Darwin would probably have said that the beetles characteristics of size, diet, armour protection and territoriality made them uniquely suited to life in the dirt from the coolest forests to the warmest deserts. Their evolutionary specialisation (while retaining the essential characteristics of a beetle), made them the most “fit” insects for their multitudinous environments.
I’m going to go with that one.
Matt
I believe the underlying question is why do beetles speciate and, say, ants don’t? My guess would be that they’ve evolved a higher mutation rate than most other insects which allows them to more effectively colonise new territories and to adapt more quickly to changing environments. The down-side of this is more dead-ends, and that a speciation event would need a sufficiently large population to remain indefinitely viable without any outbreeding.
Tim Worstall
It’s a referemnce to Haldane. Something like, Professor, can biology tell us anything about God? “An inordinate fondness for beetles”
Theophrastus (2066)
Define what a species is…
Ottokring
The reality of course is overmanning… er overbeetling. All these creatures have different jobs , some of them can multi skill, but still stay in the same employment. It is a true artisan economy.
Ha beetles ! Your time is coming ! AI will soon take your jobs away.
decnine
“The down-side of this is more dead-ends…”
From a conservationist perspective, that’s not a downside. It’s a career opportunity.
A species is well defined: breeding within it can lead to fertile offspring.
Theophrastus (2066)
Matt
The concept of a species is not well defined. There are c.26 different species concepts – eg involving karyotype, DNA sequence, morphology, behaviour, ecological niche, etc. As to breeding that produces fertile offspring, (a) this doesn’t apply to organisms that reproduce asexually or that are long extinct, and (b) there are exceptions – eg corvus corone and corvus cornix, which can produce fertile offspring but are deemed to be distinct species.
Grikath
Matt: “I believe the underlying question is why do beetles speciate and, say, ants don’t”
Ants don’t speciate? That’s a good one.. You’re obviously not aware of how many species of ants there actually are…
And the answer is simple: all arthropods have a basic body plan that’s suited for rapid adaptation to a specific environment. They’ve evolved to fill a niche as fast as possible, and have been playing that game a couple 100 million years longer than us.
As individual species they’re superspecialists, as a lifeform they are actually pioneers.
bloke in spain
Question: Are Tory politicians a species of beetle or cockroach?
Ltw
We moved recently to regional Victoria. There’s at least 3 species of ants in our backyard alone. Fascinating to watch, they do seem to have territories and aggressively defend them from the others.
John
BiS
Bearing in mind their well documented predilection for cock I would have thought the answer was obvious.
Apparently Haldane’s quote has become a fake Darwin quote. An understandable evolution, in my view.
Sure, you can attribute it to God, if you wish.
Darwin would probably have said that the beetles characteristics of size, diet, armour protection and territoriality made them uniquely suited to life in the dirt from the coolest forests to the warmest deserts. Their evolutionary specialisation (while retaining the essential characteristics of a beetle), made them the most “fit” insects for their multitudinous environments.
I’m going to go with that one.
I believe the underlying question is why do beetles speciate and, say, ants don’t? My guess would be that they’ve evolved a higher mutation rate than most other insects which allows them to more effectively colonise new territories and to adapt more quickly to changing environments. The down-side of this is more dead-ends, and that a speciation event would need a sufficiently large population to remain indefinitely viable without any outbreeding.
It’s a referemnce to Haldane. Something like, Professor, can biology tell us anything about God? “An inordinate fondness for beetles”
Define what a species is…
The reality of course is overmanning… er overbeetling. All these creatures have different jobs , some of them can multi skill, but still stay in the same employment. It is a true artisan economy.
Ha beetles ! Your time is coming ! AI will soon take your jobs away.
“The down-side of this is more dead-ends…”
From a conservationist perspective, that’s not a downside. It’s a career opportunity.
Artificial Insects: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qe7nl30CQk (well, cyborg ones anyway)
@Theo
A species is well defined: breeding within it can lead to fertile offspring.
Matt
The concept of a species is not well defined. There are c.26 different species concepts – eg involving karyotype, DNA sequence, morphology, behaviour, ecological niche, etc. As to breeding that produces fertile offspring, (a) this doesn’t apply to organisms that reproduce asexually or that are long extinct, and (b) there are exceptions – eg corvus corone and corvus cornix, which can produce fertile offspring but are deemed to be distinct species.
Matt: “I believe the underlying question is why do beetles speciate and, say, ants don’t”
Ants don’t speciate? That’s a good one.. You’re obviously not aware of how many species of ants there actually are…
And the answer is simple: all arthropods have a basic body plan that’s suited for rapid adaptation to a specific environment. They’ve evolved to fill a niche as fast as possible, and have been playing that game a couple 100 million years longer than us.
As individual species they’re superspecialists, as a lifeform they are actually pioneers.
Question: Are Tory politicians a species of beetle or cockroach?
We moved recently to regional Victoria. There’s at least 3 species of ants in our backyard alone. Fascinating to watch, they do seem to have territories and aggressively defend them from the others.
BiS
Bearing in mind their well documented predilection for cock I would have thought the answer was obvious.