Tag Archives for Friday mystery object

Friday mystery object #366 answer

Last week I gave you this unwelcome visitor to the Dead Zoo to identify:

I’ve given you something very similar before, which most people mistakenly identified as being this species.

It’s in the family Ptinidae, home of several species that are considered pests, thanks to their habit of boring holes in various different materials. They all tend to look quite similar, although the shape of the pronotum (the bit between the abdomen and the teensy head) is a useful feature.

As Andy Calver and Thomas Rouillar intimated on Twitter and joe vans hinted in the comments, this particular beetle is normally associated with boring holes in carbohydrate rich substances, which can include drugs, tobacco, bread and biscuits. It’s known as the Drugstore Beetle, Cigarette Beetle, Bread Beetle or Biscuit Beetle depending on your particular interest in what it destroys. Of course, other beetles can share some of these proclivities and therefore claim some of the same names, so for clarity the scientific name is Stegobium paniceum (Linnaeus, 1758).

In museums they can tun up for a variety of reasons. Sometimes they’ll be feeding on starchy glues in book spines, they love a dried plant in a herbarium, they’ll give animal hides and museum specimens a nibble, and about the only thing they like more than poisoned grain used as rodent bait would be some biscuit crumbs.

So well done to everyone who worked it out and if you didn’t manage it then never fear, there’s always next week’s!

Friday mystery object #365 answer

Last week I gave you this little critter to have a go at identifying:

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This particular shrimpy specimen arrived as an enquiry, after it was found in some Irish drinking water.

Prawn cocktails may be a thing, but most of us don’t think of shrimps (or shrimp-like decapod crustaceans) as an ideal addition to a beverage.

According to WHO these critters aren’t actually a health problem if they get into the water supply in temperate regions, where they don’t carry significant parasites or pathogens – but it’s a different story in the tropics.

Knowing which species this is could help in working out how it might have entered the water supply. I’m not an expert on crustaceans by any means, but there are useful keys out there [links to pdf] for working out this kind of information and I’m very fortunate in having to hand the expertise of my predecessor at the Dead Zoo, Mark Holmes, who specialises in crustaceans and is still often at the Museum doing research. Of course, I also have all of you lovely people!

My first thought on seeing this was that it was one of the Gammeridae, based mainly on my exposure to many photos of Gammarus shrimps infected by microsporidian parasites that change them from males into females (which is some fascinating biology). I was therefore delighted when so many of you put forth suggestions in that same area.

By working through the key of Irish shrimp I narrowed it down to Gammarus pulex (Linnaeus, 1758), which was also suggested on Twitter by @RobertsZivtins and @DianeBarlee. It could be G. tigrinus or perhaps G. lacustris – or of course a species not previously recorded from Ireland that doesn’t appear on the key.

However, I got it fresh and there were no stripes and the uropods and telson (taily-bit) looks more pulexy to my eye.

I am now eagerly waiting to hear what Mark thinks – I will update this post as soon as I do!

I have now checked with Mark and he identified this as G. lacustris so it looks like the taily bit isn’t pulexy after all. Thanks Mark!

Friday mystery object #365

After 10 years of posting photos from the museums I’ve worked in, I’ve finally posted enough mystery objects to have one a day for a whole year. As long as it’s not a Leap Year of course.

So here’s the 365th Friday mystery object:

Any idea what this mysterious wee beastie might be? N.B. it is a genuine enquiry, so no need to drop cryptic clues – I’m just keen to see if anyone agrees with what I’ve identified it as.

Have fun!

Friday mystery object #362 answer

Last week I gave you this skeleton to have a go at identifying:

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I thought that it might be a bit on the easy side for some of you – especially Wouter van Gestel who is one on the brains behind the fantastic Skullsite resource, that I expect everyone is familiar with by now.

The skeleton of this bird isn’t really all that distinctive, but the skull – particularly the bill – is very distinctive indeed, although this photo doesn’t capture the full weirdness.

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Wouter’s cryptic clue:

Apparently, this species processes sound twice as well as you might expect from a bird.

was a hint at the scientific name Cochlearius cochlearius (Linnaeus, 1766) – playing on the fact that the name comes from the same source as the name for the cochlea, which is a part of the inner ear that has a snail-like shape. The common name, as hinted at by Richard Lawrence is Boat-billed Heron, as you can see a bit more clearly here:

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Boat-billed Heron. Photo by Patrick Coin, 2007

These odd looking birds are members of the Ardeidae or heron family, but rather than having the spear-like bill of the classic Grey Heron, they have broad bills used for scooping up prey in the shallow, murky waters of Mangrove swamps in Central and South America.

They have big eyes and that large, sensitive bill to help catch small fish and crustaceans in the shade or at night. This nocturnal habit is common in the Nycticoracidae a subfamily commonly known as night herons, as mentioned by Josep Antoni Alcover in his clue in the comments.

So well done to everyone who recognised this unusual animal – more mysteries next week!