Word: bug
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...perplexing, often debilitating disease tends to run in families. Shingles itself is not contagious, although exposure to it can trigger chicken pox in someone who has never had that infection; both are caused by the same virus. Approximately 1 in 3 chicken-pox veterans suffers a reactivation of the bug as an adult, as was the case with my patient in Michigan. Whether the virus, which can lie dormant for decades, resurfaces appears to depend on a lot of things: Age is a risk factor, since most cases occur in people 60 or older. Stress and trauma have been implicated...
...Several months of research led Barclay to discover that the insect, which resembles the common North American box elder bug, is actually most closely related to to Arocatus roeselii. But that European bug is also associated with alder trees rather than sycamores. An insect specimen found in Nice on France's Mediterranean coast, which is now in the collection of the National Museum of Natural History in Prague, turned out to be identical to the mystery London bug. But that specimen, it turned out, had been misidentified as Arocatus roeselii...
...There are two possible explanations," says Barclay. "One is that the bug is roeselii and by switching to feed on the [sycamores] it has suddenly become more abundant, successful and invasive. The other possibility is that the insect in our grounds may not be roeselii...
...Whatever the reason for the appearance of the mysterious new bug in London, Barclay says its rampant spread around the city is harmless. However, "it does show what's possible [if more damaging species invade...
...identify the critter displays not only the mystery of nature, but also the fickleness of the science of taxonomy. Identifying insect species can be extremely difficult; some scientists estimate we have managed to identify only 10% of the insect world so far. The rest, like Barclays' almond-shaped mystery bug, are perfectly happy to crawl along without any christening or approval from their relatively gargantuan cohabitants. But that won't stop scientists like Barclay from trying. For him, the question asked by his five-year old son last March is a calling he still feels compelled to answer...