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Rat-tailed maggots are the larvae of certain species of hoverflies belonging to the tribes Eristalini and Sericomyiini. A characteristic feature of rat-tailed maggots is a tube-like, telescoping breathing siphon located at its posterior end. This acts like a snorkel, allowing the larva to breathe air while submerged. he most commonly encountered rat-tailed maggot is the larva of the drone fly, Eristalis tenax. It lives in stagnant, oxygen-deprived water, with a high organic content. It is fairly tolerant of pollution and can live in sewage lagoons and cesspools.

This week on ColaJazz Presents, we welcome trumpeter, educator, composer, and all around Renaissance man Dick Goodwin to the show.

This week Bobbi Conner talks with Dr. Mark Newbrough about assessing the risks and benefits of surgery in the older adult years. Dr. Newbrough is an Associate Professor of Geriatric Medicine and Director of the Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program at MUSC.

This week Bobbi Conner talks with Dr. Daniel Smith about a new (free) app (called Transcend) for smartphones and tablets, created to support individuals who have survived mass trauma. Dr. Smith is the Director of Technology and Resources at the National Mass Violence Victimization Resource Center at MUSC.

Students in Heathwood Hall's "Studies in Leadership & Applied Journalism" class discuss the historic fatal shooting of The State newspaper's founding editor by a SC Lieutenant Governor

Professor Greg Reighard, Clemson researcher and international fruit specialist, explained that elderberries are primarily wind-pollinated. Although the flowers are extraordinarily showy, which you think would be a sign that they are attracting all sorts of pollinators, they don’t produce nectar so insect visitors are only collecting pollen. Still, their value to wildlife is high as the hundreds of dark purple fruits that each flower head produces are devoured by over 45 species of birds and racoons among others -- the Missouri Department of Conservation reports that a sharp-eyed naturalist even saw a box turtle eating fruits. But for people the entire plant contains compounds toxic to us, so this is one plant that grazers should not eat in the field. But properly prepared with heat, their berries have long been safely used for pies, wines and jellies.

Elderberry stems are semi-woody, the interior is filled with pith. The late John Fairey, renowned botany professor at Clemson, told students that this pith was used to pack delicate scientific instruments and still used by repairmen to hold tiny parts of jewelry and such. Mason bees and other insects, however, have long used the older hollow stems as places to construct egg-laying or brood chambers. So if you have elderberries in your yard, cut a few stems half way down every year to expose that pith-filled interior to cavity nesting bees. Another option is to put stems and other small branches or rotting wood in a mulch pile. Then you can order a Pollinator Friendly Habitat sign from the Xerces Society. Read their page about building a better mulch pile for more ideas about making your yard pollinator friendly.

In case you didn’t know, our state has a program providing professional development and training for South Carolina-based film crews, production professionals, independent filmmakers, and students. It’s apparently the only one of its kind in the nation. And we just found out that two graduates of that program have recently had their short films accepted at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival in New York City.Mike Switzer interviews Brad Jayne, a producer with Indie Grants, a collaboration of the SC Film Commission and Trident Technical College.

The cicadas are a superfamily, the Cicadoidea, of insects in the order Hemiptera (true bugs). They are in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha, along with smaller jumping bugs such as leafhoppers and froghoppers. The superfamily is divided into two families, the Tettigarctidae, with two species in Australia, and the Cicadidae, with more than 3,000 species described from around the world; many species remain undescribed.

The round jellyfish are also sometimes called cabbage-head jellyfish.