animal eggs

Lay your eggs here

harminka — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 13:17:31 -0500

North Carolina State University scientists have figured out one reason why pregnant yellow fever mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti), one of the most important disease transmitters worldwide, choose to lay their eggs in certain outdoor water containers while eschewing others.

Birds with child-care assistance invest less in eggs

harminka — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:33:55 -0500

An Australian bird has been found to produce smaller, less nourishing eggs when it breeds in the presence of other ‘helper’ birds that provide child-care assistance. This unique adaptation enables the birds to live longer and breed more often than females without helpers.

Which came first, moth or cactus?

harminka — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 08:22:01 -0500

It's not a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket… unless you're a senita moth. Found in the parched Sonoran desert of southern Arizona and northern Mexico, the senita moth depends on a single plant species - the senita cactus - both for its food and for a place to lay eggs.

Parents seeking sex abandon 1 in 3 offspring

harminka — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 10:03:43 -0500

The eggs of the penduline tit Remiz pendulinus are frequently abandoned as both parents go in search of new sexual conquests, a study published in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology has found.

Female iguanas pay high costs to choose a mate

harminka — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 13:09:56 -0500

Picking a mate isn’t easy—if you are a female iguana. In a study published in the June 27th issue of the online, open-access journal PLoS ONE, Maren Vitousek of Princeton University and colleagues found that female Galбpagos marine iguanas spend a lot of energy picking a mate from a wide range of suitors – energy they could otherwise spend foraging, producing eggs, or avoiding predators.

Oldest animal fossils may have been bacteria

harminka — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 12:55:35 -0600