Over on Myrmecos Alex Wild just brought to my attention a rather personal attack from a pair of republican senators (Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and John McCain, R-Ariz). Once again I started to comment, but given how close to home this hits, I felt a longer winded diatribe approaching…
Apparently, my job is a giant waste of money. Funding that the California Academy of Sciences (my employer) has received, is coming under direct attack. OK, my position has nothing to do with Antweb and I am not supported by public funds – but some of my colleagues are. Colleagues that have the exact same job title as my own, work a few doors down, and happen to work on different projects funded from different sources. What this boils down to is not only a republican war on science (go find that book), but a republican war on intellectualism. Everyone whose scaly little hand has crafted this report is not only willfully ignorant but is being outright dishonest. What is their unstated major premise here? The logical fallacy runs somewhere along the line of…
A) Democrats are wasting money because we are not in power.
B) By pointing out where this money is being “wasted” we will help save it and in turn ingratiate ourselves to the voters.
B) Supporting science (e.g. wasteful spending) is the cause of our economic problems.
Fresh off the desk of the Nature News is a feature pondering a world without mosquitos (or -toes). How is this news? Perhaps there is some new vector control we all need to hear about! Well, check out the article from the latest edition of Nature titled “A World Without Mosquitoes“. I originally came across this on PZ Myers blog and started to write a comment… which started to grow exponentially so I decided to blog about it instead.
OK, maybe not. But I did get a little jealous when I came across this article where I discovered a local San Francisco artist who is charging $60 a pop for “insect spreading classes”. I wonder how many really show up to the monthly class? This just in, Chris Grinter is offering an insect spreading class for merely $49.99! I’d probably make it all sciency though and no one would show…
But while you’re learning the ways of pinning you can pick up your creepy victorian taxidermy character.
Just about time for another volume of Genius of the Press. Who will be first to spot the error here? Granted, the information section of the california flat rate moving website is not exactly a source of top notch journalism…
Here are a few more images from my recent northern road trip, this time from western Idaho. Right outside the town of New Meadows were fields of flowers thick with life. It was some of the best day collecting I’ve done in years, and fellow road tripper Peter Jump and I discovered this population of Adela flammeusella. This represents a likely state record for Idaho and possibly the eastern most population known for this species. They are supposedly associated with Owl’s Clover (some now reassigned to Castilleja), but I don’t recall ever seeing any at this location. I usually notice this plant whenever I’m in the field because it is the host to a handful of other interesting leps.
One frustrating character of the genus Adela is the homogeneity of the genitalia. For any entomologist out there it is par for the course to use the morphology of genitalia as a plethora of characters most useful in species identification. Microleps are often most easily differentiated through dissection, and a few groups must be dissected to even get to genus! But even strikingly different Adela are almost identical internally. Instead, a leg will go off to get DNA barcoded. Chances are it’s nothing too interesting, but stranger things have been known to happen. At the very least it will be informative to know what the genetic divergence might be across the range of the species.
In eastern Lassen county, on the vast high juniper hills of the California-Nevada border, there are herds of “wild” horses, sheep and cattle. Par for the course, the only flowering plant around was horehound (Marrubium vulgare). Despite the non-native flora and (semi)mega-fauna, the insects were still at home. Being the only nectar source, the small clumps of invasives were packed with thirsty Lycaenidae. In all I netted 6 different species and got some decent shots of 3. It seems like I take a lot of butterfly photos for a moth collector…but it’s hard to pass up such a charismatic group.
But thinking of those horses (ah OK, “mustangs”) has given me a great idea. Yes, horses were once part of the prehistoric American fauna up until about 12,000 years ago. While the horse family may have evolved on the American plains, they have been long absent. Reintroduction of horses by the Spaniards planted the seeds that would become a staple of American culture. That is why today millions of dollars and tens of thousands of feral horses run wild in CA, NV and Utah. Even less popular are the somewhat clandestine annual culls that must be strictly enforced to keep these large herds healthy. My solution: reintroduce lions. America was once home to the North American lion (Panthera leo atrox), which stood a whopping 25% larger than the African lion and was the largest cat to have ever lived. These must have feasted on horse-tacos and in turn kept the populations stable. And since our feral horses are of Arabian dissent, we may as well introduce the extremely endangered Asiatic lion (Panthera leo persica), that will be well suited to feast on its Persian brethren. If we are conserving “wild” horses, we might as well do it right (plus, I’d be much more interested in seeing horses if I could see lions too).
I’m not too sure if I’m sold on this theme. I’ve been shopping around for a new look, and am giving “twenty ten” a try. Let me know your opinion – whether or not you think it is better than the previous layout “misty”, or if there is another design you love. Be extra critical (especially since I had zero to do with these pre-fab designs).
Well – didn’t like the new theme all that much, went back to the tried and true misty. I can always hope for a future one that fits this page a bit better though.
Thanks for the input (especially for some received off-blog).
A few months ago I was out collecting in western Arizona and failed to follow through with any images or updates on that trip. Well, it was a success and well worth the miles to get there! I was searching for a Crambid moth in the mountains of the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge (special thanks to the Kofa staff for quickly approving my permits). While I’m still sorting through moths from that trip, the timing couldn’t have been better weather wise. It was mild out (mid 90’s is almost cool for that region!) and still wet. As you can see below, there were plenty of moths that night. Here are a few images from the trip… now to catch up with my latest photos!
This is as close to the Big Horn Sheep as I could get…
I’m back from the road with thousands of specimens, a little weary and ready to sit still for a bit. In all it was a wonderful trip – but I have lots and lots of processing to do. While I play catch-up, enjoy this clip. As far as I know, there is no direct relation. But the Grinter pool is a small one and it seems like he should be somewhere on my tree. All I can say is that I hope after I am gone there are ghosts of my creepy employees haunting my home, breathing heavily behind visitors (really? that’s the latest ghost trick?). I also fully expect a documentary with a guy trying really hard to sound creepy – it should be in my last will and testament.
Over the next week and a half I’ll be driving up to Washington state for the annual Lepidopterists’ Society meeting. It is located in the tourist-trap town of Leavenworth, which is a “Bavarian themed” diorama of postcard and clog shops. While I can never quite understand the appeal of themed towns, it is something Americans just love. Heck, I lived in Solvang for two years (below), so Leavenworth will be a nostalgic remembrance.
Now of course I’ll be camping and collecting along the way, so my posting will dip below the already slow norm. I’ll try to post some updates form the road, especially when incredible things happen*. Stay tuned, and enjoy the other spectacular bloggers from my blogroll.
* Which they undoubtedly will. Of course, I know I promised this from my last road trip to Arizona and have yet to deliver. I’m working on it!
Comments are closed 
Adela flammeusella
