Glenn -- when I was looking over your proposed PERSPECTIVES article on
phyla a few days ago, I remembered an article I had stumbled across in a
technical publication at least 4 but not more than 6 years ago which seemed
to have a bearing on the question. I thought I had kept that article, but
after two days of searching, I conclude it is either buried somewhere in my
"file by the pile" collection of "good stuff to consider someday" or has
been thrown out.
I will describe what I can of it; perhaps you or someone else here knows of
it.
The publication was "high level," , not DISCOVER, or SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN or
such. Definitely not targetted to the lay reader. I saw it in a doctor's
office, but I think it was not a medically-oriented publication.
The article described a certain species of insect, one not common to our
locale. The thesis of the article was that the young offspring of this
insect normally fed on a certain plant (#1), but sometimes fed on a
different plant (#2). Those feeding on plant #1 grew to adulthood and
looked like X. Those that fed on plant #2 grew to adulthood and looked like
Y. There was, as I remember, no resemblence at all in bodyplan between X
and Y -- they looked like entirely different species, as different, say, as
grasshoppers and ants.
Experiments were conducted on siblings, dividing a batch of offspring into
two parts and feeding each of them a different plant -- the phenomen was
verified completely.
I don't recall at all if the subject of "phyla" was addressed in the
article. What was apparent was that (looking at the photos) the two
resulting groups could not, by any stretch, be looked at as the same animal
-- or even remotely related to one another. The food ingested had almost
completely determined the adult form.
I think this sort of supports the thesis in your paper, but it complicates
it somewhat. I always wondered if other experiments were undertaken (using
other food sources for the young insects) to see if other bodyplans would
result.
Of course I also wonder if I had drunk more milk as a boy I might be taller
now. < G >
Best
Burgy
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