Wayne's Trivia Notes #15
Wayne's Word Index Noteworthy Plants Trivia Lemnaceae Biology 101 Botany Scenic Wildflowers Trains Spiders & Insects Search
 Wayne's Trivia Notes Index   Wayne's Alien Species Index   Wayne's Remember When Index 
 Wayne's Trivia Notes #15   © W.P. Armstrong    All Facebook Notes & Images   
Published Occasionally On Facebook
Go To Latest Trivia Note On This Page
Wayne's Trivia Note #408 (2 January 2017)

One of my many 2017 New Year's Resolutions: Find The Slave-Making Ant! It raids gray field ant nests in coastal hills of southern California. Slave-maker ants have sickle-shaped jaws for killing and carrying prey, but useless for tasks that worker slave ants must perform. Because of their evolution of parasitism on certain species of Formica, they have lost the "behavioral wiring" to carry out rudimentary brood care, or even to feed themselves!

Wayne's Trivia Note #409 (6 January 2017)

I was going through my father's WW II pictures, some of which are quite gory. I made a collage from 4 of his many images. Each year there are fewer and fewer of these brave men and women. We will never forget them.

Wayne's Trivia Note #410 (8 January 2017)

According to Google Analytical, Wayne's Word still gets over 122,000 pageviews per month. The top pages indicate that students from at least 10 countries are the most frequent visitors. I have no idea why my Horseshoe Puzzle page made #9 on the top 10 list!

Wayne's Trivia Note #411 (11 January 2017)

My 1st prickly puffball fungus (Lycoperdon) on Owens Peak: Brought out by all the well-spaced rains in San Diego County. More Puffball Images.

Wayne's Trivia Note #412 (12 January 2017)

Guanacaste tree from Palomar College field trip to Costa Rica in 1990. Tony Rangel, Supervisor of Grounds, germinated seeds that I collected 27 years ago. The tiny embryos inside finally got their chance and the young trees are now growing in the campus greenhouse! This is also called the "ear tree" because of the resemblance of the seed pod to a human ear.

Wayne's Trivia Note #413 (15 January 2017)

Greetings from Felicity, CA where I can watch freight trains and ants at the same time!

Wayne's Trivia Note #414 (16 January 2017)

Reason #1 why I love Arizona: Superstition Mts. 16 Jan. 2017. Why I Love Arizona Index

Wayne's Trivia Note #415 (15 January 2017)

Reason #2 why I love Arizona: Superstition Mts. 16 Jan. 2017. Why I Love Arizona Index

Wayne's Trivia Note #416 (16 January 2017)

Reason #3 why I love Arizona: Lower Salt River. 17 Jan. 2017. Why I Love Arizona Index

Wayne's Trivia Note #417 (22 January 2017)

Reason #4 why I love Arizona: Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. This large outdoor preserve is similar the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, except it is dedicated to native plants and animals of the Arizona Sonoran Desert. Why I Love Arizona Index

Wayne's Trivia Note #418 (24 January 2017)

Reason #5 why I love Arizona: Cave Creek Canyon, Chiricahua Mtns. Why I Love Arizona Index

Wayne's Trivia Note #419 (24 January 2017)

Reason #6 why I love Arizona: The exquisite Panted Desert Why I Love Arizona Index

Wayne's Trivia Note #420 (30 January 2017)

Late afternoon at Dutchman's Gulch, a quaint mining town in the Superstitions. [Actually an outdoor G-scale model train exhibit at Superstition Mountain Museum.]

Wayne's Trivia Note #421 (1 February 2017)

4 Peaks, Arizona: Between the 3rd & 4th peak of this beautiful mountain is an Amethyst mine. It requires a helicopter to transport supplies in and take mined material out. www.fourpeaksmining.com/about-the-mine.html

  Only Commercially Run Amethyst Mine in the US  
  Helicopter Tour Of Arizona's Amethyst Mine  

Wayne's Trivia Note #422 (9 February 2017)

Tiny bird's nest fungi are appearing all over my front yard. The minute lentil-shaped "eggs" (peridioles) are forcibly ejected to disperse their spores in a rather ingenius mechanism. It literally flings its peridioles up into a nearby shrub so the spores can be released into the air several feet above the ground.

  Ingenius Spore Dispersal Of Bird's Nest Fungus  

Wayne's Trivia Note #423 (15 February 2017)

A Myrmecocystus winged queen and three workers.

Telomeres are essentially protective "end caps" of non-coding DNA at the extreme ends of chromosomes. They play an essential role in the biology of aging by maintaining the integrity of the chromosome by protecting it from degradation. Current research indicates that telomeres are involved in the longevity of ant castes. Queens may live more than 20 years while workers may live only a few months, even though they are both females with the same basic DNA!

  Epigenetics & The Making Of Ant Castes  

Wayne's Trivia Note #424 (24 February 2017)

I have never seen the summit of Owens Peak (N. of Palomar College) this green.

The Following Link Is Not Active At This Time

Note: I will no longer upload all of my image files under Facebook's current policy: By posting your pictures and videos, you grant Facebook "a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to to use any (IP) content that you post on or in connection with Facebook." In other words, Facebook can use your images any way they want for free and without your permission. They can give them away or sell them to other persons or websites! As a published author and photographer this policy is not acceptable.