I’ve been a bit remiss at posting regular challenges, so I’ll try to pick up the pace. Who can tell me anything about this butterfly? The most you’re getting is that it is from the Western half of the US. Credit for family, genus or species andridiculouscredit for subspecies and where it is from.
Euphydryas anicia cloudcrofti
Tedmanaged to pretty quickly ID this lep with stunning accuracy for a beetle-guy. You lep-ers reading this should hang your head in shame for not jumping on it faster.
As mentioned in the comments, this butterfly only flies around the resort town of Cloudcroft, New Mexico in the Sacramento Mountains. For years they have been fighting to have this listed as an endangered species, but have failed at every attempt (the most recent rejection was August 2009). The town relies almost exclusively on winter ski resorts and developers have put up a successful fight against protection. The entire area is within the Lincoln National Forest, but they have only closed the area to butterfly collecting, not development. When asking the forest service about this butterfly they unequivocally state that the checkerspot is endangered (even though it’s not). Of course they do not want you to collect it – but if you offered a few million to develop its habitat, that’s a different story.
I sat rapt in front of my TV on Sunday watching the latest installment of the BBC/Discovery series “Life”. The first thing that comes to my mind… “WHY was Oprah chosen to narrate!?” Natuurlik, I waited for the insects special to air before I blogged about this, but having to listen to Oprah for the last few weeks has been scratching at the back of my eyes. I guess I could have gone out and purchased the BBC version with the iconic voice of Sir David Attenborough instead…
To get a better grip of just how obnoxious Oprah is, you can watch thesame clip on Discovery. I have never considered Oprah to be anything close to scientifically minded – and her lavishsupport of Jenny McCarthyproves the point. For those who are not up to date – McCarthy is the leading proponent of the anti-vaccination movement. You can even go as far as attributing her PR campaign topreventable deaths.I’ll have to return to this subject another time.
Back to the topic at hand. There was some incredibly stunning insect footage, and a few vignettes about insect life I might not have otherwise ever seen. It seems like the US version of Life has been slightly re-written with zero factual contribution. Basic lines are changed from “she was not in the mood” te “uh-oh, looks like a headache”. Seems like a step down to me, albeit a tiny one. I was also a little annoyed with the continual focus on vertebrates – birds that eat flies, bears that eat honey, lizards that mimic Carabids – and anthropomorphizing intention, bijv. the ants “crowning achievement of large complex communities… the closest thing in nature to human cities”. While it may be true that giant ant colonies superficially resemble human cities, I wouldn’t call them the “crowning achievement of insects”. Mind boggling in complexity, Ja – but overshadowing other non-social adaptations? This all boils down to a false premise that evolution is striving for human-like qualities and is directional.
But nothing to be overly critical about. Given the diversity and complexity of the insect world, I wouldn’t have even been happy with two weeks of solid footage. I would love to see what was left on the cutting room floor!
Dit was 'n pragtige dag vandag in die baai area, so ek is na Napa en die Pousvallei toe. Ek was besig om 'n nuwe gebied te soek vir 'n klein blommot, Speedy Heliolonche, wat blykbaar wag vir meer aaneenlopende mooi weer om te voorskyn te kom. Hierdie seisoen was 'n bietjie laat as gevolg van al die koue en reën, maar ek hoop op 'n suksesvolle herbesoek oor 'n paar weke. Egter, Ek het wel op 'n handvol pragtige mikroleps afgekom. Al hierdie motte is in die genus ADELE en familie San Luis Obispo County (of sal sommige sê Ekncurvariidae). Hulle is algemeen bekend as “feetjiemotte” want dit lyk asof hulle oor kolle blomme dans – wat blykbaar feetjies graag doen. Dit het gelyk of mannetjies 'n klein area verdedig, met twee tot drie op 'n slag, draai om mekaar 'n paar duim bokant die bloeisels. Ek neem aan hierdie danse was territoriaal omdat geen paring waargeneem is nie. Terwyl wyfies lang antennas het, die mannetjies neem dit tot oormaat. Ek het 'n mooi reeks versamel, maar ek het nog nie die spesie vasgespyker nie – hoeveel sien jy? Gelukkig, al die San Luis Obispo County was bedek in 'n 1969 referaat deur Jerry Powell, wat toevallig ook in die straat van my af woon.
Nadat u deur die versamelings hier by die CAS gekyk het, en lees die monografie, dit lyk of die meeste hiervan is Adela trigrapha. Dit is 'n algemene Adelid van die San Francisco Bay area en die meeste van die kusgebiede van CA. Daar word opgemerk dat variasie aansienlik is, met gebreekte en ononderbroke bande asook variasie van die rooi op die kroon. Die ander Adelid is maklik om te identifiseer Adela vlam my.
Nog paaiement van Genius van die Press, en miskien 'n bietjie van 'n sagtebal. (Yikes dit is maklik om te vind) Who can tell me whats wrong withHierdie artikel?
The clouds broke this afternoon in San Francisco and the sun began to shine. The upcoming warm weather induced an all too familiar feeling, one that I should be out collecting insects and not sitting indoors! While I have already been to a handful of places this spring, I have a long season of collecting ahead. Looking forward I couldn’t help but to reflect on the past two spectacular years the west has given me. To illustrate my addiction, here is a caption of my Google Earth GPS points.
Each flag represents a separate collecting event (disregard the yellow pins), between fall 2007 and winter 2009. I have not kept track of the miles for dedicated collecting trips (perhaps to avoid shock), but it must be approaching 30,000. My Honda Accord may not be a typical field vehicle, but it makes the distance substantially more affordable. Of course the two flat tires and cracked windshield don’t help. You can easily tell that I lived in southern California with that giant blob of flags. Most of those are focused in Santa Barbara county, which yielded two new species and dozens of county records. Arizona comes second with two 10 day trips with each night in a different location. I then broke free of the southwest last summer and drove a long loop through the midwest over the course of two and a half weeks. I pulled in around 4,000 lepidoptera and have just started putting the finishing touches on the last of the specimens. Sover, only one new species – a sole specimen of a small Acrolophidae from western Texas (bepaal deur Peter Spring wat die skryf van die MONA tros op die groep). Baie links na nog ID.
Op die bord vir hierdie jaar: 'N reis na Leavenworth, Washington vir die 2010 Lepidopterists’ Society vergadering. Die twee week versamel reis sal noord dan loop oos skiet om Washington deur Idaho, Utah en Nevada op die pad huis toe. Maar soos altyd, Arizona en Mexiko is afbakening. En nou dat ek woon in Berkeley Ek sal moet kry in die Sierra 'n paar keer vanjaar!
Ek is regtig op 'n verlies om nog 'n ander te verstaan positiewe akupunktuurstudie dit was so goed ontwerp soos my graad 8-wetenskapskouprojek. Toegestaan, Ek was 'n nerdy wetenskapkind, maar ek kon 'n beter werk doen dronk. Ek dink ek moet 'n opvolgstudie doen waarin ek die doeltreffendheid toets van ystervarke wat op jou rug gegooi word. Dit sal beslis meer amusant wees; en vol omtrent net soveel wetenskaplike waarde. Om nie te praat nie, ystervarke is nogal oulik.
Die werklike probleme met die studie:
Onverblind
n=15. Hul x²-toetse het dalk 'n beduidende reaksie tot gevolg gehad, maar in geen verbeelding van enige heelal nie 15 gelyk aan 'n statisties beduidende steekproef van enige populasie, enige plek.
Geen negatiewe beheer nie. Hulle het al hul pasiënte met akupunktuur of vitamiene behandel. Vitamien B-kompleks is 'n behandeling (steeds 'n baie swak ondersteunde een), en slegs 'n positiewe beheer. Wie se reuk het nie natuurlik verbeter in die loop van die studie nie? Die skrywers kan nie.
So my vraag is, wat moontlik die motivering vir hierdie studie kan wees? Ek kan my voorstel hoe dit uitgedroom is, om die inkleurboeke eendag “Hallo Dok Julia, akupunktuur werk seker huh?” “Hoekom ja dit doen mede idioot, kom ons skep 'n baie kak studie om dit te wys!”. Kyk na my ouer akupunktuurpos vir meer skakels en 'n bietjie meer bespreking oor hoekom antieke Chinese medisyne 'n mors van geld is. Natuurlik as jy toets 15 mense kan jy vir omtrent enigiets 'n positiewe resultaat bymekaarskraap. Maar soos jy begin om groter en strenger beheerde studies bekend te stel, begin die positiewe effekte krimp.
Belaglik. En noudat ek daarna kyk, my graad 8-wetenskapskouprojek is met twee stelle kontroles uitgevoer, verblind, en het 'n steekproefgrootte van 18 (antibakteriese doeltreffendheid van kombuisskoonmakers). Dankie, Ek sal asseblief nou my pos by die Universiteit van Keulen Mediese Sentrum inneem.
A continuation of the aquamoth series, this time withvideo from Science Friday! Ja, I have to link it because wordpress won’t embed… Dankie Ted, figured it out!
'N Paar foto's van my naweek mothing reis af na Shell Creek, San Luis Obispo County. Vroeg in die lente langs die sentrale kus is stunning, en die agterkant paaie was gepak met blomkykers. Daar was dekades van motors bewoon word deur families uit vir 'n naweek ry, baie het middagetes verpak en sit en kyk hoe die blomme groei. Terwyl ek is bly om te sien dat mense geniet die natuurlike skoonheid, dit is moeilik om te sien die skade wat hulle vertrapping kan veroorsaak. Egter, As meer mense kan kry uit die natuur te waardeer, miskien sal dit makliker wees om te beskerm. Die blomme was so helder en digte was dit moeilik om te fokus op die motte, en na 'n paar uur het ek begin 'n bietjie sneeu blind te gaan (of as dit sal vir ewig nou bekend, blom-blind). Hier is 'n paar flou pogings om die skoonheid vas te vang.
These pieces of art are the creation ofRobert J. Lang. Chances are if you’ve seen some insane origami than they were his creation. Ja, those are actually made from one single piece of uncut paper. He provides the crease pattern for most of his designs, but actually folding something from that pattern has to be nearly impossible without knowing the sequence. It’s very impressive, but if you’re a bit lazier, you can cut and fold out your own simple insectsinstead.
For those who saw the FOX interview with MSU entomologist Dr. Cognato (OK, for those who didn’t, here it is), you will be interested to hear his side of the story.
Take the time to register (jammer, it’s annoying but I couldn’t find it anywhere else) and read a response to the interview by Dr. Cognato, hier. In summary, he basically confirmed what was suspected, that they weren’t 100% straightforward with him in the first place and only gave him about six hours to prep. It is nice to hear that Tucker Carlson was actually interested in the entomolgy collection (although, perceived interest is a key tactic in the reporters tool-belt to disarm his interviewee…). Nietemin, Cognato did a good job battling off the mindless, anti-science, right wing, propaganda machine. It is clear that he was put in a difficult situation, FOX came to him and wanted to discuss the collection. He knew he wasn’t going to be the best prepared for the interview (I know I sure wouldn’t be either!), but had to stand up for the collection in fear that they might have trampled on it without any fair rebuttal. It is sad we have almost no source of unbiased news nowadays. If you followed this story you should take the time to read about how it really happened.
