Andy Deans over at the NCSU insect blog surveys the madness of state insects.
Arizona is thankfully immune to the bizarre tendency of states to pick imported species, as if the tens of thousands of naturally-occurring species weren't quite good enough. Ours is the two-tailed swallowtail (photo by Jeffrey Glassberg):
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While visiting Two Ponds, a wildlife refuge here in Arvada, I captured these wonderful butterfly images, earlier today:
A two-tailed tiger swallowtail (Papilio multicaudata) feeding on a showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa) blossom, along the banks of Little Dry Creek.
And a few more: (Click on any…
Andy Deans of NCSU rightly rakes ASU over the coals for their Ugly Bugs contest:
Denigrating insect species, broadly labeled here as bugs does a disservice to those of us who fight daily to convince a skeptical public...
My backyard is currently a hive of activity. It’s just past 3pm here in Tempe and the temperature is about 96 degrees. As a break from grading, I’m sitting on my back patio watching the avian world unfold. A splendid male Great-tailed Grackle (Quicalus mexicanus) has been noisily courting two…
I was struck by this paper that came out in the Journal of Child Neurology, looking back at previous study of mercury levels in autistic children. DeSoto and Hitlan looked back at Ip et al. 2004, a case control study that compared the blood and hair levels of mercury in children with autism to…
In general, I think this trend toward having an official state everything has gone too far. Don't state legislatures have better things to do? Still, if we are going to have all manner of state flora and fauna, legislators should stick to native species .
Sign me,
A resident of one of the many honeybee states.