Bees have a chip on their shoulder

Exciting developments in micro tracking devices now allows CSIRO scientists to put tracking devices on bees.  A lot of 'buzz' has surrounded this news story, and its easy to see why - the potential for this sort of technology in understanding movement and behaviour of a wide range of arthropods is very exciting, no other methods currently come close.  They will continue to shrink the devices down, so who knows - maybe we will put some on aphids sooner or later!!

Cereal aphid movement: general principles and simulation modelling

Cereal aphid movement: general principles and simulation modelling Parry HR. Movement Ecology 2013, 1:14

I'm really going in for the open access thing, this is my second publication in that format!  As aphids are widely studied and modelled, I hope that having open access to this review article will help people navigate the literature much more easily. There is an enormous amount of study out there on both the biology and ecology of aphid flight as well as many examples of models that address the different phases of movement. So, I put together a review of principles, parameters and methodologies to construct mechanistic simulation models of cereal aphid flight: including uplift, transportation, deposition and subsequent spread.  I've chosen to publish in the new journal 'Movement Ecology' as I think it will be an important scientific journal in a rapidly growing field going into the future, and I'm truly honoured to be one of the first papers published there. 

Many thanks to Andy Jensen, Eagle, Idaho, U.S.A. for the image of an alate R. padi shown above, that has been used as the thumbnail for the paper on the journal homepage.  Andy takes great aphid photos and kindly allowed me to use this image, thank you. 

A new year - time to catch-up on last year's F1000 reviews!

I've had a very busy few months trying to get more of my own work out there in the scientific literature that I've had little time for much else.  However, I have continued to write reviews for F1000, but haven't found time until now to update this blog.  So, please read on for the reviews we did in the second half of 2013!