insects
grrlscientist | October 8, 2007tags: mystery insects, bugs, Image of the Day
The photographer writes: I was wondering if you might wish to post an unknown bug that showed here in Charlottesville.
Context: My Mom's also down here in C-ville. Outside her house, she has a hydrangea (sp?) bush. This bush was invaded by shoots of some unknown weed. The shoots were in turn mobbed by the yellow critters in the picture. Besides hardly looking bilateral, these things were also twitching alarmingly. Perhaps a reader can identify them?
Image: David Harmon. [bigger size]
My guess: Aphids.
grrlscientist | October 5, 2007tags: butterflies, pupa, insects, Central Park, Image of the Day
Can you identify the species?
Image: Bob Levy, author of Club George. [Wallpaper size]
The photographer writes; I found this Pupa practitioner of the Yoga arts working out at Turtle Pond in Central Park. Definitely do not try this pose yourself. I suppose the acrobats among you -- especially among those more athletically inclined and adventurous Parrot Pals -- might try for the same result with his or her teeth provided, of course they are not dentures or implants, but for all others I strongly recommend you give it a pass.
grrlscientist | October 4, 2007tags: blog carnivals, Carnival of the Spineless, invertebrates
It has come to my attention that the latest edition of the Carnival of the Spineless is now available for you to enjoy. Remember that the majority of life on earth consists of living creatures that lack a spine, so there is a great deal of information out there for you to read and learn from.
grrlscientist | September 27, 2007tags: lepidoptera, moths, Melanchroia chephise, White-Tipped Black Geometrid, Image of the Day
White-Tipped Black Geometrid, Melanchroia chephise, Houston, Texas.
A diurnal moth, this one was photographed on the Katy Prairie NABA Butterfly Count about 30 miles NW of downtown Houston, Texas, on September 3, 2007.
Image: Biosparite [larger view].
This is a White-tipped Black Geometrid, Melanchroia chephise, although it resembles some of the wasp mimics in the Tiger Moth Family. [read more about it]
grrlscientist | September 26, 2007tags: hymenoptera, bees, Augochlora species, Metallic Green Native Bee, Image of the Day
Metallic Green Native Bee, Augochlora species.
This tiny and very fast-moving, alert bee is hard to photograph. I found it nectaring on Eupatorium serotinum, a/k/a late-flowering boneset, in the West 11th Street Park in the Heights section of Houston, Texas, on September 23, 2007.
Image: Biosparite [larger view].
The Green Metallic Bee in the genus Augochlora, in the Halictid Family. According to the Audubon Guide: the "Female digs nest of many branching burrows in dead wood or uses pre-existing…
grrlscientist | September 25, 2007tags: book review, entomology, insects, household pests, Joshua Abarbanel, Jeff Swimmer
I am dismayed to reveal that my apartment is home to uncounted numbers of freeloaders. In fact, every evening, when I turn the lights on, I witness these tiny marauders' mad dash for the cracks in the walls and the space under the refrigerator. I am talking about the East Coast plague: cockroaches. You know; vile, disgusting, nearly ubiquitous bugs. However, I feel much better knowing that everyone's home, regardless of how sterile it is, is occupied by a vast collection of invertebrate roommates. In fact…
grrlscientist | September 25, 2007tags: odonata, dragonflies, wandering glider, Pantala flavescens, Image of the Day
Wandering glider, Pantala flavescens. Houston, Texas.
Image: Biosparite [wallpaper size].
mikethemadbiologist | September 7, 2007We don't know if the virus is the causal agent, but a recent Science paper used a metagenomics approach to find that bees from colonies that have collapsed are infected with a virus (and it's the same virus in different colonies). Essentially, the researchers ground up bees, sequenced the whole mess, and using previous genome data, subtracted out the genome of the honey bees.
What was left were some bacterial symbionts, and in the failing colonies, a virus. From the BBC:
But in 2004, beekeepers began seeing and reporting a new and serious phenomenon, in which entire colonies would desert…
clock | August 29, 2007One cool thing about being a blogging biologist is that one can write every day about sex with a straight face and then blame readers for "having a dirty mind". But sex is so interesting - life would cease to exist without it and it is a central question in biology, so we have a license, nay, duty, to write about it all the time. We get all blase about it, I guess, compared to "normal people". ;-)
One cool story that revolves around sex is making the rounds of the science blogosphere today. Jake Young explains in seemingly dry scientific language:
This issue has spawned a variety of weird…
grrlscientist | August 3, 2007tags: Widow Skimmer, Libella luctuosa, dragonfly, Image of the Day
A male Widow Skimmer, Libella luctuosa, photographed in July on Konza Prairie.
This is one of the "King Skimmers", and is found across much of the USA except for Florida, the Rockies, and the intermountain West. Dragonflies are territorial and return to the same perch quite often, which made photographing this one relatively easy. I have a friend, Mark Chappell, who is up to the challenge of photographing dragonflies in flight.
Image: Dave Rintoul, KSU [larger]
grrlscientist | August 2, 2007tags: leafcutter bee, Megachile wheeleri, Gaillardia pulchra, Image of the Day
Leafcutter Bee, Megachile wheeleri, pollinating Gaillardia pulchra, White Oak Bayou along E. T.C. Jester Blvd.
Contrast the leafcutter bee that visits the wild sunflowers. Native bees are specialists, while European honeybees will whore for any flower that offers a reward.
Image: Biosparite [larger]
grrlscientist | July 31, 2007tags: Wheel Bug, Arilus cristatus, Image of the Day
Wheel Bug, Arilus cristatus, a late-instar nymph.
[Here are a couple pictures of] the Wheel Bug, also taken in the last week. The critter (a member of the Assassin Bug family, Reduviidae) is named for the gear-wheel structure on its thorax; only the adults have this structure (see adult, below the fold). That nasty-looking beak, which is more visible on the image of a late-instar nymph can inflict significant damage if it pokes you. I have never been bitten, but descriptions of the bite include "ten times worse than a hornet sting" and "…
grrlscientist | July 30, 2007tags: Rhododendron Leafhopper, Graphocephala fennahi, Image of the Day
I noticed you have been featuring insect images regularly on the blog. [This is] a pic of a Rhododendron Leafhopper, Graphocephala fennahi, that I took yesterday. These are quite common (but small, about 1/4 inch in length) cicadellids in North America, but have also colonized the UK and continental Europe after they were introduced (accidentally) in the UK about 70 years ago.
Image: David A. Rintoul, KSU [larger]
More about this species below the fold ..
Leafhoppers and their relatives, the cicadas, are insects that…
grrlscientist | July 28, 2007tags: pearl-bordered fritillary, Boloria selene, Image of the Day
Britain's population of pearl-bordered fritillary, Boloria selene, has fallen by two-thirds over the past 30 years, according to Butterfly Conservation. At the start of its Save Our Butterflies Week, the charity has announced the UK's largest project to reverse the decline of woodland species
Image: Robert Thompson [larger]
grrlscientist | July 17, 2007tags: Hoverfly, Image of the Day
Hoverfly nectaring on frogfruit near Anahuac NWR VIS 7-8-07.
This is a much-sharpened picture of a difficult and fast-moving subject. Hoverflies are bee mimics. Notice, however, the big eyes of the fly (q.v., movie "The Fly").
Image: Biosparite
grrlscientist | July 16, 2007
A male Blue Moon or Great Eggfly butterfly, Hypolimnas bolina.
A butterfly-killing bacteria that is only lethal to males has given rise to skewed sex ratios in populations of this species on two islands in the South Pacific, but researchers have found that male butterflies on one island have bounced back, thanks to the rise of a suppressor gene. [larger].
In a dramatic demonstration of how quickly evolution can occur, a butterfly species that is found on two adjacent islands in the South Pacific Ocean has rapidly evolved genetic defenses against a bacterial parasite that is lethal only…
clock | July 11, 2007You really don't want to be an enemy of the aphids - two papers today! The first is quite straightforward:
Aphids Make 'Chemical Weapons' To Fight Off Killer Ladybirds:
Cabbage aphids have developed an internal chemical defence system which enables them to disable attacking predators by setting off a mustard oil 'bomb', says new research. The study shows for the first time how aphids use a chemical found in the plants they eat to emit a deadly burst of mustard oil when they're attacked by a predator, for example a ladybird. This mustard oil kills, injures or repels the ladybird, which then…
grrlscientist | June 1, 2007tags: cyborg-moth, robotics, insects, warfare
Would you think I was talking about a science-fiction novel if I told you that scientists can control the movements of a live moth using a joystick, and this moth was being used to spy on terrorist training camps in the hills of Pakistan? Just imagine; such a moth would be able to sit in a terrorist camp without arousing suspicion, while sending video and other information back to its homebase using a "reliable tissue-machine interface." But hey, apparently, this is not the stuff of science-fiction at all. In fact, this technology is being…
grrlscientist | June 1, 2007tags: body bugs, emerging infections, streaming video
This streaming video shows an astonishing news report about people whose bodies are infected with "bugs"; insects and arthropods. Apparently, there are more and more of these infected people around the country every year, but nothing is being done for them. Instead, they are labeled "crazy" by friends, family and the medical establishment and they are often suicidal due to the pain, shame and helplessness associated with this infection. Why are these mysterious "bugs" infecting their bodies? What can be done to help these people? [5:06].
grrlscientist | May 25, 2007tags: cicada, 17-year cicada, Magicicada
"Cicada"
Image: Wikipedia.
After seventeen years underground, immature cicadas are now emerging as full-fledged adults, ready to breed. Adult cicadas live, feed, and breed above ground for approximately two to six weeks before they die. The dark-colored insects are between one and two inches long with transparent veined wings, prominent red eyes and undeniable acoustic talents: the males produce a tremendously loud courtship song that sounds like a combination of a whirring blender and a lawn mover. Basically, cicadas are the most efficient and…