Magazine GEOinternational No. 12/2011, publishes Solvin’s story on Meerkats (Suricata suricatta). The story is published in 15 international editions of the reportage magazine GEO reaching over 10 million readers.

GEOinternational veröffentlicht in der Ausgabe 12/2011 Solvins Reportage über Erdmännchen (Suricata suricatta).

Magazine GEOinternational No. 11/2011, publishes Solvin’s story on Fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) . The story is published in 15 international editions of the reportage magazine GEO reaching over 10 million readers.

GEOinternational veröffentlicht in der Ausgabe 11/2011 Solvins Reportage über Fruchtfliegen (Drosophila melanogaster).

About 75% of known human disease genes have a recognisable match in the genome of fruit flies. To the naked eye Drosophila melanogaster looks like any other fly. There are wings, a head, a thorax, and an abdomen. But beneath these external structures is a genome that has provided scientists with a wealth of knowledge about genetics, diseases, and patterns of inheritance. Despite the obvious morphological differences fruit fly and humans share many molecular, cellular, and behavioural similarities. In fact in an interview with BBC News Online, the Drosophila Genome Project’s Professor Gerry Rubin, from the University of California, Berkeley, said this about our friend the fruit fly. “They can become addicted to alcohol, cocaine and other drugs. They have a wake-sleep cycle like humans do. They have complicated rituals of behaviour.”
(Source: Human Genetics and the Fruit Fly Drosophila Melanogaster, by: Paul Arnold, Updated Nov 25, 2009, http://www.brighthub.com/science/genetics/articles/26242.aspx )

There is a lot of reseach going on around the world about this little animals. Solvin’s story on fruit flies features the research work from Dr. Barry Dickson, Research Institute of Molecular Pathology GmbH (IMP), Vienna, Austria. Dr. Barry Dickson uses molecular genetic techniques to study the function of neural circuits in Drosophila. His goal is to understand how information processing in defined neural circuits generates complex animal behaviours. As a model system, he focuses on the fly’s mating behaviours. These behaviours are robust, adaptive, and particularly amenable to genetic analysis. Working with flies has the great advantage that genetic tools can be used to identify and manipulate the relevant neurons and circuits in the brain. With these tools, it is possible to establish causal relationships between genes, cellular biochemistry, circuit function, and animal behaviour.
(Source: http://www.imp.ac.at/research/research-groups/dickson-group/)

Some of Solvins’s pictures show wild fruit flies as they can be naturally found outside or around your private fruit bowl:

All other fruit flies are lab flies and have been genetically manipulated. There is the “wild type” fruit fly which looks like its free ranging relatives, but actually is not the same. Most of Solvins’s images showing behaviour are taken from individuals of that type. Some examples for different behaviour: are:

Singing of the male to the female during courtship

Mating fruit flies

Genetic markers are commonly used in Drosophila research, for example within balancer chromosomes or P-element inserts, and most phenotypes are easily identifiable either with the naked eye or under a microscope. Solvin photographed animals where you can see those markers. One animal can show more than one marker. Here is a list of markers he photographed:

Curly ==> The wings curve away from the body, flight may be somewhat impaired.

White ==> Eyes lack pigmentation and appear white, vision may be somewhat impaired. They have a defect in their “white” gene, which normally produces the red pigments in the eye. In these flies, the white gene is totally defective: it produces no red pigment at all. (Note that a fully functional white gene leads to red eyes).

Stubble ==> Hairs are shorter and thicker than wild type

Yellow ==>  Body pigmentation and wings appear yellow

If (Irregular facets) ==> is a dominant mutation of Drosophila that results in small eyes with fused ommatidia

Drop ==>  very small eyes

Antennapedia ==> mutant of the fruit fly with legs instead of antennae growing from the head

orange eyes ==> They have a defect in their “white” gene, which normally produces the red pigments in the eye. In these flies, the white gene only works partially, producing fewer red pigments than it should. (Note that a fully functional white gene leads to red eyes).

There is although a Transgenic RNAi Library in Vienna.

http://stockcenter.vdrc.at/control/main

The mission of the Vienna Drosophila RNAi Center is to promote scientific discoveries by facilitation systematic analysis of gene function in Drosophila using in vivo transgenic RNAi technology. The library comprises 22,247 transgenic Drosophila strains, each containing an inducible UAS-RNAi construct against a single protein coding gene. 12,251 genes, or 88.2% of the Drosophila genome, are represented in this collection.
There are some images showing the work at the Vienna Drosophila RNAi Center (VDRC):

GEO magazine, German issue No. 09/2011, publishes Solvin’s images about the GEO day of Biodiversity 2011 – (‘Alles klar?! vom Leben unter Wasser’)

GEO veröffentlicht in der Ausgabe 09/2011 Solvins Bilder über den GEO Tag der Artenvielfalt 2011  - (‘Alles klar?! vom Leben unter Wasser’)

Turkey

The Turkish midsummer heat hits stunningly but unsurprisingly. However, the size of this object in focus is both, stunning and surprising: A freshwater turtle with a carapace length of 1 metre is what I would expected to see in the Amazon River, but surely not here in Europe. And in fact the home of this giant Nile Soft-Shelled Turtle (Trionyx triunguis), the famous Dalyan Delta, with its meandering river and countless branchings is reminiscent of a tiny detail of Amazonia.

Towards the Mediterranean Sea the beach of Dalyan stretches its sandy flat 4 kilometres in length and more than 200 metre wide. A huge rectangular zone of the beach is neatly riddled with sun loungers and umbrellas, which make it obvious that this is a tourist area. But all furnitures are set up in a distance of 30 metre from the water and only the expert eye instantly recognises the reason: The stretch of sand between the line of umbrellas and the water hosts hundreds of seaturtle nests, only testified to by some tracks which the nesting Loggerhead Turtles left on the beach. The Lycian Coast in Turkey is famous for beaches like this. Nevertheless, for my mission to take pictures for Wild Wonders of Europe I chose an other stretch of shore which is not so much in the focus of human sun worshippers.

This is where I now wait at night for that special moment when a marine reptile takes the trouble to carry its own heavy body on land. There is magic in the air when the twinkling moonlight on the surf is interrupted by the dark round shadow of a 70 kilogram female Loggerhead Turtle (Caretta caretta) which drags herself ashore. It reminds of the first conquest of the land by some ancient animal. Literally moved by this sight I give some more place to the turtle and only a few metres from me the female crawls through the sand, pausing every once in a while to take an audible, deep breath. I can allow myself to sit in awe and watch, because if I would move too much and take pictures now when the turtle is still preparing, it would just break off and return to the sea immediately. It is just when the scraping sounds of digging the nesthole ceased that I silently crawl near to the rear of the turtle to check if it started dropping the eggs. Now I can sit up and start photographing – now the female will not stop before the approximately 100 eggs are laid and thoroughly covered with sand. But I must work fast. I have only about 20 minutes before the turtle will be through and gone between the waves.

When I watch the dark carapace vanishing in the surf I know the female will only return in 2 or 3 years, as now, in August, the nesting season ends. But I have something else to look forward to: To see hatching young seaturtles. Many nests that have been laid before are ready after the warm sand incubated and sheltered them for about 2 month. As if they would follow a command all healthy hatchlings of a nest begin at the same time to struggle to towards the surface, where they are keen to reach the close sea.

The first faint glimmer of the sunrise already shows at the horizon when I found the little tracks on the sand. The hatchlings nearly made it to the ocean and now I can fulfill myself a long-cherished wish: I accompany and photograph a newly hatched seaturtle under water while it is doing its first dives. One hour later – being impressed by the speed and determination of this 6 centimetre-reptile – I have to admit that it finds its way in the big blue much better than I do. I feel grateful that I could share this start into a new life and my best wishes go out there with this small animal that I got to know a little bit.

Triggered by water temperature and other environmental conditions thousands of mayflies, called “flowers of Tisza” emerge from the surface of the Tisza river in Hungary. On the riverside vegetation the males have to molt another time before they go ahead for a quick mating – and perish. It is only the females then which form the unbelievable swarms flying several kilometers upstream, resembling a flock of birds in sight and a cloud of migratory locusts in sound. With up to 12 cm the Long-tailed Mayfly is the largest mayfly in Europe and the Tisza river is the last refuge of this species which is extinct elsewhere. Researchers were relieved to see this insect survive the severe cyanide spill that poisoned the Tisza in 2000. So it is not man-made but the law of nature to find the river covered with dead mayflies only hours after the clouds have risen, as also the females die just after laying their eggs on the water surface. What a short life? Not at all: the eggs drift, sink to the bottom and the developing larvae live for three years in the river bed before the flower appears again.

The Rockhopper Penguin at the Falkland Islands is one of the many penguin species that do not live in snow and ice. However, at the breeding colonies and in the waters surrounding the stunning archipelago they face rough winds and extreme weather changes. During low tide they do not only have to climb the rocks in their popular manner but also have to cross broad tidal flats despite sand storms and high sun radiation. These birds are caring to their partner and chicks, but can be aggressive towards others. At this breeding colony at Saunders Island the Rockhopper Penguins enjoy the luxury of a natural freshwater shower. But standing in line and waiting is certainly not their cup of tea, so the next quarrel is always bound to occur. When going out to sea and returning they find safety in large numbers, cooperating peacefully to puzzle the lurking Sea Leopards and Orcas.