bumblebee
grrlscientist | August 28, 2009tags: bumblebee, Helsinki, Finland, cities, nature
Bumblebee on my hand.
Photographed in Helsinki, Finland.
Image: GrrlScientist, 23 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)
I am sure I must have looked like I was insane when, walking down the sidewalk, I spied this bumblebee sitting on the concrete. I plopped myself down onto my hands and knees on the sidewalk and spent a few minutes nose-to-nose with her, trying to figure out if she was dying because she was hurt or old (or maybe she was just resting?). She looked to be in good repair, so I got her onto my hand to photograph her. It's not…
edyong | February 10, 2009This is the fourth of eight posts on evolutionary research to celebrate Darwin's bicentennial.
Charles Darwin was a visionary in more ways than one. In 1862, Darwin was studying a Malagasy orchid called Angraecum sesquipedale, whose nectar stores lie inaccessibly at the bottom of a 30cm long spur (tube). Darwin predicted that the flower was pollinated by a moth with tongue long enough to raid the spur.
Few people believed him, but in 1903, zoologists discovered Darwin's predicted moth, Xanthopan morgani praedicta, and it did indeed have a very long tongue. Darwin accurately predicted the…