Reignite pirmdienā kožu sēriju šeit ir stunner: Magdalena Melemaea (Geometridae).
Šo reto skaistums iepriekš tikai zināms no izkaisīti apvidu pāri kalnu rietumos, un tikai no dažiem indivīdiem, katru otro sezonu. Tas ir līdz brīdim Denver muzejs brīvprātīgais Barbara Bartell sākās inventarizēt kodes uz viņas īpašumu netālu no Golden Gate Canyon State Park Rocky Mountain priekšējā diapazonā. Vairāk nekā 8000′ šie kodes izrādīties regulārs apmeklētājs pie viņas rokas Melnā, un tagad mums ir lielākā sērijas pazīstams no šī apdullināšanu sugas (un visi lieliski kurators!).
Leave it to Denver to combine two things perfect for this blog – entomology and skepticism! If you haven’t seen these clips then take a second to watch the video above. At the very least this appears to be a real phenomenon, camera crews from the news station were able to record the very same effect. So what could they be?
I had an instantaneous recognition of what these UFOs were – flying insects, probably flies of some kind (Diptera) mating in the warm afternoon sun. It has been nice here in Denver and the hours around 1pm are always the warmest (strangely the same time the “UFOs” are most active). But it’s hard to tell with any degree of certainty what these objects are because of the way thatKDVR shows the clips. Odd angles, 2 second flashes, fast forward, super slow motion, super contrast… you only have fractions of a second to see the clip in real time. But when you do it seems so very obvious – and in my professional opinion – that these are insects.
Unfortunately they now have a quote from a Denver entomologist, Mary Ann Hamilton (misspelled as Mart on the KDVR website), saying these are not insects. Facepalm. I don’t know Mary and I certainly can’t blame her for being uncertain as to what these are after staring at the footage over and over and over again. In my opinion it was too hasty to rule out insects. Especially because once you enhance… enhance… un ENHANCEthe footage you being to lose all track of reality. The camera footage has recordedveryout of focus insects, and the very nature of optics means you have lost most of the information outside of the depth of field. And so enlarging and slowing down these images only makes this problem infinitely worse. The pixels become too large to render any meaningful information and an effect known aspareidoliastarts to kick in. Our brains start jumbling together often meaningless data into something recognizable. This is why people see a face on Mars, or rocket boosters coming out of the butts of these insects flying over Denver. And I don’t blame Mary for looking at some of these shiny objects whipping around in weird directions and not seeing insects. But perhaps KDVR could have requested an interview with someone at the Denver Museum (which they did not) – they would have been given an entomologist with much more field experience. I can’t say Mary is unqualified and I don’t mean any disrespect to her, but I don’t believe running a butterfly house is the same thing as being an active research entomologist.
This video is pretty excellent for explaining insect UFOs – although these are much larger insects than the ones captured above Denver.
And check out this cool video of a Syrphidae fly hovering in the sun – imagine these out of focus and hurtling around in front of the camera…
That summer sure flew by, and I have to admit that being unemployed really, patiešāmturned my productivity into crap. But the good news is that I’ve just relocated to Denver for a job in entomology at theDabas un Denver muzejs Science! I’ll be working on databasing and photographing insects for the Southwest Collections of Arthropods Network (SCAN). It’s wonderful to be back to work and I’m feeling a lot more blogging coming on… not to mention this is one of the most amazing ecoregions in the United States. I am already plotting lots of ways to take advantage of these mountains in the spring.
So why not take a brief tour of my new office through the looking glass of creationist wackos. It’s nice to remind myself why I love talking about science.
Pirmdiena kožu izplūdušo rozā – includens (Saturniidae). Šie sārtiem kļavu kodes ir diezgan izplatīta Illinois dienvidu, bet vienmēr stunner, kad tie nāk gaismā.
Not an uncommon moth, but a distinguished looking one. This isCatocala ilia (Erebidae) ((formerly Noctuidae)), and it feeds on a handful of Oaks. It came into my light over the weekend in Southern Illinois, down in the Trail of Tears State Forest. As with so many other moths this widespread species has a number of variations which may turn out to be distinct – pending a monograph of the species…
I’ve now banked a handful of nice moth images so expect more Monday moths! (even though this is a Friday moth).
Vietējās ziņas par lielāko daļu austrumu ASV un Kanādu ir aflutter (ir) nesen ar ziņojumiem iebrukums no Vanessa Atalanta – Red Admiral tauriņš. Lai gan tas ir bieži sastopami ik pavasari šie tauriņi migrēt uz ziemeļiem no saviem ziemojošo iemesliem dienvidu ASV, milzīgais skaits šogad ir satriecoša. Ir diezgan burtiski tūkstošiem Admirals mūsu atpakaļ pagalmos.
Tātad, kas ir atšķirīgs šogad?
Ir daudz spekulāciju par siltā pavasara laika apstākļiem (siltākā marta rekords daudzviet) un bieži vien daudz dezinformācija iet kopā ar kādu krēslā entomoloģija. Lielākā daļa no ziņu avotiem, es esmu nāk pāri saka siltu pavasari ļāva šos tauriņus attīstīties un vairoties nenormālos numuriem. Tas nav gluži iespējams, tomēr, V. Atalanta overwinters kā pieaugušo. Dienvidu valstis nodrošina temps tikai silts pietiekami pieaugušo Vanesa tauriņi slēpt rudenī, un ir pats pirmais modināt pavasarī, lai iegūtu lēkt sākums pārošanos. Pat ja tauriņi bija nomodā februārī saimniekaugus vēl nebija pat (dadžus); tauriņi mūsu pagalmos ir no pagājušā gada.
Bet ko tad, ja laika apstākļi darīja nozīme šajā boom ciklā? Pagājušais gads bija La Niña gadu ar mūsu skaisto un silto ziemu. Gadu pirms bija El Ninjo, lielākā daļa no austrumu ASV tika uzbruka ar ziemu, un mēs cieta rokās episkā Chicago “sniegpokalipse”. Varbūt šī kombinācija nomākts iedzīvotāju skaits pietiekami 2010/2011 kas pēc tam samazinājās parazitārā slodzi, pieļaujot lielāku kopējo tauriņš auglību vasarā 2011. Šie ziemojošo tauriņi tam tika piešķirta siltā ziema, kas varētu būt ļāva par zemāku ziemas mirstība. Kā tauriņi pārcēlās uz ziemeļiem šopavasar nebija salts naktis, lai sagriež populācijām – tikai daudz izsalkušo putnu. Rezultāts būtu nenormāls pieplūdums migrējošo tauriņu.
Today’s moth is an understated brown Crambidae, Loxostege brunneitincta. While this isn’t a particularly captivating moth it does have an interesting story that illustrates the need for scientific collections and museum loans. If you read the label image you will notice the moth was originally collected in 1927 autors E. Lpp. Van Duzeein Truckee, PIEMĒRAM,. Van Duzee was a noted Hemipterist and a curator at the California Academy of Sciences for 24 years until his death in 1940. His collections of bugs (in the literal sense) alone totaled164,442 paraugi, and like many entomologists Van Duzee collected everything he came across and likely added another 100,000 specimens to the museum of groups he wasn’t even studying. And so this little brown moth remained in the CAS until the 1970’s whenEugene Munroeborrowed specimens for his work on the genusLoxostege.The resulting 1976 fascicle described this species as new to science and even used this specimen as an illustration in the book. If you’re unfamiliar with the term paratype it’s a specimen from the series (excluding the holotype) that was used to describe that species. And while this particular moth doesn’t seem to be abundant, the genus does have some more notorious pests like the southern beet and alfalfawebworms. More often than not the pets themselves are well known but the genera they belong to might be enigmatic. But thanks in part to Van Duzee and many entomologists like him, Munroe was able to assemble a collection of specimens that would have taken decades (if not longer) to gather. And only with a sufficient collection is a comprehensive assessment of species possible.
Uz ņiprs 37 grāds rītu Ziemeļu Illinois es nolēmu, lai putekļu pie manu kameru un izpētīt progresu “pavasaris”. I hitRollins Savanna Forest Preserveautors 6:30uz, tieši laikā, lai pirmo reizi gaisma, lai izkausētu fragmentāra sals. A week and a half ago temps were pushing the upper 80’s and summer felt in full swing. In typical Chicago fashion things didn’t last long, the weather returned to its fickle spring form with storms and (what now seemed like) bitter cold.
Despite a 3 hour hike I only came across one butterfly – a red admiral, Vanessa Atalanta, and about a half-dozen dog ticks (Dermacentor sp.). Beggars can’t be choosers, there was hardly a single insect out. I might as well take photos of birds…
The very first and most abundant birds were the Tree Swallow, Tachycineta bicolor. These two were just greeting the dawn and stretching out their little legs. They seemed to be rather patient subjects, a good first-bird-to-ever-photograph!
A prairie isn’t complete without a chorus of Redwinged-Blackbirds.
Despite my best efforts this is one of the better Sandhill Crane images I could get. If you click through my Flickr set you’ll find one more, but sneaking up on them in the marsh was rather difficult. I don’t get birds yet…
This Coyote let me get pretty close, looks like they are fed well in suburbia.
Atpakaļ uz pirmdiena Moth! Šī skaistā kukaiņu ir Štīrija dyari (Noctuidae) vākti par gada februāra braucienu ārpus Cataviña, Baja California Meksika. Es uzskatu, ka saimniekaugus vēl nav zināms, bet visas kodes ģints Štīrija ir šīs izcili dzelteni forewings kas palīdz maskēties uz stublāja dzeltenu ziedošajā auga. Ir 7 Pašlaik aprakstītās vairums no kuras sugas ir atrodami SW ASV un ziemeļu Meksikā, bet Štīrijas rugifrons padara to par lielo līdzenumu. Visas sugas ir vāji definēts un bieži pārklājas diapazonu, nemaz nerunājot dzimumorgāniem var ļoti mainīgas. Tas ir ļoti iespējams, pēdējais vārds nav rakstīts par šiem skaistajiem noctuids diezgan vēl.
Back from hiatus and back to the Genius of the Press insect-news-failure series! Fresh off the presses from last year, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the UK was shut down for a massive infestation of clothes moths. The picture shown here from“The Nation” story is a far cry from a proper clothes moth (Tineidae) – looks like a Noctuidae of some kind.
But it’s hard to blame them for getting this moth wrong when UK pest control companies don’t even know what a clothes moth is. Here isInstakil’s version no “the moth” that happens to be a Plusiinae noctuid.
And the winner for failed identification goes to this other UK company “Hawk Force“. Not even a moth – but a skipper butterfly!
