Might be a day late, but still worth a try. Boo!
Aphonopelma species from Western Texas.
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Tomorrow begins stage 1 of field work/crazy driving and vacation time. I will be focused on collecting for this stage of the trip, hitting southern Texas just in time for the tail end of fall flying moths in the genus Schinia. But microleps are my primary interest, and I’m sure I’ll come back with hundreds of stunning specimens. I’ll be taking as many photos as I can, and I hope to post an update as I hit Chicago just in time for Halloween. Of course if I do see something too incredible, I’ll have to try and post from my cell right away. As for stage II, it will be a visit with my family and friends back in Chicago, and stage III will be a quick drive back to San Francisco across I-80 with fingers crossed to avoid the snow. If anyone is en-route and wants to join me in the field, send me an e-mail! Stay tuned and wish me luck. Share this! One comment - (Comments are closed)  Entomology  Collecting, Entomology, Hazards of Collecting, Moths, Road Trip, Texas This week’s (as if I keep up with this weekly) GOP was sent to me by commenter “Subverted“. Thank you for the contribution! Makes like a whole lot easier, and I strongly encourage future submissions from other readers. For those new to my blog – the Genius of the Press series is a contest to see who can identify the blatant errors of the press. So what’s wrong with the article below? From the pages of Science News:
We get this gem.
Share this!The city I work in happens to be one of the greatest cities in the world – so let me rub it in briefly. Here is a stunning video of the San Francisco Bay captured by a local artist. Make sure to watch in HD, it’s stunning. The Unseen Sea from Simon Christen on Vimeo. Share this!
I came across this interesting device and had an instant gut reaction.. “Of course a stupid water bulb doesn’t repel flies, this is a scam!”… deep breath… OK that is terrible skepticism. Actually, it’s cynical and it’s just what skeptics hate being called. It’s also something that happens much too easily – I’m pretty convinced that ghosts don’t exist, there has been no compelling evidence, ever. But every time I hear a story of a haunting it is far too tempting to just think of a few plausible explanations and dismiss the case without a closer look. And when we do this we give fodder to the credulous investigator who will throw it back in our faces faster than a spirit-orb zipping across a room. Discovering a real ghost for the first time ever is pretty nearly impossible; yet the answer isn’t always the most obvious hypothesis and you can stumble upon a zebra every once in a while. The point is that investigation is the only real way to remain skeptical. Continue reading Call me skeptical… Share this! 8 comments - (Comments are closed) Entomology, Skepticism Bad Science, Entomology, Logical Fallacies, Pests, Scams and Fraud, Skepticism On my daily commute back to Berkeley, I have spotted this (apologies for the cruddy image). Actually, I’ve seen a handful of these pop up around San Francisco and it makes me want to tear my hair out every time. For those who are new to my blog, this goes back to my Genius of the Press X. I’m also not the only one to have noticed this mexican butterfly billboard taxonomy fail.
Share this! 7 comments - (Comments are closed) Entomology Bad Science, Butterflies, Entomology, Mimicry, Taxonomy Fail Wow it’s been a few weeks since my last post, and I’m a bit embarrassed having let it go so long. What have I been up to? Not a whole not. No impressive collecting trips, no new species or discoveries. Actually I’ve been sitting at a microscope dissecting genitalia or databasing parasitic flies. I’ll have to do a followup post to delve into those a bit more… But for now, here is a picture form last August. I was standing on an open stretch of Chihuahuan desert right outside of Douglas Arizona; a whopping one mile from the Mexican border. I arrived that evening with my collecting colleague, microlepidopterist Peter Jump, and we had just set up camp as the roll of thunder grew close. Aside from the extinct cinder-cones surrounding us and an occasional illegal immigrant, we were the only (and highest) thing around for miles. But the lightening was too hard to resist, I need a picture! But I didn’t have a cable release, nor a tripod, or even a good camera. So what to do… I chose the genius option of standing outside for 40 minutes with my Canon point-and-shoot. I missed 99% of every shot I took, while with every passing minute the lightening grew closer. Finally, I stumbled upon this decent image. The storm ended up being brief, we huddle in the car (that you can just make out in the picture) while the lightening approached and it drizzled on us for an hour then moved on. Collecting that night was impressive. There were so many moths in the trap that everything had gotten beaten to bits. I managed to rescue a handful of good specimens, but lesson learned for next time.
Share this!Another not all that difficult GOP challenge, found here from the Scottish TV website. What’s wrong with the story below?
Share this!A short clip from the brilliant show, Quite Interesting. The start of the discussion is in regards to cochineal bugs – although they refer to them as beetles! (see buggirl) Share this!A weekend without moths can lead a lepidopterist to do crazy things. Crazy enough to photograph a spider. Over the weekend I was accompanied to the eastern Sierra by fellow insect blogger, coworker and arachnologist, Tamas Szuts. I was on the quest for more specimens of a new Hepialidae of which you may be familiar with from an earlier post. I heard reports from others that at elevations of 11,000’+ there was still a significant snowpack even by the end of July. I figured the moth may be flying late this year, if at all. I was hoping to catch the end of summer and the moth both in perfect synchronization. Such was not my luck. I awoke on Saturday morning, sat upright, and brushed the frost off of my sleeping bag while desperately willing myself to brave the morning chill. Temps must have been pushing 25 degrees, a sign that autumn had return to the mountains. Two traps, a black light sheet and running around at dusk yielded zero Hepialidae and only ten moths in total (four species). And so I was encouraged by Tamas to actually photograph a non-lep, something that I should do more often. He had joined me eager to not only see the Sierra for the first time, but to find the beautiful Salticidae – Habronattus americanus. This little jumper can be found in the western states in rocky areas above 7,000′. After an hour or two of searching, Tamas finally captured a stunning pair. I must agree that this is a beautiful little spider. Visit his blog (in Hungarian) to see some of his stunning images as well.
Continue reading A Sierran Spider Share this! |
Skepticism |
