at semester's end
So...
The semester is over and done with, and I am done for as well - at least for the next two or three days. Then I really need to get back to work to try and define my project proposal for my Master's research. The growth rate for Scirtothrips on common commercial plants in Florida temperatures and humidities appears mostly under-documented, and I figure that this would be a valuable starting place for my research. I'd like to follow it by exploring thrips dispersal patterns. Population densities and local humidity appear to be important in influencing brachyptery and macroptery - whether individuals are winged or not - and this would be critical in determining their ability to fly away and expand their range. Plenty more interesting questions to be researched there - I personally wonder about the environmental triggers and timing that leads to the expression and development of winged individuals.
There are a few other tangents I might like to explore with my research, provided time and available resources. Thrips end up clustering at the bases of leaves, much like aphids - and one might expect that ants would be significant predators of them as such - but many ants appear to avoid or ignore the presence of a thrips infestation. Thrips are known to produce any number of chemicals, and some species carry and distribute droplets of these possibly noxious cocktails from long hairs on their hindquarters around the colony feed-site. None of this behavior has been specifically documented in Scirtothrips, and it will be interesting to determine if something similar is present.
In the meantime, I am 'relaxing' by catching up on the effort to sequence the Neandertal genome - and by blasting a lot of vicious aliens.
Time will tell.