Let's take a look at this shall we?

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Heh, if I have a spare moment I can fire up PhotoShop, put together some relevant imagery, then fire up ImageReady to make an animated B-52 avatar. Then you can add it to the collection.

Actually, my Hazmat suit is MIL-SPEC 1800, the sort you use for dealing with VX on a battlefield. I sense it may be needed if I venture into your NSFW area.

By the way, checking my User Control Panel, I discovered that you have user groups ... including one called "twat". Is that where you put the trolls? Or was that erected by special request of devogue?

Twat is a special group for pawiz / vroomfondel. He also has his own forum called Twat, which only he can see or post in!

[klr]

Heh, if I have a spare moment I can fire up PhotoShop, put together some relevant imagery, then fire up ImageReady to make an animated B-52 avatar. Then you can add it to the collection.

Actually, my Hazmat suit is MIL-SPEC 1800, the sort you use for dealing with VX on a battlefield. I sense it may be needed if I venture into your NSFW area.

By the way, checking my User Control Panel, I discovered that you have user groups ... including one called "twat". Is that where you put the trolls? Or was that erected by special request of devogue?

User groups are a growth industry here ... as are custom ranks, locations, colourful user names ...

[cowiz]

Heh, if I have a spare moment I can fire up PhotoShop, put together some relevant imagery, then fire up ImageReady to make an animated B-52 avatar. Then you can add it to the collection.

Actually, my Hazmat suit is MIL-SPEC 1800, the sort you use for dealing with VX on a battlefield. I sense it may be needed if I venture into your NSFW area.

By the way, checking my User Control Panel, I discovered that you have user groups ... including one called "twat". Is that where you put the trolls? Or was that erected by special request of devogue?

Twat is a special group for pawiz / vroomfondel. He also has his own forum called Twat, which only he can see or post in!

Twat!

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Heh, if I have a spare moment I can fire up PhotoShop, put together some relevant imagery, then fire up ImageReady to make an animated B-52 avatar. Then you can add it to the collection.

Actually, my Hazmat suit is MIL-SPEC 1800, the sort you use for dealing with VX on a battlefield. I sense it may be needed if I venture into your NSFW area.

By the way, checking my User Control Panel, I discovered that you have user groups ... including one called "twat". Is that where you put the trolls? Or was that erected by special request of devogue?

Twat is a special group for pawiz / vroomfondel. He also has his own forum called Twat, which only he can see or post in!

Twat!

Watch it mate! Or I'll give Exi access...

[cowiz]

Heh, if I have a spare moment I can fire up PhotoShop, put together some relevant imagery, then fire up ImageReady to make an animated B-52 avatar. Then you can add it to the collection.

Actually, my Hazmat suit is MIL-SPEC 1800, the sort you use for dealing with VX on a battlefield. I sense it may be needed if I venture into your NSFW area.

By the way, checking my User Control Panel, I discovered that you have user groups ... including one called "twat". Is that where you put the trolls? Or was that erected by special request of devogue?

Twat is a special group for pawiz / vroomfondel. He also has his own forum called Twat, which only he can see or post in!

Twat!

Watch it mate! Or I'll give Exi access...

I already PM Exi everything that is posted in Twat. It's mostly about how Exi is an arse and a twat.

[klr]

Don't derail Cali's welcome thread. Not a good idea.

[Calilasseia]

Don't derail Cali's welcome thread. Not a good idea.

Heh, it's a good place to learn about the indigenous culture before I wander around ... always a good idea to learn how not to go stomping about in minefields wearing size 12 boots before beginning the business of exploration.

Oh, by the way, here's a little news item that somehow seems appropriate for this place. As I'm typing this, my fish appear to be gearing up to start spawning again.

[Thinking Aloud]

Holy crap! Is that thing getting bigger?

[Calilasseia]

I just decided to test if I could use that version of my sig picture here. Seems I can, so I'll stick with it.

[Beelzebub2]

What a marvelous opportunity to post this article:

A Near-Extinct Blue Butterfly Flourishes Again, Thanks to a Red Ant

In a rare conservation success, a beautiful butterfly species that was headed for extinction has been brought back from the brink, thanks to careful biological observations of the insect’s life cycle. The mysterious disappearance of the Large Blue Butterfly across most of northern Europe was originally put down to its popularity among insect collectors [Telegraph]. Then biologist Jeremy Thomas spent six summers in the 1970s studying the very last colony of large blue butterflies in the United Kingdom, and determined that the butterflies were dependent on one species of red ant for their survival–and those ants were losing their habitat.

The butterflies lay their eggs on flowering thyme plants, and the hatched caterpillars fall to the ground and begin to impersonate immature red ants. They secrete chemicals and even make noises that make the red ants believe they are wayward grubs. The ants then mistakenly carry the caterpillars to their underground homes and keep looking after them even though the adopted intruders gobble ant grubs for 10 months before forming a chrysalis and flying away as adult butterflies [Reuters].

However, the red ants live in fields where the grass is short enough to let the sun warm the soil. Historically, rabbits had kept the grass short, but in the mid-1950s rabbit populations were suddenly devastated by the plague-like disease myxomatosis [The Independent]. Farmers had also been gradually halting the practice of grazing their cattle, which allowed pastures to get overgrown. When the grass grew less than one inch taller than usual, the increased shade cooled the soil by more than three degrees Fahrenheit, Thomas found, and the red ants vanished. “To human beings the change looks like absolutely nothing. But when you are on the scale of insects it makes a huge difference to the micro-habitats where they live,” he said [Reuters].

Thomas worked out the ecological pressures on the large blues in the 1970s, but he was to late to save the species in Britain; the last colony there died out in 1979. But the knowledge to bring it back and keep it was now in place; and in 1983 … he brought large blue caterpillars from Sweden and released them [The Independent]. Cows were brought in to graze in the reintroduction sites, and both the red ants and the blue butterflies found their niches in the ecosystem again. In a paper that will be published online this week by Science, researchers report that there are now more than 30 colonies of large blue butterflies in the United Kingdom, with an estimated population of about 20,000…. Broadcaster Sir David Attenborough commented: “The restoration of the large blue butterfly to Britain is a remarkable success story, illustrating the power of ecological research to reverse damaging environmental changes” [BBC News].

[cowiz]

Now we have Cali here, all we need is some fundies !!!!


Cooeee fundies, where are you?

[CJ]

Welcome aboard!!!!!

Never thought I'd hear the flutter of your wings here!! Bloody marvellous!

Regards
Chris

[Calilasseia]

Oh speaking of blue butterflies on the CITES critical list, there's a couple of American ones needing attention from conservationists quickly. A particularly nice (but small) one from the Lycaenidae is Glaucopsyche lygdamus, in particular the subspecies G. l. palosverdesensis.

Sadly, it's too late for the Xerxes Blue, Glaucopsyche xerces. That one is now extinct.

[Beelzebub2]

Now we have Cali here, all we need is some fundies !!!!


Cooeee fundies, where are you?

There is one Abraham on the board, I think.

[Pappa]

Now we have Cali here, all we need is some fundies !!!!


Cooeee fundies, where are you?

There is one Abraham on he board, I think.