all i’m going to say is: never doubt what your fortune cookie tells you!

my new t-shirt helped, too. :-)

i think the title says it all…

[view photos: february in pictures]

here are some photos from two different occasions: electrofishing near braz, vorarlberg (for a fish population estimate), and river sediment sampling near pfaffenhofen, tirol (for zoobenthos estimates).
in both cases, it was my first time to the method being applied in the field. both proved to be very interesting, but it’s also exhausting to be standing in a river all day. :-)

electrofishing uses an effect called galvanotaxis: direct current causes muscle-contractions in the fish, making it involuntarily swim to the power source. there, they’re stunned and caught, later on measured, weighed, and released back into the water without being harmed.

detective barbara just told me that alcohol reminds her a lot of …doggies (righthand image). :D

there are those who talk around the topic, hoping to give enough unasked-for information to satisfy their questioners, and there are those who just plainly admit not knowing the answer.
i have the greatest respect for those who have the courage to walk the second path.

being asked a very special question during discussion (following a presentation), one of the biologists at the entomology congress replied:

“i have no idea. i wish i could tell you, but we don’t know.”

after all, knowing what you don’t know (or can’t do) can be more important than knowing what you do know (can do).

last month, an international entomology congress took place in innsbruck (entomologists are biologists who study insects).
here are some interesting tidbits from various presentations:

male scorpionflies (panorpa sp.) produce a mix of specific aldehydes to attract females. coincidentally, the two main aldehydes are also released by freshly cut cucumbers, which means that females are sexually attracted to cucumbers. :-)

once the female scorpionfly has found a potential mate, the male is required to offer …”a gift” in order to mate: little balls of saliva*.
the more salivary mass, the longer (up to 7 hours!) they’re allowed to mate. (maybe i should give that strategy a try?)
*referred to it as “bonbons” by the lecturer.

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anton decided to paint one of his bedroom walls, last month.
he had already moved all the furniture away when we had the idea of doing a time-lapse, so we put everything back to normal, set up the camera, and started from the beginning.

i think it was worth it:

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