By Chris Grinter, á 8 September, 2010 Á meðan ég vinn á umfangsmeiri færslu, þú getur kallað þetta fiðrildi – og álverið ætti að vera nokkuð auðvelt líka. Extra bónus ef þú getur giska fylki (Ríkið mun ekki vera of áhrifamikill) þar sem ég tók þessa mynd. Þetta var fyrirfram DSLR, en gamla beat up canon point-and-shoot náði þó nokkrum góðum.
By Chris Grinter, á September 7, 2010 
Sorgleg saga hefur bara gert innreið sína upp úr Belís – á American Crocodile Education Sanctuary has burned to the ground. Við fyrstu sýn þetta var bara óheppileg skýrslu um rannsóknir og varðveislu leikni sem hafði verið týnt í hörmulega eldsvoða. Að, þó, er ekki öll sagan. It turns out that a mob of indigenous Mayans flew into a rage and torched the facility. Hvers vegna? Because a psychic told them the owners had murdered children and fed them to their crocodiles!
It was like something out of a Frankenstein movie,” Cherie Rose said Tuesday. “If we’d been home, they would have killed us. They said they were going to chop us up and feed us to the crocodiles.”
National police confirm that the indigenous Maya villagers were acting on the advice of a psychic who said the Roses had something to do with the August 7 disappearance of 9-year-old Benjamin Rash and his 11-year-old sister Onelia.
The question often comes up – “what harm is it really?” – in regards to this sort of anti-scientifc woo. Most of the time, there really isn’t any damage done, except to the pocketbook. En, every once in a while, something tragic happens and it all could easily have been avoided with even the tiniest bit of rational thought or discretion. The psychic in town was far and beyond reckless by blaming these gringos – and she should suffer the consequences for her actions. She deliberately blamed two innocent people for the death of local children, which quickly resulted in a severe loss of personal property. Sem betur fer, Cherie and Vince Rose were both away at the time rescuing a crocodile – they may have not escaped the angry mob had they been at home. Examples of this always make me sad, but reignite my passion for debunking these thieves and criminals.
I suggest visiting the ACES website and blog and either donate or write a note of support. If I weren’t a broke scientist myself, I’d offer more assistance for their efforts to rebuild. Now – who will help educate those villagers before this happens again?!
By Chris Grinter, á September 6, 2010 Fyrir reglulega lesendur bloggið mitt sem þú gætir nú þegar vita afstöðu mína á Monarch, en catch up here if you’d like to. Yesterday I came across Þessi grein in the LA times – varðandi fjölærum nýlendum konungsfjölskyldum í Pacific Grove, CA. Út hér, vestur af meginlandi gjá, there are quite a few monarchs that migrate to coastal California and Baja del Norte instead of traveling into central Mexico. Not all monarchs from California stay in the state, but there are dozens hundreds of known roosting sites (.PDF) up and down our pacific coast.
Pacific Grove has one of the best known localities and has built the local economy around their seasonal migrants (yet no one is deporting these Mexicans). Í stuttu máli, the town government hired an arborist to cut back dangerous eucalyptus growth. Why was that necessary? Til baka í 2004 a limb from a diseased native-pine had fallen and killed an 85-year-old woman while on a walk with her grandchildren. In wake of the million dollar settlement paid to the family of the deceased the town decided to preemptively cut back old tree growth. But now everyone is running around screaming foul, the trees were trimmed líka much. Já, the precious homes of the monarchs were disturbed and it has riled the townspeople into a fury. What if the monarch’s don’t return?
Don’t worry, local filmmaker Bob Pacelli has a solution. Let’s just scatter as many eucalyptus trees as we can find into the grove to attract more butterflies.
In desperation, Pacelli came up with a plan: Find boxed trees — preferably blue gum eucalyptus — around 20 feet high and place them at strategic spots to help shelter the incoming monarchs. But the city has been slow to respond, Pacelli said. One official, Pacelli said, wrongly accused him of stepping on a butterfly, a violation of city code. No charges were filed.
For those paying attention, já, the city council of Pacific Grove has a law on the books that imposes a fine of $1,000 on anyone who molests a butterfly. Good things monarchs don’t roost in catholic churches.
Continue reading Monarch Madness
By Chris Grinter, á ágúst 27, 2010 Þessi snillingur fjölmiðla er aukalega sérstakt, ekki fyrir vandkvæðum þess, en fyrir offramboð hennar. Ég fann sama sagan fara á tveimur aðskildum heimildum, með mismunandi myndum – og bæði jafn rangt! Ég get ímyndað mér að það mun ekki taka langan fyrir einhvern til að benda á nákvæmlega hvað er athugavert við þessar sögur (vísbending, það eru 2 things).
Here is the first from the Mirror.co.uk “Giant rare moth found in Devon”.
And the second from the Daily Mail online ” Rare Luna moth found on Devon…”
By Chris Grinter, Hinn 24. ágúst, 2010 Og á meðan ég veiða upp er hægt að horfa sumir hrollvekjandi Isabella Rossellini aftur enact pörun aðferðir af bedbug. Þú ættir líka að lesa, ef þú hefur ekki lent það nú þegar, á excellent bedbug article written by the distinguished (og fyrrverandi prófessor minn) Maí Berenbaum.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MakIB_IJnu0&eiginleiki=leit]
By Chris Grinter, á ágúst 14, 2010 Kvöld, ef þú ert í San Francisco, þú ættir að leggja leið þína til að Showdogs bar (nálægt SoMa) fyrir efasemdamenn í krá við sæmilega James Randi! Ég kem í aðsókn, ásamt nokkrum náungi Entomologist vinum. Prufaðu þetta facebook hlekkur – en ef það tekst ekki, The atburður hefst kl 21:00.
Ef þú ert ekki í SF, njóttu Randi myndskeiða í staðinn!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9w7jHYriFo]
By Chris Grinter, á ágúst 10, 2010 
Á myndinni er svart-veined hvítt (Ógöngum crataegi uteg), and it is currently being returned to the Korean Institute of Biological Resources. Lán fá aftur, eins og þeir ættu að vera, á hverjum degi – og geta jafnvel tala í þúsundum eintaka. I myself have a few hundred moths out on loan from a handful of museums that are pending research. As soon as I finish my work (or request an extension), the specimens are promptly returned accompanying my paper. Unfortunately it is not a rare occurrence where loans have gone out, and remained out without permission, for decades. At least in one case to my knowledge (names and institutions redacted) the loaned specimens were out so long they created a small international incident. Foreign ambassadors had to formally request the specimens, which had to be presented in person by our ambassador to their country.
This butterfly, þó, I don’t believe was part of a loan. So why is it going back to Korea?
Continue reading A Disturbing New Trend?
By Chris Grinter, á ágúst 9, 2010 This one is just líka easy. The auglýsingaskilti er á I-35 South of Burleson, Texas.
Ég veit ekki hið sanna uppruna þessa mynd, en það kom leið mín frá Omar Bocanegra með Mike Quinn á Texas hreisturveengja lista-þjón.
By Chris Grinter, Þann 8. ágúst, 2010 
Ég rakst á (ekki á StumbleUpon) these colored SEM images on the Telegraph webpage today. Ég elska sérstaklega þessa mynd af Calliphoridae hringormanna (Protophormia SP.) sem virðist meira út af C-hlutfall vísindaskáldskapur bíómynd en eðli. It reminds me of both a freakish Star Wars character and a Muppet at the same time. The abrupt departure from standard mammalian body architecture makes insects prime candidates for other-worldly aliens. Insects must have been used as a guide for movies like District 9, Starship Troopers, Alien, Galaxy Quest… just to name a few recent ones. I am sure that other, more well-accredited, sci-fi geeks out there can think of even better examples. Along the same lines I recall these images I snapped of a Cerambycidae beetle below – Moneilema gigas. This was in the earliest days of my new camera so I can’t look back on them as perfect shots.
Continue reading Muppet Monsters
By Chris Grinter, á ágúst 6, 2010 
Hér er hæð-úrvals karlkyns Butterfly zeliacon, eða Anís Klofinn. Þetta fiðrildi er útbreidd í Vestur-Kyrrahafi ríkja og er sennilega mun algengari en hún var einu sinni. Eftir kynningu á fennel (Daucus carota), og síðari flýja úr garðyrkju, á anís klofinn þreif sem sameiginlegt Kaliforníu fiðrildi. Kannski áður en þetta planta náði meðfram vegum okkar á zelicaon kann að hafa verið bundnar við Sierra Foothills, nú er hægt að finna það yfir görðum í öllum Kaliforníu. Þótt, hlutir virðast vera að snúa sér í suður CA þar sem þetta fiðrildi er að hverfa frá þéttbýli svæði. Nýleg kynning sígaunatónlist Moth til Ventura / LA svæði hefur hafið moskító úða stjórnarfar – ekki sé minnst á útliti innrásar Parasitic Tachinidae sem elskar stærri leps. Út á austurströnd þetta Parasitic fljúga og þungur úða hefur Útrýmd tegund Imperial Moth (Eacles imperialist) frá mikið af því er svið, afgangur það hættu í flestum New England.
Continue reading Butterfly Porn
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8 athugasemdir - (Athugasemdum er lokað) 
Skordýrafræði 
Fiðrildi, Keppni, Skordýrafræði, Hreisturvængjur, Plöntur 
