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A once in a lifetime occurrence, a bilateral gynandromorph. In short, a glitch during cell differentiation creates asymmetrical chromosome patterns, which leads to asymmetrical sex expression in the adult insect. If you haven’t clicked the link above, do so, it’s an excellent description with some awesome photos. Back to the butterfly. I . . . → Read More: An Awesome Little Butterfly Share this!Has just been posted over at Beetles in the Bush. Go over and explore the latest moth carnival, a gathering of blogs that have featured moths in one way or another over the last month or so. Share this!News in from India, a butterfly photographer has been kidnapped. A local park official who was visiting the north eastern province Arunachal Pradesh was taken at night by a gang of armed youth-rebels. Efforts to find him have been hampered by the weather and remote terrain. India has recently become one of the most difficult . . . → Read More: The Dangerous Life of a Lepidopterist Share this!It’s good to throw a changeup every one in a while, and this week here is an article that is actually GOOD. Yes, you read it here first, a positive article about entomology collections. We all need a breather after that Fox news fiasco with the Michigan State collection. The Honolulu Magazine does a really . . . → Read More: Genius of the Press, v. VI Share this!For those who are not aware, a new book hit the market at the end of last year. “The Moths of Western North America“, Powell and Opler. At only $95 it’s worth every cent (or $75 for the e-book, but I hate e-books). It’s a remarkable tome and the first of its kind . . . → Read More: To all you Moth-ers Share this!From a peppermint Pericopinae. I recorded this video on-site in northern Costa Rica a few years ago. When I reached down to pick up this moth, it was hard to avoid noticing the behavior. The moth, Chetone angulosa (Erebidae: Pericopina) ((used to be Arctiidae)), has a common defensive mechanism for this group – they . . . → Read More: Moth Perfume Share this! 5 comments - (Comments are closed)  Entomology  Butterflies, Defensive Behavior, Entomology, Hazards of Collecting, Lepidoptera, Moths For the last four weekends now I have been on a goose chase, for one moth, Heliolonche celeris. It’s a beautiful small Noctuidae with pinkish forewings and stunning orange-red hindwings. It isn’t very often encountered and only found along the northern California mountain ranges feeding on Malacothrix floccifera – a CA endemic flower. Every trip . . . → Read More: The Art of a Goose Chase Share this! 10 comments - (Comments are closed) Entomology Entomology, Flowers, Hazards of Collecting, Lepidoptera, Moths, Non-Insects Recently came across some ridiculously horrible taxonomy from China (.pdf). If you scroll down a bit you can see the english translation. At first glance this looks like a standard taxonomy paper with bare-bones species descriptions. You might even think to yourself, “huh, wonder why they are describing species from only one specimen”. Not the . . . → Read More: Taxonomy Fail Share this! 4 comments - (Comments are closed) Entomology Butterflies, Crank, Entomology, Lepidoptera, New Species I’ve just illustrated my method for spreading microlepidoptera, go explore the techniques page. Who is courageous enough to attempt it?
Share this! 4 comments - (Comments are closed) Entomology Collecting, Entomology, Lepidoptera, Moths, Techniques I’ve been busy spreading microleps over the last few days, and here is a small selection from my summer collecting trips. Still have at least another 200 to go before catching up on my backlog. I am working on illustrating just how to spread these moths… so stay tuned. 2009 was a great season. I . . . → Read More: How I keep myself busy Share this! |
Skepticism |
