Wow it’s been a few weeks since my last post, and I’m a bit embarrassed having let it go so long. What have I been up to? Not a whole not. No impressive collecting trips, no new species or discoveries. Actually I’ve been sitting at a microscope dissecting genitalia or databasing parasitic flies. I’ll have…
Another not all that difficult GOP challenge, found here from the Scottish TV website. What’s wrong with the story below?
A short clip from the brilliant show, Quite Interesting. The start of the discussion is in regards to cochineal bugs – although they refer to them as beetles! (see buggirl)
A weekend without moths can lead a lepidopterist to do crazy things. Crazy enough to photograph a spider. Over the weekend I was accompanied to the eastern Sierra by fellow insect blogger, coworker and arachnologist, Tamas Szuts. I was on the quest for more specimens of a new Hepialidae of which you may be familiar with…
While I work on a more substantial post, you can name this butterfly – and the plant should be pretty easy too. Extra bonus if you can guess the county (state won’t be too impressive) in which I took this photo. This was pre-DSLR, but my old beat up canon point-and-shoot did manage to get…
For regular readers of my blog you might already know my stance on the monarch, but catch up here if you’d like to. Yesterday I came across this article in the LA times – regarding the overwintering colonies of monarchs in Pacific Grove, CA. Out here, west of the continental divide, there are quite a…
This genius of the press is extra special, not for its difficulty, but for its redundancy. I found the same story carried on two separate sources, with different images – and both equally incorrect! I can imagine that it won’t take long for someone to point out exactly what’s wrong with these stories (hint, there…
And while I catch up you can watch some creepy Isabella Rossellini re-enact the mating strategies of a bedbug. You should also read, if you haven’t caught it already, the excellent bedbug article written by the distinguished (and my former professor) May Berenbaum. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MakIB_IJnu0&feature=search]
Pictured is a black-veined white (Aporia crataegi ssp), and it is currently being returned to the Korean Institute of Biological Resources. Loans get returned, as they should be, every day – and can even number in the thousands of specimens. I myself have a few hundred moths out on loan from a handful of museums…
This one is just too easy. The billboard is on I-35 south of Burleson, Texas. I don’t know the true provenance of this image, but it came my way from Omar Bocanegra via Mike Quinn on the Texas Lepidoptera list-serv.