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. Tyvärr, 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, det är – do they really deter predators in the wild? Turns out not surprisingly, ja, 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 (ja, 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: som 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.
For the last four weekends now I have been on a goose chase, for one moth, Heliolonche celeris. It’s a beautiful small Noctuidae with pinkish forewings and stunning orange-red hindwings. It isn’t very often encountered and only found along the northern California mountain ranges feeding onMalacothrix floccifera– a CA endemic flower. Every trip I have gotten skunked, until today – I collected two! As you may recall my first outing was about a month ago, no moth, but a beautiful series of specimens andphotographs of Adela nattfjärilar. The last few trips haven’t even come close to being as productive as the Adela one. So what to do when not finding your target? Get a sun burn and take some crummy photos.
Recently came across some ridiculouslyhorrible taxonomy from China (.pdf). Om du bläddrar ner lite kan du se den engelska översättningen. Vid första anblicken ser ut som en vanlig taxonomi papper med nakna Ben beskrivningar arter. Du kanske till och med tror på dig själv, “va, undrar varför de beskriver arter från endast ett exemplar”. Not the end of the world, I’ve even done it myself. OK, to be fair, I had complete life histories and DNA to support those decisions. Här – they have neither. And, 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)?
att fejka ett UFO möte? Jag spelade in den här videon för två år sedan över öknen i Arizona. För att erkänna, Det gjorde mitt hjärta hoppa över ett beat först. Jag vände mig om och det fanns tre glödande ljus som flyter tyst ovanför mig. Jag trodde bokstavligen för mig själv “helig s # @% Jag tror inte på den här skiten!”. 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. I grund och botten, this is the exact same thing that caused the “lights over phoenix” flurry a few years ago.
Så, 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.
Vi måste vara naturvårdare för att vara säker, bevara våtmarker, skogar, öppna ytor och kuster. Vi måste minska vårt avfall — plast skräp och liknande. Men vad vi verkligen behöver är stor, nya idéer: 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.
Jag har varit upptagen sprida microleps under de senaste dagarna, och här är ett axplock från mina sommar samla resor. Fortfarande har åtminstone en annan 200 att gå innan ikapp på min eftersläpning. Jag jobbar på att illustrera hur att sprida dessa malar… så håll ögonen öppna.
2009 var en bra säsong. I explored tons of new land and collected at least 6 nya arter. Let’s hope for twice that many in the year to come.
Så vad är fel med den här bilden nedan? Sounds like a great show at theKrohn Conservatoryin Cincinnati. Thisnews storymade me look just a little closer…
Jag har stött på några e-post avskrifter av frågor som skickades in i vår entomologi avdelning och jag kan inte motstå att dela dem. Jag lovar dessa meddelanden är (och kommer att vara) 100% verkliga och oredigerade. Namnen har ändrats eller tagits bort för att skydda de oskyldiga. Förhoppningsvis, Jag kommer att stöta på dessa varje gång på ett tag, and keep this as an ongoing series. Submissions of your own are encouraged!
Tyvärr, this first one islong – but well worth the read.
1 Mars 2006: 3:23e.m.
“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. Också, I do not know if this spider is male or female. I have had the spider for 2 Veckor. 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. “X” 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,”
