Comments on: Ancient plants manipulate insects for hot, smelly sex

By: SYMBIOSIS en co-evolutie | Tsjok's blog

SYMBIOSIS en co-evolutie | Tsjok's blog — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 20:25:40 +0000

[...] Ancient plants manipulate insects for hot, smelly sex [...]

By: David

David — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:05:26 +0000

Make that 5,502...! LOL! http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/163-new-species-found-in-asia-1793159.html

By: David

David — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:00:21 +0000

Nathan, I agree with the entomological metaphor in your second comment- my point was not an issue of classification or taxonomy, rather simply one of accuracy- I have no doubt whatsoever that there probably are several thousand hemimetabolous insects yet to be properly classified amongst the hundreds of thousands yet to be “discovered” (and based on current biodiversity, at a ratio of at least 175 insects for every mammal), but I am neither Terry Erwin nor E.O. Wilson and can therefore only comment on what I know to be true rather than what may eventually be proven…!

By: Nathan Myers

Nathan Myers — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 01:23:00 +0000

The count of extant arthropod species is far from complete; of tetrapods, nearly so. “Order” is a purely artificial, and formally meaningless, construct. Thrips have had way longer to invent variations than mammals have. Entomologists like to say that if mammalogists went by entomological standards, mammals would all be in one genus, because they’re all practically identical.

By: David

David — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:14:34 +0000

Not sure about your assertion Nathan- I understand there to be about 5,000 species of thrips in the Order Thysanoptera and about 5,500 species of mammal distributed through 29 different Orders…

By: Nathan Myers

Nathan Myers — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:06:27 +0000

There are a few more species of thrips than there are of mammals, and as much variation among them.