Tue 11 May 2010

Sun 23 May 2010 - Raffles Museum Open House on International Museum Day

Category : events

As part of International Museum Day, the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research will specially open its Public Gallery on Sunday, 23rd May 2010 from 10am to 5pm.

Public Gallery Tour
Come down for a guided tour of our public gallery and hear stories of Singapore’s once-thriving wild life. Sessions: 10.00am, 12.00pm, 2.00pm and 4.00pm (2 concurrent tours at each session). No registration required.

Souvenir
Say ‘I love museums’ at the reception counter and receive a souvenir! Limited to one souvenir per visitor, on a first-come-first-served basis and while stocks last.

Shuttle bus opposite Buona Vista MRT

A shuttle bus service to the Raffles Museum will be available every 30 minutes from 9.45am to 4.15pm on 23 May 2010. The pick-up point is the bus stop in front of the MOE building at North Buona Vista Road.

Posted at 9:49AM UTC by N. Sivasothi | permalink | email |

Tue 11 May 2010

Help Rodríguez-Gironés find flowering plants visited by pollinators with weaver ants

Category : nature

Miguel Rodríguez-Gironés, a visiting researcher in Richard Corlett's laboratory gave a lovely seminar last week about evolution in pollination networks. It began with an overview of the larger subject and went on to mention and discuss ideas he and his team have grappled with over the years, including mentions why so many bird flowers are red, the evolution of nectar concealment and the evolution of deep corolla tubes.

At the end of the seminar he asked for help for studies he is currently engaged in. I figured the macro-photography nature community as well as the plant and insect naturalists might be able to help him. They have posted lovely photos on the net of a variety of insect interactions on really small flowers. If anyone could help him find suitable subjects, it'd be them!

Here is his "Wanted Poster" - please help forward this to relevant forums and friends, thanks!

"Please let us know if you happen to see plants satisfying the following conditions:

• The plants are flowering now.
• The flowers are visited by pollinators (bees, flies, moths…) sufficiently often that you will see some pollinators visiting the plant if you observe it for a couple of minutes.
• There are weaver ants (Oecophylla smaragdina) at the plant or its immediate vicinity.

Please send us a brief note (to rgirones@eeza.csic.es) or give us a call (on 9690 4531; ask for Ahimsa) to let us know

• the plant species (if known),
• the precise location, and
• the time of day at which you noticed that the flowers were visited by pollinators.

Thank you very much for your help!"

Miguel

Posted at 1:15AM UTC by N. Sivasothi | permalink | email |