turning to this cheaper euphoriant. “Called the Korean bug, it produces, when eaten alive, a ‘high’ rivalling the effects of marijuana” and other drugs, says Time Journal of Manila. The bugs are a little bigger than a grain of rice, making it all the easier to smuggle them into the country from South Korea.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

WE SMELL A RAT Scientists at Emory University say they have genetically engineered "socially inept" rodents, also known as rodents who sniff each other too much.

The official cause of death is pending toxicology tests, the article reports, but the woman was severely bitten by either fire ants or red ants. Gay did not have an allergic reaction to the bites and likely lived for hours after being bitten, officials said. The ant bites were on the right side of her chest, upper arm and part of her abdomen and back, and appeared to have come over a period of time. The family, who declined immediate comment, is talking to an attorney.

Claim of animal Cruelty with roaches? "performing animals cannot ever be ``killed, injured, overworked or caused discomfort.''   LOS ANGELES, CALIF.--According to a Reuters News Service article, Lara Deakin has had some strange assignments in her career, but few could compare to the time she was called upon to protect a cockroach.

The roach was featured in a scene in the Susan Sarandon movie ``Anywhere But Here.'' As a field officer for the Film and TV Unit of the American Humane Association, Deakin was on hand to enforce the AHA's strict code of conduct, which mandates that performing animals cannot ever be ``killed, injured, overworked or caused discomfort.''

In the case of the cockroach, the article reports, Deakin came up with a simple safeguard to protect the pest during an on-camera encounter with a can of Raid. She refilled the can with Evian.

``We don't expect animal actors to be kept on silk pillows eating bonbons all day,'' Gini Barrett, director of the AHA western regional office, said. ``We just don't believe any animal should be harmed for the sake of a film production.''

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Using Its Head Queen ants of the Blepharidatta conops species, a native of Brazil’s savanna, have a large flat, round head. According to the Brazilian edition of National Geographic, the ants use this unusual appendage to block the entrance to a chamber where eggs, larvae, and pupae are stored, protecting these from potential predators. The walls of the queen’s chamber are made up of parts of insect bodies collected by worker ants. After extracting the body fluids from these bodies and carefully eliminating their muscles, worker ants build an enclosure around the queen ant, leaving an opening exactly the size of her head. Worker ants gain access to this special chamber by tapping out a kind of password on the royal head.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Fast Roaches Anyone who has tried to catch cockroaches knows that this is no easy task. What is their secret? For one thing, tiny hairs on each side of their abdomen register the slightest air movement caused by enemies and reveal the direction from which it comes. Also, their nervous system appears to be extremely efficient, as the roaches need only one hundredth of a second to react and run away. Now, by means of a high-speed camera, Jeffrey Camhi and his colleagues at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have learned more, reports the newspaper Berliner Morgenpost. They found that roaches can run at a speed of three feet [1 m] a second and at this speed can even change direction up to 25 times a second. "We know of no other orientation behavior in any animal capable of such a high frequency of body turning," said Camhi, quoted in New Scientist. "If the cockroach were not such a bad house guest, it would no doubt receive the admiration it richly deserves."

How toxic is salt (sodium chloride)?