Calgary Researcher Hunts Bizarre Wasp in Africa

Calgary Herald ^ | NOVEMBER 28, 2010 | JAMIE KOMARNICKI

[nickcarraway]

In the mid-1890s, a French entomologist published a paper describing a bizarre, oversized wasp with two spoon-like structures protruding from its abdomen.

A pinned specimen of the insect — the only one of its kind known to have been collected — had found its way into the Paris Natural History Museum.

Since then, it seems no other samples of the mysterious Synagris elephas have been discovered.

More than a century later, a University of Calgary instructor has launched a search for the unusual wasp, beginning a journey that has led him to West Africa.

“Nobody else has found it. But it hasn’t been looked for,” said Rob Longair, who studies insect behaviour and biodiversity at the U of C.

Longair left last Saturday for a three-week trip to Liberia, on the west coast of Africa. While in Liberia, he’ll collect various insects as part of a long-standing biodiversity study. He’ll also devote time to pursuing the Synagris elephas.

“It’s as much curiosity driven as anything else,” Longair said.

“It’s also just one of those things that gives us a better understanding of the level of diversity that is present in some of these areas that we hardly know anything about.”

Among most wasps, males tend to be smaller than females. However, in certain groups, the males fight with each other for the females’ favour — and in that circumstance, the males are generally larger, said Longair.

In the particular species he’s pursuing, the male wasps are not only bigger — about 40 millimetres in length — they have unusual spoon, or spatula-like mechanisms believed to be used as weapons.

“The males probably use them for fighting each other,” explained Longair, who is currently on a research and scholarship leave.

“But nobody has any information about the nests, the behaviour of the males or females or anything else from this particular species.”

One of his only clues comes from the specimen in the Paris museum, which was labelled with the location, Sierra Leone.

The African nation, which borders Liberia, shares a continuous forest belt. That’s where the wasps could be living.

Longair’s search is largely self-funded.

[stevecmd]

[GeronL]

sounds weird

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

[hflynn]

Since when are White Anglo Saxon Protestants consider bizarre in Calgary?

[Maverick68]

After a show in which he burned his testicles, Blackie Lawless was quoted as saying: “I wouldn’t have to do this if I wrote better songs...”
Supposedly he’s been Born Again....

[DCBryan1]

Is this going to be a stand-up fight, Sir, on another bug-hunt?

[ClearCase_guy]

Have you ever been mistaken for a man?

[allmendream]

I recently asked a stupid question.

It was after watching Aliens again and seeing that the “Game OVER!” guy was Bill Paxton.

I asked at work “What movies has Bill Paxton been in?”

A better question would be “What movies has Bill Paxton NOT been in?”

He was in....

Stripes
The Terminator
Weird Science
Commando
Aliens
Predator 2
Tombstone
True Lies
Frank and Jesse
Apollo 13
Twister
Titanic
and many others....
currently he is the star of the HBO series “Big Love”.

[allmendream]

Not sure if that actress has had much work after that role, but her CHARACTER has been in lots of movies.

Recently Avatar!

[DCBryan1]

Have you ever been mistaken for a man?

LOL!!!!

No...have you?.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Paxton seemed to be in everything for a while.

Sorta like Ewan McGregor since 2000.

[allmendream]

I like Paxton as a actor though because he is playing the ROLE in each of these movies, and is almost unrecognizable from one movie to the next. He blends into the background and makes a cool convincing character. I loved him in “True Lies”, he played that character to the hilt, yet he could just as easily played a REAL spy not a sleazy scammer - and in either role you would remember the ROLE and not that Bill Paxton played it (I had certainly forgotten, and/or never made the connection).

I remember Harrison Ford saying that after his first acting job the Director told him “You will never be a star. When Carry Grant (or whoever) had his first role, he was just playing a bellhop, but you cold take one look at him and you just KNEW he was going to be a star!” To which Ford replied “I thought you were supposed to think he was just a bellhop.”.

Bill Paxton does good “bellhop”.

[Tijeras_Slim]

I agree, he does good work and isn’t a “one note” or prima donna.

I like actors that build a career and body of work one performance at a time, without being a big name problem child. Keith Carradine comes to mind.

One of my favorites of all time is Walter Brennan.

[nickcarraway]

Harrison Ford was a good actor before 1998, but Cary Grant could act circles around him.

[allmendream]

I used Cary Grant as a fill in the blank.

I will have to google to find the actual guy mentioned.

And how well the guy could act is and was beside the point, the point was that if you are supposed to play a bellhop, nobody should look at your performance and say “what a star!”, they should say “what a bellhop!”.

LOOKED IT UP. Famous old actor star was Tony Curtis (yonder lies the castle of my fadder) and it was Harrison Ford who was the bellhop! Tony Curtis played a grocery clerk.

http://airplanepilot.blogspot.com/2005/05/harrison-ford.html

One studio executive apparently told Ford that he was delivering the lines he was given, and was well-suited to portraying a bellhop or a waiter, but that he lacked star quality.

“Check out Tony Curtis in HIS first role,” the exec said. “He's a grocery clerk but you KNOW he's a movie star.”

“I thought the point was you were supposed to think he was a grocery clerk”, countered Ford, quite reasonably.