Mid-week Mystery

While I work on a more substantial post, you can name this butterflyand the plant should be pretty easy too. Extra bonus if you can guess the county (state won’t be too impressive) in which I took this photo. This was pre-DSLR, but my old beat up canon point-and-shoot did manage to get some good ones.

Psihologija spet stavke!

Žalostna zgodba se je pravkar dosegla svojo pot navzgor iz Belizeja – the American Crocodile Education Sanctuary has burned to the ground. Na prvi pogled je to zgolj nesrečno poročilo o objektu za raziskovanje in zaščito, da se je izgubil v tragični požar. Da, Vendar, ne zgodbi. It turns out that a mob of indigenous Mayans flew into a rage and torched the facility. Zakaj? 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. Vendar, 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 gringosand 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. na srečo, Cherie and Vince Rose were both away at the time rescuing a crocodilethey 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. Zdaj – who will help educate those villagers before this happens again?!

Monarhova norost

Za redne bralce mojega bloga morda že poznate moje stališče do monarha, vendar dohitite tukaj če bi radi. Včeraj sem naletel Ta članek v časih LA – glede prezimovanja kolonij monarhov v Pacific Groveju, CA. Tu zunaj, zahodno od celinske ločnice, obstaja kar nekaj monarhov, ki se preselijo v obalno Kalifornijo in Baja del Norte, namesto da bi potovali v osrednjo Mehiko. Vsi monarhi iz Kalifornije ne ostanejo v državi, vendar obstajajo na desetine na stotine znana mesta za prenočišče (.pdf) gor in dol po naši pacifiški obali.

Pacific Grove ima eno najbolj znanih krajev in je zgradil lokalno gospodarstvo okoli svojih sezonskih migrantov (vendar teh Mehičanov nihče ne deportira). Na kratko, mestna oblast je najela arborista, da bi zmanjšal nevarno rast evkaliptusa. Zakaj je bilo to potrebno? Nazaj v 2004 ud bolnega domačega bora je padel in ubil 85-letno žensko na sprehodu z vnuki. Po milijonski poravnavi, ki so jo izplačali družini pokojnika, se je mesto odločilo preventivno posekati stara drevesa.. Zdaj pa vsi tečejo naokoli in kričijo, da gre za zlo, drevesa so bila obrezana tudi veliko. Da, dragoceni domovi monarhov so bili moteni in to je razburilo meščane v bes. Kaj pa če monarhov ne vrnitev?

ne skrbi, lokalni filmski ustvarjalec Bob Pacelli ima rešitev. Raztresimo čim več dreves evkaliptusa, kolikor jih najdemo, v gozdiček, da privabimo več metuljev.

V obupu, Pacelli je pripravil načrt: Naokoli poiščite drevesa v škatlah - po možnosti modri gumi evkaliptus 20 čevljev visoko in jih postavite na strateška mesta, da bodo pomagali zaščititi prihajajoče monarhe. Toda mesto se je počasi odzvalo, je rekel Pacelli. En uradnik, je rekel Pacelli, ga napačno obtožil, da je stopil na metulja, kršitev mestnega zakonika. Nobena obtožba ni bila vložena.

Za tiste, ki so pozorni, ja, mestni svet Pacific Grove ima zakon o knjigah, ki nalaga globo v višini $1,000 na vsakogar, ki nadleguje metulja. Dobre stvari, ki jih monarhi ne prebivajo v katoliških cerkvah.

Continue reading Monarch Madness

Genij tiska XI

This genius of the press is extra special, not for its difficulty, but for its redundancy. I found the same story carried on two separate sources, with different imagesand both equally incorrect! I can imagine that it won’t take long for someone to point out exactly what’s wrong with these stories (hint, obstajajo 2 things).

Here is the first from the Mirror.co.ukGiant rare moth found in Devon”.

And the second from the Daily Mail onlineRare Luna moth found on Devon…”

I’ve been a little behind

And while I catch up you can watch some creepy Isabella Rossellini re-enact the mating strategies of a bedbug. You should also read, if you haven’t caught it already, the excellent bedbug article written by the distinguished (and my former professor) May Berenbaum.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MakIB_IJnu0&feature=search]

Skeptiki v pup

Danes, če ste v San Franciscu, morate narediti svojo pot do Showdogs bar (v bližini Soma) Za skeptike v pubu z časten James Randi! Jaz bom v navzočnosti, skupaj z nekaj kolegi entomolog prijatelji. Try this facebook link – če pa to ne uspe, Dogodek se začne ob 21:00.

If you’re not in SF, enjoy some Randi videos instead!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9w7jHYriFo]

A Disturbing New Trend?

Pictured is a black-veined white (Aporia crataegi ssp), and it is currently being returned to the Korean Institute of Biological Resources. Loans get returned, as they should be, every dayand can even number in the thousands of specimens. 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, Vendar, I don’t believe was part of a loan. So why is it going back to Korea?

Continue reading A Disturbing New Trend?

Genius of the Press X

This one is just tudi easy. The billboard is on I-35 south of Burleson, Texas.

I don’t know the true provenance of this image, but it came my way from Omar Bocanegra via Mike Quinn on the Texas Lepidoptera list-serv.

Muppet Monsters

I stumbled upon (not on stumbleupon) these colored SEM images on the Telegraph webpage today. I especially love this image of a Calliphoridae larva (Protophormia sp.) that seems more out of a C-rated science fiction movie than nature. 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 Questjust 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 belowMoneilema 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

Pornografija z metulji

Tukaj je samec na vrhu hriba Metulj celiakije, ali janežev lastov rep. Ta metulj je zelo razširjen v državah zahodnega Pacifika in je verjetno veliko bolj pogost kot nekoč. Po uvedbi komarčka (Foeniculum vulgare), in kasnejši pobeg iz vrtnarstva, janeževa lastovka se je uveljavila kot navaden kalifornijski metulj. Morda preden je ta rastlina prehitela naše ceste zelicaon morda omejeno na vznožje Sierre, zdaj ga lahko najdete po vrtovih po vsej Kaliforniji. Čeprav, Zdi se, da se stvari obrnejo v južni Kaliforniji, kjer ta metulj izginja iz urbanih območij. Nedavni vnos ciganskega moljca na območja Ventura/LA je sprožil režime škropljenja z insekticidi – da ne omenjam videza invazivne parazitske Tachinidae, ki obožuje večje lepce. Zunaj na vzhodni obali je ta parazitska muha in močno škropljenje iztrebila cesarskega moljca (Eacles imperialis) iz velikega obsega, zaradi česar je ogrožena v večini Nove Anglije.

Continue reading Butterfly Porn