Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2020 April 22

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April 22

Unknown beetle

Bilinmeyen böcek

Does someone know what species this is? It was seen on the wall of a house on the Aegean coast of Turkey. It was about 25 mm (1 inch) long. Note the bands on the lower part going from side to side. Most beetles are smooth or have ridges in the length direction. I do not see a head. Thank you. Hevesli (talk) 09:05, 22 April 2020 (UTC)

Perhaps a juvenile cockroach nymph of some kind, but I have no idea which of the many types it might be. Mikenorton (talk) 10:32, 22 April 2020 (UTC)

Not so sure its a beetle which would generally have elytra or wing-cases which open from the centre line - I can't see that in that in in the photograph. Also dubious about there being a juvenile stage of any beetle; "Insects which undergo holometabolism pass through a larval stage, then enter an inactive state called pupa (called a "chrysalis" in butterfly species), and finally emerge as adults" (from Metamorphosis). Alansplodge (talk) 17:41, 22 April 2020 (UTC)

I'm not sure it's even an insect, though it certainly seems to have three pairs of legs. The segmented back makes me wonder if it's something like a woodlouse, or more generally some kind of isopod. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 18:18, 22 April 2020 (UTC)

I should have referred to cockroach nymphs rather than "juveniles". They are typically segmented, wingless and have heads that are not obvious from above, but I can't find any examples that match that picture. Mikenorton (talk) 22:35, 22 April 2020 (UTC)

Looks like it could be Polyphaga aegyptiaca in Corydiidae: see [1], [2]. --Amble (talk) 22:40, 22 April 2020 (UTC)

Thank you. One from Malta has just the same markings on her back as the one I found and other details also look same. Hevesli (talk) 04:16, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

Apologies Mikenorton, you were on the right trail. Alansplodge (talk) 10:45, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

No problem, I must have looked at thousands of cockroach pictures, but failed to find the one that Amble spotted. Mikenorton (talk) 10:50, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

"God has an inordinate fondness for beetles". Alansplodge (talk) 16:26, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

Coronavirus responses

Would I be correct in assuming that almost all countries are simply following their national pandemic response plan in responding to the Coronavirus? 90.196.236.105 (talk) 10:00, 22 April 2020 (UTC)

The response should be tailored to the specific characteristics of the outbreak, so even under ideal circumstances it cannot be a matter of "simply" following a plan. Then, as should be apparent, political considerations play a considerable role in the appraisal of the situation and the appropriateness of specific responses, in some countries more than in others, but likely to a certain extent in all. On the face of it, it appears to me that the assumption is unwarranted.  --Lambiam 12:59, 22 April 2020 (UTC)

It might help if you mentioned what the alternative would be. To some degree, whatever each nation is doing now is according to "a plan". In some cases, "the plan" was hastily put together in March. Some nations have pandemic plans, likely written or updated in the light of SARS or H1N1, but it seems unlikely that those plans were complete in the sense that they likely didn't detail the degree of physical distancing we've done. A number of news pieces have commented that existing pandemic plans hadn't adequately prepared most nations for widespread infections, where sharing resources is not possible. Hence my request for clarification: having or not having a plan is not quite a black and white question. Matt Deres (talk) 13:36, 22 April 2020 (UTC)