I’ve known for a while that beetles and other inverts occasionally have vertebrates on their menu, but I didn’t really know how large of an animal they could subdue! Even when the odd mantis grabs a hummingbird the size difference is not as substantial as is shown below. This impressive video was . . . → Read More: Take that, vertebrates!
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Whoops, it’s almost Tuesday! Above is Schinia ligeae (Noctuidae) resting on its host plant Xylorhiza tortifolia, the Mojave Aster. I photographed this about three weeks ago outside the town of Big Pine, California. The asters were thick in the valleys below the snow capped Sierra, and the moths were abundant. . . . → Read More: Monday Moth Share this! 2 comments - (Comments are closed)  Entomology  Collecting, Entomology, Flowers, Lepidoptera, Moths, Photography OK, not an insect…
For the next three weeks my colleagues from the Arachnology lab at the California Academy of Sciences are in the Philippines! (no, not jealous at all…) The trip is part of the CAS Hearst expedition, a massive effort spanning all of our research departments to survey . . . → Read More: The Arachnologists have landed Share this! 4 comments - (Comments are closed) Entomology California Academy of Sciences, Collecting, Philippines, Spiders
Who can tell me what’s wrong below? Not only is it the obvious photo problem, but the author of the article takes some logical leaps to support his premise. Who can tell me what his logical fallacies are? I won’t link to the entire article quite yet because a well known Lepidopterist has already . . . → Read More: Genius of the Press XVIII Share this! One comment - (Comments are closed) Entomology, Skepticism Contest, Entomology, LBAM, Logical Fallacies, Moths, Skepticism Merope tuber New to the web this week is an excellent resource on the Mecoptera of North America. Dr. Norm Penny has put together an illustrated guide to all the North American species with habitus and genitalia images. While not very diverse, the Mecoptera prove to be an enigmatic and fascinating . . . → Read More: Mecoptera of North America Share this! 4 comments - (Comments are closed) Entomology California Academy of Sciences, Entomology, Identification, Mecoptera
Male – Marin Headlands Like so many other urban animals, the Mission Blue Butterfly (Plebejus icarioides missionensis) is one that is gravely imperiled. This small blue lives in tiny fragments of habitat alongside multi-million dollar development in and around the San Francisco Bay. A century ago this butterfly . . . → Read More: The Mission Blue Butterfly Share this! 3 comments - (Comments are closed) Entomology Butterflies, Conservation, Endangered Species, Lepidoptera, Mission Blue, Photography
Everyone is familiar with the famous death’s head hawkmoth, but I think it’s a shame we have popularized such a grim character. Above is a much more cheery Neotropical Arctiinae from French Guiana that looks like it’s sporting a clown face. Sadly this isn’t my photograph, but . . . → Read More: Sunday Moth Share this! 4 comments - (Comments are closed) Entomology Collecting, France, French Guiana, Lepidoptera, Moths, Photography, Tropics A few weeks ago I was invited to join a Berkeley entomology class out in the field for the weekend. Our destination was the Blue Oak Ranch Reserve; one of the newest reserves to the University of California system located just outside of San Jose on Mount Hamilton (map below). It was a . . . → Read More: Blue Oak Ranch Reserve Share this! Comments are closed Entomology Beetles, Berkeley, Entomology, Moths, Photography, Spiders, University of California OK – a few apologies for not having full images *yet* of the larvae in question (I will in a few days!). Over the weekend I was out with a group of Berkeley students on Mount Hamilton and PhD candidate Meghan Culpepper collected a few species of Scaphinotus and a some larvae! So the specimen . . . → Read More: Mystery Revelaed Share this! One comment - (Comments are closed) Entomology Beetles, Coleoptera, Contest, Entomology, Scaphinotus, Snail, Species
Came across this guy while out in the field the other day, what’s going on here? Points awarded for Order/Family/Genus – but even experts in this group can’t figure out the species quite yet.
(everyone in the field with me should hold . . . → Read More: Monday mystery Share this! |
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