Pharyngula::Friday Maggot Blogging

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Friday, December 10, 2004

Friday Maggot Blogging

PZ Myers • 6 Comments

Oh, yes, I am still eyeballs-deep in grading and end-of-term administrivia, but one of the things I've been doing is reviewing some of my students' spiffy lab work, so I thought I'd share one thing I thought was lovely. We've been looking at early development in Drosophila, and Cole Flohr and Heather Huberty made a few movies of the wondrous and sacred Natal Miracle, the Splendor of Parturition, the Blessed Event, a short movie clip titled "Birth of a Maggot".

Birth of a Maggot

6.6MB QuickTime movie

It's a beautiful thing, isn't it? The wee little ones always bring a tear to my eye, and they grow up so fast!

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Comments:

#10693: — 12/10 at 12:57 PM
Bzzzt....Bzzzt. The young of any species are somehow so endearing....

Congrats to Les Etudiants on a cool flickette.

#10711: Radagast — 12/10 at 02:20 PM
Nice video clip. What species is it? I'd assume D. melanogaster ...

If I'm remembering correctly, the two extensions coming out of the egg supposedly contain trachea to help the egg respire (since the eggs are normally laid in/on rotting materials). Did anyone do anything with those? (and am I even remembering that correctly?)

#10724: — 12/10 at 04:05 PM
Hopefully I’ll nourish tens of thousands of the little beauties when I’m dead. If only I can die in the right place where nobody will find me and burn me up or fill my circulatory system with toxic preserving nonsense. I also think I'd make a few nice pairs of shoes or a baseball glove or two.

#10726: Chris Clarke — 12/10 at 04:26 PM
Carl - and PZ and everybody else come to think of it - you might enjoy reading M. Lee Goff's A Fly for the Prosecution if you haven't already. Goff is a forensic entomologist and a passable writer with minor pretensions at a film noir voice. Good read, and a wonderful lay introduction to the field.

"I do not think we should antagonize the religious when it is not warranted, though I think we should be willing to do so whenever it is.”
-- Glen Davidson

#10740: — 12/10 at 05:56 PM
So, I struggled getting onto "Pharyngula" just because some kids wanted to film the miracle of birth?

Meh, it was worth it!

Plus, two young scientists now have their names strewn all over the internet!

Congrats, Cole and Heather! Make us proud!

Once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right.

-Jerry Garcia

#10824: Wayne — 12/11 at 04:45 PM
This made the day of every development biologist I know, plus a few others! "The wee little ones."