Måndag mal

ANSWER: This wasn’t easybut this large and beautiful moth was from Australia and is in the family Xyloryctidae (Philarista sp.). We have a handful of representatives of this group here in the US and Ted MacRae over on Beetles in the Bush has a few great photographs of them. Somehow I think we . . . → Läs mer: Måndag mal

Måndag mal

Chiricahua multidentata (Mätare)

This Monday’s moth is a spectacular species from the mountains of ArizonaChiricahua multidentata, a Geometrid. The only known location for this species is at the very top of the Chiricahua mountains above 9,000 fot (which was just bruned to a crisp). Hopefully the fire was not . . . → Läs mer: Måndag mal

Måndag mal

I’ll keep the ball rolling with Arctiinae and post a photo today of Ctenucha brunnea. This moth can be common in tall grasses along beaches from San Francisco to LAalthough in recent decades the numbers of this moth have been declining with habitat destruction and the invasion of beach grass (Ammophila arenaria). Men . . . → Läs mer: Måndag mal

Måndag mal

Jag kommer att hålla bollen i rullning med denna serie och försöka göra det mer regelbunden. Jag kommer också att fokusera på att lyfta fram en ny art varje vecka från de massiva samlingar här på California Academy of Sciences. Detta bör ge mig tillräckligt med material för… åtminstone ett par hundra år.

Gram . . . → Läs mer: Måndag mal

Richard Branson är en idiot

 

Source: Wikipedia

It turns out that Richard Branson has a new idea; to save the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) by importing them to his private British Virgin Island. As the article points out Branson spent millions of pounds and years of effort to turn the island intothe most ecologically . . . → Läs mer: Richard Branson är en idiot

Mystery Revelaed

OK – några ursäkter för att inte ha fulla bilder * ännu * av larverna i fråga (Det gör jag om några dagar!). Under helgen var jag ute med en grupp Berkeley-studenter på Mount Hamilton och doktorand Meghan Culpepper samlade några arter av Scaphinotus och några larver! Så exemplaret . . . → Läs mer: Mystery Revelaed

Estimates of Global Species Diversity

This recent article in the American Naturalist has taken a second look at some of the famously inflated species estimates, some going high as 100 million (Erwin, 1988). Estimates conducted by the authors indicate that projections above 30 million have probabilities of <0.00001. Their estimated range is more likely to be between 2.5 och . . . → Läs mer: Estimates of Global Species Diversity

Aquamoth del 3

A continuation of the aquamoth series, this time with video from Science Friday! Ja, I have to link it because wordpress won’t embedThanks Ted, figured it out!

Aquamoth del 2

Jag kom över hela PDF-filen av amfibiemalartikeln och extraherade trädet som visar strålningen från denna artgrupp och den troliga utvecklingen av de amfibiska egenskaperna. Intressant att notera fallets form, och varje nattfjäril är endemisk till sin egen vulkan i Hawaiis skärgård.

This is a Bayesian analysis of . . . → Läs mer: Aquamoth del 2

Aquamoth!

Another amazing animal from Hawaiia completely amphibious caterpillar (published in the March 22 PNAS). While there are a few aquatic Lepidoptera, all of them have gills that keep them restricted to the water (mind you, we are talking only about the larval stage). If their stream dries up, so does the caterpillar. . . . → Läs mer: Aquamoth!