Volcano May Have Killed Off New Bioluminescent Cockroach 108
terrancem writes "A newly discovered light-producing cockroach, Lucihormetica luckae, may have already been driven to extinction by a volcanic eruption in Ecuador. The species, only formally described by scientists this year, hasn't been spotted since the Tungurahua Volcano erupted in July 2010. The new species was notable because it represented the only known case of mimicry by bioluminescence in a land animal. Like a venomless king snake beating its tail to copy the unmistakable warning of a rattlesnake, Lucihormetica luckae's bioluminescent patterns are nearly identical to the poisonous click beetle, with which it shares (or shared) its habitat."
No true cockroach... (Score:5, Funny)
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could be killed off by a puny volcano!
They probably have set it off themselves.
Re:No true cockroach... (Score:4, Funny)
Doesn't sound like they were so luckae... *rimshot*
Re:No true cockroach... (Score:4, Informative)
Missing: One-eyed, three legged dog. No tail, recently castrated, answers to the name "Lucky".
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No! I really do mean roaches. Besides Pigs, I probably hate roaches more than any other living thing. My parents didn't keep a clean house and I had to grow up with them.EVERYWHERE! In the food, in my bed, in my clothing. Every 3 months like clockwork I use a bulb syringe to distribute boric acid based roachicide to every crack and crevice of the house. Every 2 weeks I run the water HOT down the drain then pour half a gallon of Bleach down the drain. I haven't seen a roach in decades where I live.
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Smote mote (Score:2)
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OMG. A species driven to extinction!?
We must remove man from this planet. Wait.
It was not man that caused the extinction?
Next you are going to tell me that man is only responsible for a tiny fraction of the bad shit that goes down.
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Fireflies? (Score:2)
I thought there were certain species of fireflies that mimicked the patterns of other sub-species to lure unsuspecting victim fireflies to eat. Is there some special reason this doesn't count?
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_(biology) [wikipedia.org]
Re:Fireflies? (Score:4, Funny)
I thought there were certain species of fireflies that mimicked the patterns of other sub-species to lure unsuspecting victim fireflies to eat. Is there some special reason this doesn't count?
Fireflies aren't a land animal.
A mighty seagoing beastie they be!
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Fireflies are beetles, which the article already uses as a comparison.
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http://bioweb.uwlax.edu/bio203/2011/smith_ash2/nutrition.htm [uwlax.edu]
And yes, I would consider fireflies land animals, because they spend most of their lives on the ground as larvae:
http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/midorcas/animalphysiology/websites/2006/cahermes/larvae.htm
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I thought of that, but It compares beetles, of which fireflies are in the same family.
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The responses to this indicate a fair bit of confusion.
First, yes, there are fireflies that mimic other fireflies. But the mimicry is not among sub-species, as stated by the parent. Rather, females from one genus mimic males of another. Also, fireflies are considered terrestrial animals, even though they can fly. So, this is a clearly a case of bioluminescent mimicry, and the article summary was wrong to state that the cockroach was the "only known case of mimicry by bioluminescence in a land animal.
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I think that was a 70s Japanese sci-fi movie too
Mothra?
Well obviously... (Score:5, Funny)
They were doomed to failure, anyway.
Their own lights kept scaring them under the refrigerator 24/7!
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Emergency Roaches (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Well obviously... (Score:5, Funny)
They were doomed to failure, anyway.
It's just Mother Nature trying to keep the world in balance. Cockroaches already scare many people as it is. A bioluminescent cockroach would be a little bit too much, I guess. The only worse thing would be a giant carnivorous bioluminescent centipede. If that ever appears in nature, I predict an asteroid strike will wipe it out.
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They were doomed to failure, anyway.
While linking arms with Parent: "Doooomed"
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Why would a creature evolve to copy the rattlesnake's warning if nothing could mistake it for the real thing.
Lady rattlers?
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Because things do mistake it for the real thing? In terms of energy(and evolution is nothing if not the battle for energy, and of course, becoming energy) poison production is pretty expensive. Thats why a rattlesnake prefers to rattle, and will only bite either to kill prey or when it thinks it has no other way of defending itself, thus it evolved the rattle in addition to it's venom. Shaking
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It was a joke.
Like a venomless king snake beating its tail to copy the unmistakable warning of a rattlesnake[...]
It's unmistakable, yet copyable. Does not compute.
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See, those volcanos have no respect for the environment just belching their CO2 all the time...now they've made something extinct
SOMETHING MUST BE DONE
Al Gore...where are you?
Making a killing?
Is it a record? (Score:1)
Re:Is it a record? (Score:4, Funny)
That depends, theoretically it's possible that a new species was stillborn.
When the world is ready : Laser cockroaches. The old ones died of inchoerence.
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For that matter, if the cockroach engages in biomimicry, isn't it possible that people are simply not noticing it because of it's similarities to it's poisonous cousin?
Nature kind of happens, the fact is we don't always notice.
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
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Clearly humans cannot be responsible for any extinctions because extinctions have been happening in nature for millions of years without humans.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: The purpose of this post is to illustrate the stupidity of this same argument applied to global warming. It's a shame I need to point this out.
Too bad, (Score:4, Funny)
see there was an obvious use for this species we're not going to get now.
We could have imported this roach and turned it lose in the US. I know what you're thinking, last thing we need is ANOTHER type of roach in the US. Well, should these things inter-breed with native roaches and spread their glowing genes they would more easily be detected in the dark making their light the glowing beacon that attracts their own demise.
I foresee a day when we will have roach hunting nano bots fueled by the very roaches they kill. Bioluminescence would have been just one more factor these bots, birds, bats, and the occasional shoe could have used to help hunt these creatures once their gene pool was poisoned by a virtual laser painting.
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Agreed. The same concept could be applied to removing zebra mussels and other foreign species in the water. Or maybe the robot feeds off of animals but performs some other function, like removing toxic chemicals. Yet another robot could be sent into landfill sites to find useful metals, etc.. while feeding off of organic waste or combustibles.
Oooh! Look at the cool glowing cockroach! (Score:2)
Oh, it's dead :(
And no one thought about collecting alive ones? (Score:3, Informative)
Seriously: It's discovery seems like a break-through and no one thought about catching a few alive ones to study them in a laboratory?
I mean, "Oh, shiny! Let's catch a few!" is so obvious...
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well they are probably dead now.
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Seriously: It's discovery seems like a break-through and no one thought about catching a few alive ones to study them in a laboratory?
I mean, "Oh, shiny! Let's catch a few!" is so obvious...
Maybe someone collected the entire set.
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Off course we could blame Bush...He created Hurricane Katrina.
It was aimed somewhere else?
And in Other news... (Score:2)
In other news, Fukushima Daiichi has created a new species of bio-luminescent cockroach...
This is not the only such mimicry (Score:2)
Some female fireflies mimic the flash patterns of other species to lure in and prey on the males.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly [wikipedia.org]
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Some human males do the same thing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RuPaul [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Gaga [wikipedia.org]
Note to self (Score:2)
Create volcano in my home...
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King Snake? (Score:1)
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There was no volcano (Score:2)
It was just another of their bioluminescent mimcry tricks. They swarmed to create the illusion of a volcano to scare away the humans so they could pull away undetected and hide in obscurity, increasing their numbers until the time comes for them to attack.
One more reason to move ahead with global warming and destroy this planet before it gets the better of us.
Pyroclastic Flow > Bio-luminescence (Score:4)
Re:Pyroclastic Flow Bio-luminescence (Score:2)
Precisely, instead of a Glow In The Dark super power, they should have gone for Immunity To Fire. Cockroach Fail, methinks. ;-)
One Just Left Microsoft! (Score:2)
I heard a luminary with profoundly huge self-importance just turned off the lights and left.
EPA Lost and Confused (Score:1)
The EPA is desperately searching for someone to fine/sue or get an injunction of some kind for this.
Good riddance (Score:1)
Simply not true (Score:2)
This is not the only known case of mimicry by bioluminescence of a land animal, unless fireflies don't count (being that all of the insects in question can fly, they'd better count!). Pennsylvania's state insect is a tricky one, indeed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photuris_pennsylvanica [wikipedia.org]
It will duplicate the mating blinks of other species of firefly, and consume the attracted "suitors"!
Tungurahua is exploding all the time. (Score:1)
America must invade immediately (Score:2)
America must invade Ecuador in order to save this invaluable species.
They will, of course, need to change Ecuador's extradition laws so that the perpetrators of this volcano-based atrocity can be brought to justice, no matter what embassy they may try to escape to.
Impossible that is was done by volcano... (Score:2)
...everyone knows that the extermination of a species is only caused by human generated global warming – typically from the activities of people residing on the North American continent. So the story is obviously false.