To my delight I get to host Zoology Curator Professor Barry Clarke, twice this festive season for Nature Live. No stranger to the blog, Barry's event Cool Frogs and Climate Change this Thursday is brand new and includes beautiful specimens such as this Strongylopus fasciatus (Striped stream frog) and on New Year's Eve visitors get the chance to see Incredible Frogs from the Collection, hand chosen by Barry for their adaptations, reproductive methods and sometimes startling appearance. What better way to see out 2011.

It's been a busy weekend of events....first Tadpoles on Saturday and then Dwarf Elephants on Sunday.  A curious combination of topics, but each equally fascinating!

Our Tadpole event was timed to tie-in with the first frog spawn starting to appear in our ponds.....which apparently it is, although warmer weather should help more appear.  Apparently (according to our amphibian curator Barry Clarke) frogs have been known to produce spawn as early as December some years, but hard frosts kill the eggs and it's not until the weather becomes milder that the tadpoles are able to start developing.  In fact, the warmer the weather, the quicker they devlop from tadpoles to adults.

Barry was a complete star as always and brought along lots of specimens from our zoology collections.

Note the specimen in the centre of the bottom row.....this is a Midwife Toad.  They show great parental care (unlike our common frogs which lay their eggs and then leave them!)  The female Midwife Toad lays her eggs and the male then wraps them around his back legs.  He then carries them around with him (swimming and moving about seemingly unhindered) until the tadpoles are ready to emerge and swim off.  Because of this parental care, the eggs are far safer and have a greater chance of survival than if they were left unprotected.

However, for the ultimate in parental care, go onto the BBC website and use their 'wildlife finder' to watch some incredible footage of Darwin's frog.  You won't believe your eyes    http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Darwin%27s_Frog#p004j5y9

As for the Dwarf Elephants today, well, they were certainly small!  Tori Herridge (a researcher in our Palaeontology Department) brought along some fossils from our collections....including lots of teeth.  The photo below shows the tooth of an extinct Straight-Tusked Elephant at the bottom and an extinct Dwarf Elephant tooth at the top of the photo.  Quite a difference in size!  The Straight-Tusked Elephant was one of the largest elephants ever to live, and could grow to as much as 4 metres tall.  In comparison, Dwarf Elephants were sometimes only 1 metre tall as adults!

We'll be repeating Tori's Nature Live event later this month, at 2.30pm on Wednesday 30th March in the Attenborough Studio.  As always, the event is free and lasts for 30 minutes.  So come and join us if you can and discover more about these mysterious Dwarf Elephants.....

Small maggoty larvae eating their way through the caterpillar. Yuck! But that was what happened in Nature Live last Saturday, and we caught it on camera for your..err..enjoyment?

Gavin Broad, who works in the Entomology Department, came along to open our eyes to the gruesome world of parisitoid wasps. These amazing organisms lay their eggs on or in other insects, and when the larvae emerge from the eggs they feed on their host, chomping their way through the fatty flesh of a caterpillar, or sucking away at the liquid haemolymph of a spider. And all the while they do this, the insect they are feeding on is still alive! It can get even worse for the victims of some parasitoids, as they can also release chemicals into the victim to change its behaviour. The difference between a parasite, which draws its nourishment from a host, and harms but does not kill it, is that parasitoids do eventually kill their hosts, by literally eating them alive.

They are am amazingly abundant group of organisms, and there are thousands to be found in the UK, literally in your back garden.

To show us just how abundant they are, Gavin brought along some Cabbage White caterpillars that had been munching their way through his prized cabages - one caterpillar was happily sitting on its cabbage leaf, though Gavin pointed out that it may well have little wasp larvae inside it. The second caterpillar was standing guard over a small collection of yellowish cocoons - these were the cocoons of the wasps, Gavin explained. The day before the event, the larvae had all emerged from the caterpillar, and clustered nearby, spinning themselves their protective wrappings in silk, inside which they were beginning the transformation into adult wasps. The caterpillar they came from was still alive, at least for a little while longer.

There were some brilliant questions from the audience, and no-one seemed to mind just how gory these things can be  (don't worry - there are no parasitoids of humans!) but it got even more disgusting when caterpillar number one, which had seemed okay all through the event, suddenly and all at once sprouted dozens of tiny larvae, which burrowed their way out of its side...on their way to freedom! Not so great for the caterpillar, but a great way of keeping down the numbers of them on your cabbages.

Oops, it's been a while since my last post, apologies, all got a bit hectic for a while but I shall try to ensure it doesn't happen again! 

We've had lots happening - International Biological Diversity Day (or Biodiversity Day for short) where I finally got to meet and interview Chris Packham (well, I was excited, even if most of my friends didn't know who I was talking about!), half term holidays with a range of drop-in events with our scientists, the May evening event (very topical, all about synthetic biology) and plenty more besides.

Right now, I'm preparing for a daytime event tomorrow all about Richard Owen (ever heard of him?!) and this month's evening event - Six-Legged Wonders: The Return!  http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/events/programs/naturelive/six-legged_wonders%3A_the_return.html?date=24.06.2010  The perfect night out if you'd like to learn more about the mini-beasts in our collections and sample some edible insects!  We'll be joined by Erica McAlister (our infamous diptera blogger) plus a butterfly/moth curator and a soil biologist (who secretly prefers worms from insects but we're going to try and convince him that six-legged creatures are more interesting!)  If you can't make the event, fear not, we'll be tweeting live (@NatureLive) during the event with all the juicy bits!

Exciting times!

A couple of weeks ago I hosted an event with mammal curator Richard Sabin.  Richard helps to look after the mammal collections here at the museum, but is also involved in helping HM Revenue & Customs crack down on the illegal trade in endangered animal species.

When customs find suspicious items being shipped or flown into the country, they turn to Richard to help them find out whether the bracelet/ornament/piece of furniture in question is made of a harmless material or whether it contains components of an endangered animal.

Richard specialises in hard materials, such as bone and horn. By studying items closely underneath microscopes, such as the bracelet above, he is able to spot the tell-tale signs that suggest what it has been made out of (ie plastic, bone or horn) but also what animal it may have come from.  Incredibly, the tusks, horns and teeth of different species have different characteristics which, after years of training and experience, Richard is able to recognise.

The illegal trade in endangered species is an ongoing and international problem.  Some say that it is worth more than the arms trade. It's an issue that is being tackled by governments and independent organisations around the world, but one that is far from black and white. There are many reasons for why people chose to kill and sell endangered animals, and many different demands for how these animals are used such as to make medicine, jewellery and food.

CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) is an international agreement between governments, which aims to ensure that the survival of plant and animal species is not threatened by trade. It influences legislation and laws that help protect threatened species. The 175 governments that have signed up to CITES are currently meeting in Qatar to discuss new measures and suggest changes to previous guidelines.  At the top of the agenda are issues such as banning the trade of blue-fin tuna and legalising the sale of ivory stockpiles.  

We'll be discussing the work of CITES and extent of the illegal trade at this months evening event, Crossing Borders: The Illegal Trade in Endangered Species on Thursday 25th March.  Tickets are available on our website and by phone 020 7942 5555.  Richard Sabin will be speaking about his involvement, as well as representatives from TRAFFIC (the wildlife trade monitoring network), Defra and a researcher from Oxford Brookes University who is involved in undercover work in South East Asia.

Ah, Valentines Day. A day when red roses, gifts of chocolates, and lingering glances abound. Its all about showing the one you love, that you love them.

But what happens in the animal world?

There are lots of different ways that animals attract and win a mate. Some of them are similar to what humans, do, and others are..umm..slightly different.

In the deep sea, its so hard to find a significant other that when the male angler fish finds the lady of his dreams, he never lets go. Special nostrils help him detect her in the blackness down in the depths, then he gives her a little nip, latches on, and stays put. Over time, he actually fuses with her, sharing her blood supply and nutrients. Together forever!

The Adele Penguin inhabits one of the coldest regions on Earth: Antarctica! So when the males think they have found someone to snuggle up to, they will present them with some beautiful shiny stones, to build their nest with. Together, they will raise their family, but actually they don't see much of each other after wooing and mating; each takes turns watching the nest, so its only when they swap over that they meet up.

And finally; spiders! These amazing creatures have so many different ways of attracting and winning the lady of their dreams, and not surprising. Firstly, with so many thousands of species out there, you have to get it right. Secondly, its a dangerous game for the males - put a foot wrong, and they may end up a dinner for the lady! So some species will do a special dance, waving their colourful legs around, others like Tarantulas will soothingly stroke the females long, lovely, hairy legs, and other species give the spider equivalent of a box of chocolates; a nice big juicy fly wrapped in silk. Mmmmmm delicious!

Spider curator Jan Beccaloni and Ana Rita.

Why do scientists insist on using long complicated scientific names?

Well one reason is that they are universal. Take the common grove snail (below). In English this creature is also known as the brown-lipped snail or the dark lipped banded snail. It becomes even more confusing if you go abroad; in Germany the same creature is called Hain-Baenderschnecke. So how do scientists make sure they’re all speaking the same language? They speak in science of course; usually a combo of Latin and Greek.

There are estimated to be 6809 different languages spoken around the world but wherever you go ‘Cepaea nemoralis’ will always mean the grove snail (or the brown-lipped snail or Hain-Baenderschnecke).

Some Latin names can be weird and wonderful; take Osedaz mucofloris, also known as the bone eating snot-flower. In today’s show we asked our visitors to pit their wits against a panel of scientists and guess which one was lying. Can you work it out? Which of these names is made up?

Abra cadabra or Megadoris russelensis or Rasta thiophila

Image: Cepaea nemoralis - or the common grove snail in England or the Hain-Baenderschnecke in Germany