From a peppermint Pericopinae. I recorded this video on-site in northern Costa Rica a few years ago. When I reached down to pick up this moth, it was hard to avoid noticing the behavior. The moth, Chetone angulosa (Erebidae: Pericopina) ((used to be Arctiidae)), has a common defensive mechanism for this group – they excrete hemolymph to deter would-be attackers. Lots of moths do this, but I have never seen it so spectacularly displayed. If you listen carefully you can hear the hissing sound as the fluid is pumped form the body. What was most impressive is how strongly it smelled of peppermint… strongly enough that I just had to give it a go. Sadly, it didn’t taste as advertised. While it wasn’t excruciating, the most noticeable effect was an abrupt numbness that lasted for a several minutes. Pretty potent stuff, and I can imagine the effect on a small bird or mammal might be far less amusing.
It seems like biologists have a funny habit of tasting their subjects. I recently sat in on a herpetology talk regarding poison-dart frogs. On a slight tangent, did you know that the coloration of these famously aposematic frogs has NEVER been tested until recently? The fact that they were poisonous is well known, but no one ever took the time to see if their colors actually fit a true aposematic model, αυτό είναι – do they really deter predators in the wild? Turns out not surprisingly, ναί, they do. But it’s nice to actually have quantitate data to support this long held assertion. Back to tasting – a well known herper test is to give the frog or toad a lick. While this can actually help to identify the species of herp, it more likely seems to be an amusing side effect of long hours in the field. Not being a herper I can’t recall the name or group this applied to; but a famous paper went into great depths to describe the tastes, potent effect and the potential dangers associated with each licked toad species (this was a legit taxonomic review).
The only example for useful tasting in insects that I can think of right now is for two strikingly similar butterflies- Papilio thoas/cresphontes. I believe thoas has a sweet flowery smell when you catch it fresh (ναί, not a taste… but close), however I’ve never seen this published or tested it myself, so it may be apocryphal. It is however well known that many butterflies smell strongly of their hostplant: όπως Speyeria coronissmelling ofApocynum(strong vegetable odor). Lots of room for further investigation here. But without a doubt a biologist uses all five of his senses whenever he can.
Τα τελευταία τέσσερα Σαββατοκύριακα τώρα είμαι σε κυνηγητό, για ένα μήνα, Speedy Heliolonche. Είναι ένα όμορφο μικρό Noctuidae με ροζ μπροστινά φτερά και εντυπωσιακά πορτοκαλοκόκκινα πίσω φτερά. Δεν συναντάται πολύ συχνά και βρίσκεται μόνο κατά μήκος των οροσειρών της βόρειας Καλιφόρνια που τρέφεται Malacothrix floccifera– ένα ενδημικό λουλούδι CA. Σε κάθε ταξίδι με τσακίζουν, μέχρι σήμερα – Μάζεψα δύο! Όπως μπορεί να θυμάστε η πρώτη μου έξοδος ήταν πριν από περίπου ένα μήνα, κανένας σκόρος, αλλά μια όμορφη σειρά δειγμάτων και φωτογραφίες της Adela σκώροι. Τα τελευταία ταξίδια δεν έχουν φτάσει καν στο να είναι τόσο παραγωγικά όσο το Adela. Τι να κάνετε λοιπόν όταν δεν βρίσκετε τον στόχο σας? Πάρτε ένα έγκαυμα από τον ήλιο και τραβήξτε μερικές τραγανές φωτογραφίες.
Recently came across some ridiculouslyhorrible taxonomy from China (.pdf). If you scroll down a bit you can see the english translation. At first glance this looks like a standard taxonomy paper with bare-bones species descriptions. You might even think to yourself, “huh, wonder why they are describing species from only one specimen”. Not the end of the world, I’ve even done it myself. Εντάξει, to be fair, I had complete life histories and DNA to support those decisions. Here – they have neither. Και, once you take a look at the specimen illustrations, something should become shockingly apparent. What do these specimens have in common (other than the poor image quality)?
to fake a UFO encounter? I recorded this video two years ago over the desert of Arizona. To confess, it made my heart skip a beat at first. I turned around and there were three glowing lights floating silently above me. I literally thought to myself “holy s#@% I don’t believe in this crap!”. The scale is really lost in the video, but they were huge and hovering under a high cloud cover. When the video zooms in you see a small light on the ground for reference. Our brain, being so inclined, makes it appear as if these lights are linked together in a massive triangle.
I walked back to the car while keeping a careful eye out for cacti and rattlesnakes (I was photographing a mojave rattler at the time), and grabbed a pair of binoculars. With a decent magnification it was clear that these were flares. Now only could you see a flickering light on the clouds above, but long trails of smoke rising above them. As you followed the flares down they gradually winked out – only to reappear some distance away (another drop). This was then followed by a series of fighter jets flying extremely low over the desert. Basically, this is the exact same thing that caused the “lights over phoenix” flurry a few years ago.
Έτσι, I uploaded this video to Youtube and didn’t call it a UFO – just some mysterious lights. Will it be adopted as UFO proof? I sure hope so. Not only that, I hope it appears on some UFO documentary in the future. It’s not as “compelling” as other “UFO” videos, but my Canon point-and-shoot camera could only do so well.
While extra-terrestrials likely exist, there is absolutely zero compelling evidence to suggest they have visited us – and thanks to the laws of Physics, it is probable that they will never be able to visit regardless of how technologically advanced they become.
Έχω ακριβώς απεικονίζεται η μέθοδός μου για τη διάδοση microlepidoptera, πάει να διερευνήσει τη σελίδα τεχνικές. Who is courageous enough toattempt it?
We need to be conservationists to be sure, preserving wetlands, forests, open spaces and coastlines. We need to reduce our waste — plastic trash and the like. But what we really need is big, new ideas: new ways to distribute and store energy for electric power, new ways to conserve and distribute clean water for farming and gulping, and new ways get ourselves and our cargo around, so that we don’t change the Earth’s climates too much as we burn our fossil fuels.
Ήμουν πολύ απασχολημένος εξάπλωσης microleps κατά τη διάρκεια των τελευταίων ημερών, και εδώ είναι μια μικρή επιλογή από τη συλλογή του καλοκαιριού ταξίδια μου. Εξακολουθούν να έχουν τουλάχιστον ένα άλλο 200 για να πάει πριν από τη σύλληψη μέχρι τις ανεκτέλεστες μου. Είμαι εργάζονται για αποτυπώνουν ακριβώς πώς να διαδώσει αυτές τις νυχτοπεταλούδες… οπότε μείνετε συντονισμένοι.
2009 Ήταν μια μεγάλη σεζόν. I explored tons of new land and collected at least 6 νέα είδη. Let’s hope for twice that many in the year to come.
So what is wrong with this illustration below? Sounds like a great show at theKrohn Conservatoryin Cincinnati. Αυτό news storymade me look just a little closer…
I’ve come across a few e-mail transcripts of questions sent into our entomology department and I can not resist sharing them. I promise these messages are (and will be) 100% real and unedited. Names have been changed or removed to protect the innocent. Hopefully, I will come across these every once in a while, and keep this as an ongoing series. Submissions of your own are encouraged!
Συγνώμη, this first one islong – but well worth the read.
1 Μάρτιος 2006: 3:23μμ.
“I am sending you pictures of a spider I possess that appears to be a Zoropsis spinimana. I need more information about this spider than is what is on the internet. Επίσης, I do not know if this spider is male or female. I have had the spider for 2 εβδομάδες. It is still alive-but I am not sure what it eats. I have tried several things. If you are interested in this spider we can talk more-however, I get the feeling that this spider is not of real interest to your department. Please respond to me and examine the pictures. If you do not want me to email you again then, please tell me or I will assume that you did not get my email with the pictures. Both you and Dr. “Χ” are extremely busy and it appears that you travel a great deal. Probably with more interesting things than this spider. The pictures are below-if you cannot access them then please notify me and I will try “what ever I can do” to get these pictures to you. Thank you for any help you can give me,”
