Given my interest in Entomology and Arachnology, you can imagine how pumped I was when I saw the photo below first thing this morning!
It looks to me like a bug kaleidoscope
(Image: Fleur Alston)
Spring is here. Can the creepy crawlers be far off?
Tag Archives: Insects
The 3 S’s… Star. Smile. Strong!
Broadway Danny Rose’s 3 S’s… Star. Smile. Strong!
(© Hasan Baglar)
“If you take my advice, I think you’re going to become one of the great preying mantis dance acts of all time. Really.”
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Timing is Everything!
Here are some incredible photographs…
that were taken at exactly the right moment!
What I hate most about the digital cameras I’ve used…
Is that there is a one-second delay…
From the time you press the shutter release button…
Until the time the camera takes the shot.
This means that you always capture the moment…
Exactly one second after the one you meant to take!
Very frustrating.
It’s like you’ve had something stolen from you!
Nature’s Show-Offs!
Now matter where you go…
Now matter what group or category…
There’s always that one…
The one that can’t seem to leave well enough alone…
The one that just has to go that extra step too far.
The world of Nature is no different…
Whether birds…
Or fish…
Or insects…
Or amphibians…
There’s one in every crowd.
Some show off in an obvious manner…
Others are subtle show-offs.
Some show off au naturel…
Some employ aids…
And some just go all out in terms of colour.
Thank goodness for the show-offs!
They keep making the world interesting…
And fun!
Lots of fun!
Casting a Fire Ant Colony with Molten Aluminum
Casting a Fire Ant Colony with Molten Aluminum
Heads up, my little geeks and nerdlings.
An amazing sculpture is made by pouring molten aluminum into a fire ant colony.
The resulting cast is huge, weighing 17.9 lbs. and reaching a depth of 18 inches.
Amazing!
Check them out on YouTube and Facebook and at the Anthill Art website!
Call Me, Maybe?
Hey, I just met you…
And this is crazy…
But here’s my number…
I’ll eat you maybe!
Zombie Facts: Real and Imagined (Infographic)
Thanks to the wonderful geeks and nerdlings over at LiveScience.com for the following infographic and article.
Zombies, à la The Walking Dead, don’t exist in the real world, but they have been a big part of pop culture and show up time and again in history and folklore.
As portrayed in the classic 1968 film “Night of the Living Dead,” zombies are lumbering, flesh-eating corpses. Some say this film reinvented zombies, who were shown in earlier films such as 1932’s “White Zombie” as “beings whose brains had been zapped by some ‘master’ who was then able to control their actions,” according to the University of Michigan website.
Zombies are even mentioned in Haitian folklore, with the Haitian word “zombi” meaning “spirit of the dead.” These tales showed voodoo priests who had the ability to resurrect the deceased through the administration of a magic powder. And according to legend, “In Haiti a zombi is someone who has annoyed his or her family and community to the degree that they can no longer stand to live with this person. They respond by hiring a Bokor, a vodoun priest who practices black magic and sorcery, to turn them into a zombi,” according to the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has jumped on the zombie bandwagon, with a post on their website in May 2011 entitled “Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse.” The post, a tongue-in-check way to promote real disaster preparedness, went viral that week.
Of course, the CDC was not suggesting we need to worry about zombies. “If you’re prepared for the zombie apocalypse, you’re also prepared for hurricanes and flooding,” said CDC spokesperson Dave Daigle at the time. Another scientific endeavor, by the Oxford Internet Institute, visualized in map form the global distribution of Google Maps references to “zombies.”
While no scientific evidence suggests human zombies exist, there are plenty of zombies in the animal kingdom.
Recent research in a Thai rain forest showed how a parasitic fungi, a species of Ophiocordyceps, forces an infected ant to wander drunkenly over the forest’s low leaves before clamping its jaws around the main vein on the underside of a leaf in an ant-zombie graveyard. [Mind Control: Gallery of Zombie Ants]
By watching 16 infected ants bite down, the researchers, who describe their findings in the journal BMC Ecology, found that the ants’ last bites took place around Noon, indicating they are synchronized to either the sun or a related cue, like temperature or humidity. Another study found the fungus not only guided timing of death but also the zombie ant’s whereabouts, on the undersides of leaves sprouting from the northwest side of plants that grow on the forest floor. That’s where temperature, humidity and sunlight are ideal for the fungus to grow and reproduce and infect more ants.
Zombie caterpillars have also been spotted by scientists, with one study revealing the mastermind behind the gypsy moth caterpillar’s zombie-like run for treetops once infected with a virus. Turns out, a single gene in the virus turns the caterpillars into tree-climbing zombies. Once up high in the trees, the caterpillars die and their bodies liquefy, raining deadly “zombie” virus onto their brothers and sisters below.
What’s worse than seagulls? Drunken rowdy seagulls!
This report just in from that bastion of scientific research journalism, the Bristol Post!
As if these pests aren’t pesky enough, now they’re getting hammered and causing a ruckus!
(No, not drunk on beer like your average yobbo!)
It seems the local shithawks in Devon county, southwest England, are getting wasted, acting loutishly and attacking people.
Bet you can’t guess how!
A new theory explaining an increase in seagull attacks has been found – they are getting drunk on flying ants.
(Yummy!)
Scientists say gulls’ behaviour is getting worse because the hot temperatures have seen a massive boom in the insects, specifically flying ants, upon which gulls feed.
The ants then turn to formic acid in their stomachs and act like alcohol – causing the gulls to lose inhibitions around humans and brazenly steal food.
(Fighting over food. The gull seems to be getting the better of this battle)
They are left so tipsy the gulls have been seen flying straight into buildings and into the paths of moving cars.
(“I’m king of the world! D’OH!”)
Residents in Ilfracombe, Devon, recently reported being swooped on by the sloshed seabirds and, at first, presumed they were protecting their nests.
But they sensed something was wrong when the birds started flying into buildings and into the paths of cars.
Yeah, that’s usually a good clue.
At any rate, high heat is usually to blame for the increased flying ants so hopefully, things will calm down at summer’s end.
Hawkmoths Use Genital Ultrasound to Combat Bats
Put this in the “Yew jus’ cain’t make this stuff up” file.
Yes, my little geeks and nerdlings, the boys and girls over at ScienceDaily.com have done it again.
Hawkmoths Use Ultrasound to Combat Bats
For years, pilots flying into combat have jammed enemy radar to get the drop on their opponents. It turns out that moths can do it, too.
A new study co-authored by a University of Florida researcher [1] shows hawkmoths use sonic pulses from their genitals… yes, you read that correctly, their genitals… to respond to bats producing the high-frequency sounds, possibly as a self-defense mechanism to jam the echolocation ability of their predators.
(Oleander Hawk Moth – Daphnis Nerii)
Echolocation research may be used to better understand or improve ultrasound as a vital tool in medicine, used for observing prenatal development, measuring blood flow and diagnosing tumors, among other things. The study appears online today in the journal Biology Letters.
For those of you who may find scientific journal reports a bit too dry and nerdy, NowMSN.com puts the story more succinctly…
Moth species uses its genitals to annoy the hell out of bats!
“Researchers have just discovered that the spiny-legged Hawkmoth uses its genitals to throw loud blasts of ultrasound at bats. Both male and female moths will rub their genitalia against their abdomen to produce the sound, which scientists think either serve as a warning to potential predators (“Hey, you think this is annoying, wait until you see our spiked legs”) or to “jam” the bats’ own sonar. “[This] is a really good strategy for insects to deploy,” ecologist Jesse Barber said.”
I told you you couldn’t make this stuff up!
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[1] Akito Kawahara, assistant curator of Lepidoptera at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Journal Reference:
- J. R. Barber, A. Y. Kawahara. Hawkmoths produce anti-bat ultrasound. Biology Letters, 2013; 9 (4): 20130161 DOI:10.1098/rsbl.2013.0161
Clown Spider
Saw this on Facebook the other day.
I thought I was going to plotz!
Vampyre Fangs 