insects
grrlscientist | June 25, 2009Usually, I complain that I get less than what I've paid for, especially because I try to live frugally, which is difficult after the nearby 99-cent store burnt down recently. That unfortunate event means that all my expenses for food, cleaning supplies and other stupid items that I need -- like a bucket to catch the water leaking from underneath my sink because the landlord won't fix it and I lack the tools to fix it myself -- now cost significantly more than they did just a short time ago.
Significantly more.
But today, when I was eating my meagre dinner of Progresso Chicken and Wild Rice…
edyong | June 25, 2009You've got to feel sorry for the female seed beetle. Whenever she mates with a male, she has to contend with his spiked, nightmarish penis (remember this picture?). And despite the damage that it inflicts, one liaison just isn't enough; female seed beetles typically mate with many males before they lay their eggs. Surely, she must benefit in some way?
The most likely idea is that she somehow ensures that her eggs are fertilised by sperm from males with the "best" genes - those that either make for particularly fit and healthy young, or that are a compatible match for the female's own genes.…
clock | June 22, 2009I am pretty sure it's a true bug (i.e., I am not being sloppy by calling just any ole' insect a bug). I got as close as I could with my iPhone, but the lighting was bad. This is on my porch and the bug is really large - about 1 inch in length of the body.
So, what is it?
awild | June 22, 2009For those of you accessible to central Illinois, I will be hosting a free insect photography workshop next Sunday at the University of Illinois Pollinatarium. The workshop is offered in celebration of the 3rd annual National Pollinator Week. Details are as follows:
Insect Photography Workshop
Free to the public
2:00 pm, June 28th, 2009
at the University of Illinois Pollinatarium (map)
Bring your camera, as this is a participatory event!
awild | June 21, 2009dawn in the scrub
I spent last week in central Florida at the Archbold Biological Station.
Archbold preserves 5,000 hectares of Florida sand scrub, some of the last remaining patches of an ecosystem now largely lost to agriculture and strip malls. The sand scrub is an odd place, a fossil beach from when sea levels were high enough to restrict peninsular Florida to a narrow sandbar. Water runs right through the coarse sand, leaving the scrub looking much like a desert in spite of regular afternoon rains. Cacti thrive. It is a paradoxical place.
The scrub is also remarkable for…
edyong | June 18, 2009
Social insects like ants, bees and wasps are some of the most successful animals on the planet. By acting as large super-organisms, they can achieve things that larger singular creatures cannot.
Their astounding selflessness is driven by an unusual way of handing down their genes, which means that females actually have more genes in common with their sisters than they do with their own daughters. And that makes them more likely to put the good of their colony sisters over their own reproductive legacy.
The more related the workers are to each other, the more willing they will be to co-…
edyong | June 15, 2009
In 1979, somewhere in Dartmoor, a butterfly died. That would hardly have been an exceptional event, but this individual was a Large Blue butterfly (Maculinea arion) and it was the last of its kind in the United Kingdom. Over more than a century, the Large Blue's population had been declining and it was finally declared nationally extinct 30 years ago.
Now, it's back. A bold conservation effort managed to work out the factors behind the butterfly's decline, and resurrect this vanished species. The Large Blue's reintroduction has been one of conservation's flagship successes and it was the…
bioephemera | June 14, 2009
Curious Expeditions has a great interview with Jennifer Angus, the artist who recently redecorated the Newark Museum's Victorian Ballentine House with dead insects in an installation called "Insecta Fantasia." Wow!
The Museum restored the elegant abode to its original dark wood and horror vaccui (fear of empty space) style. This fear of empty space is often seen in Victorian homes - pictures covering every inch of wall, furniture and carpets covering all available floor space, murals and moulding on the ceilings, objects crowding every surface, elaborate window coverings and stained glass in…
grrlscientist | June 9, 2009tags: The Ant Whisperer, ants, hymenoptera, pheromones, EO Wilson, behavioral ecology, sociobiology, evolution, streaming video
Because I do not own a television, I was thrilled to find that Lord of the Ants, the Nova program that aired on PBS tonight, is freely available as a streaming video. This program describes some of EO Wilson's amazing discoveries about ant communication, behavioral ecology and evolution [52:23]
grrlscientist | June 9, 2009tags: The Ant Whisperer, ants, hymenoptera, pheromones, EO Wilson, behavioral ecology, sociobiology, evolution, streaming video
If I owned a television, you can bet I'd be watching this Nova program on PBS tonight: The Lord of the Ants. This program describes some of EO Wilson's amazing discoveries about ant communication, behavioral ecology and evolution [3:40]
edyong | June 7, 2009Where there are plants, there are almost certainly aphids feeding on them. These ubiquitous insects are banquets for many predators, and some have evolved incredible defences against them. The cabbage aphid, for example, is a walking bomb.
Its body carries two reactive chemicals that only mix when a predator attacks it. The injured aphid dies. But in the process, the chemicals in its body react and trigger an explosion that delivers lethal amounts of poison to the predator, saving the rest of the colony.
The aphids' chemical weapons are stolen from the plants they eat. Far from being…
awild | May 29, 2009Who says we can't have both beetles and Pheidole on Friday?
A South African Sap Beetle (Nitidulidae) reacts to a swarm of Pheidole megacephala by retracting its legs and antennae, leaving little exposed but smooth chitin. The ants have difficulty finding anything their mandibles can grab, even if they have the tank-like beetle surrounded.
photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS 20D
ISO 100, 1/250 sec, f13, flash diffused through tracing paper
awild | May 28, 2009
A queen and worker Argentine ant, Linepithema humile, pose for a photograph near Córdoba, Argentina.
photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS 20D
ISO 100, 1/250 sec, f13, flash diffused through tracing paper
awild | May 26, 2009
Ectatomma brunneum, Argentina
photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS 20D
ISO 100, 1/250 sec, f13, flash diffused through tracing paper
awild | May 22, 2009Astylus atromaculatus (Melyridae), Argentina
The spotted maize beetle Astylus atromaculatus is native to subtropical South America but has spread to warm regions in other parts of the world. In late summer, adults congregate on flowers to mate and feed on pollen.
photo details (all photos): Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS 20D
ISO 100, 1/250 sec, f/11-f13, flash diffused through tracing paper
awild | May 20, 2009
I photographed this weird...sluggy thing, I guess you could say, in an ant nest in subtropical Argentina.Â
Ten points to the first person who picks what it is.
awild | May 20, 2009
In California, the pesty ant that invaded our kitchen was the Argentine ant (Linepithema humile). In Tucson, we had South American rover ants (Brachymyrmex patagonicus). Here in Illinois, our kitchen ant is a native species, Tapinoma sessile. At any given moment we probably have two or three wandering about our countertops.
The common name for this small brown insect is the Odorous House Ant, a reference to both the strong blue-cheesy odor these ants emit when crushed and to their habit of foraging indoors for food. They don't normally nest indoors, though, they prefer to be outdoors…
awild | May 19, 2009
The summer insect season is upon us here in temperate North America, and with it comes the need for good identification guides.
Before I begin, a cautionary note. We have so many species on our continent that were we to create a bird-type guide that listed all the insects, with their ranges and identifying characteristics, the full set would span at least 30 volumes.  Any book small enough to carry into the field necessarily omits more than 95% of the relevant animals. Insect guides are understandably neurotic and overwhelmed compared to the corresponding bird and plant guides, and it…
awild | May 19, 2009I took my shiny new Canon 50D out for a spin this weekend, and along the railroad tracks I found a worthy myrmecological subject: Crematogaster feeding at the swollen nectaries of an Ailanthus Tree of Heaven. Ailanthus is an introduced Asian tree that's gone weedy across much of North America. Our local ants don't seem to mind, though, it's extra snack food for them.