Feliç Halloween!

Might be a day late, but still worth a try. Boo!

Afonopelma species from Western Texas.

De tornada al camp

Demà comença l'etapa 1 del treball de camp / conducció boig i el temps de vacances. Vaig a estar centrat en la recopilació d'aquesta etapa del viatge, hitting southern Texas just in time for the tail end of fall flying moths in the genus Schinia. Però microleps són el meu interès principal, 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.


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Geni de la Premsa XIII

D'aquesta setmana (com si em mantinc al tant d'aquest setmanari) GOP em va ser enviada pel comentarista “Subvertit“. Gràcies per l'aportació! Fa com un conjunt molt més fàcil, i Li recomano a les futures sol · licituds d'altres lectors.

Per a aquells que són nous en el meu 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.

El cap als núvols

La ciutat que treball en passa a ser una de les ciutats més grans del món – així que em frego en breu. Aquest és un impressionant vídeo de la Badia de San Francisco capturat per un artista local. Assegureu-vos de veure en HD, és impressionant.

El mar invisible des de Simon Christen activat Vimeo.

Digueu-me escèptica…

Em vaig trobar amb aquest dispositiu interessant i va tenir una reacció visceral instantània.. “Per descomptat, un bulb hídric estúpid no repel · leix les mosques, això és una estafa!”…

respiració profunda…

Acceptar això és terrible escepticisme. En realitat, és cínica i és just el que els escèptics odien ser cridats. També és una cosa que passa molt amb massa facilitat – Estic bastant convençut que els fantasmes no existeixen, no hi ha hagut cap evidència convincent, mai. Però cada vegada que escolto una història d'un inquietant és massa temptador només pensar en algunes explicacions plausibles i rebutjar el cas sense una mirada més propera. I quan fem això ens donem farratge per a l'investigador crèdul de tirar de nou en les nostres cares més ràpid que un esperit-orbe comprimir a través d'una sala de. El descobriment d'un fantasma de veritat per primera vegada en la història és bastant gairebé impossible; però, la resposta no sempre és la hipòtesi més òbvia i es pot ensopegar amb una zebra de tant en tant. El punt és que la investigació és l'única forma real de romandre escèptics.

Continue reading Call me skeptical

És només que no em deixa en pau

En el meu viatge diari de tornada a Berkeley, He descobert aquest (disculpes per la imatge bruta). En realitat, He vist un grapat d'aquests pop-up al voltant de Sant Francesc i em donen ganes de arrencar els pèls cada vegada que. Per a aquells que són nous en el meu blog, this goes back to my Geni de la premsa X. I’m also not the only one to have noticed this mexican butterfly billboard taxonomy fail.

El temps ha volat

Wow que han passat unes setmanes des del meu últim post, i estic una mica avergonyit d'haver deixar-lo anar tant de temps. Què he estat fent? No és un no a tot. No hi ha impressionants viatges de recol · lecció, cap espècie o descobriments nous. En realitat he estat assegut en un microscopi de dissecció genitals o databasing mosques parasitàries. 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 doI 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. Finalment, 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.

Geni de la Premsa XII

Another not all that difficult GOP challenge, found here from the Scottish TV website. What’s wrong with the story below?

Una mica d'humo britànic(u)r

A short clip from the brilliant show, Quite Interesting. The start of the discussion is in regards to cochineal bugsalthough they refer to them as beetles! (veure buggirl)

Un serren Aranya

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 SalticidaeHabronattus 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