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
Тедmanaged 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!?” Естествено, 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” към “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, e.g. 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, да – 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!
Днес беше прекрасен ден в района на залива, така че се отправих към Напа и долината на Поуп. Проучвах нова територия за малък цветен молец, Speedy Heliolonche, което очевидно чака да се появи още по-близо хубаво време. Този сезон беше малко закъснял заради всичкия студ и дъжд, но имам надежди за успешно повторно посещение след няколко седмици. Обаче, Попаднах на шепа красиви микролепи. Всички тези молци са в рода АДЕЛЕ и семейство Adelidae (или някои биха казали азncurvariidae). Те са общоизвестни като “приказни молци” защото изглежда, че танцуват върху петна от цветя – което очевидно феите обичат да правят. Изглеждаше, че мъжките защитаваха малка площ, с две до три наведнъж, въртящи се един около друг на няколко инча над цветовете. Предполагам, че тези танци са били териториални, защото не е наблюдавано чифтосване. Докато женските имат дълги антени, мъжките го прекаляват. Събрах хубава серия, но аз все още не са определили вида – колко виждаш? За щастие, всички от Adelidae бяха покрити в а 1969 хартия от Джери Пауъл, който също случайно живее надолу по улицата от мен.
След като разгледах колекциите тук в CAS, и четене на монографията, изглежда, че повечето от тях са Адела триграфа. Това е често срещан Аделид в района на залива на Сан Франциско и повечето от крайбрежните вериги на Калифорния. Отбелязва се, че вариацията е значителна, със счупени и непрекъснати ленти, както и вариация на червеното на короната. Другият Аделид се идентифицира лесно Адела ме пламва.
Облаците пробиха този следобед в Сан Франциско и слънцето започва да блести. Предстоящото топлото време индуцира твърде познато чувство, едно, че аз трябва да излезе събиране насекоми и не седи на закрито! Макар че аз вече съм бил в една шепа места тази пролет, Имам дълъг сезон за събиране напред. Очакваме, че не може да помогне, но да се отрази на последните две години грандиозно запад ми е дал. За да илюстрира моята пристрастеност, тук е надпис от моите Google Earth GPS точки.
Всеки флаг представлява разделно събиране събитие (пренебрегне жълти игли), между есен 2007 и зимата 2009. Не съм следял на миля за посветени пътувания, събиращи (може би за да избегне удар), но тя трябва да бъде наближава 30,000. Моята Honda Accord може да не е типично полево превозно средство, но това прави разстоянието значително по-достъпно. Разбира се, двете спукани гуми и спуканото предно стъкло не помагат. Можете лесно да кажете, че съм живял в Южна Калифорния с тази гигантска петна знамена. Повечето от тях са фокусирани в окръг Санта Барбара, което даде два нови вида и десетки окръжни записи. Аризона е втора с две 10 еднодневни екскурзии с всяка вечер на различно място. След това се измъкнах от югозапада миналото лято и прокарах дълъг кръг през средния запад в продължение на две седмици и половина. Навлязох наоколо 4,000 lepidoptera и току-що са започнали да поставят последните щрихи върху последния екземпляр. Досега, само един нов вид – единствен екземпляр от малка Acrolophidae от западен Тексас (определена от Питър Джъмп, който пише книгата MONA върху групата). Остава още много за самоличност.
На борда за тази година: Пътуване до Ливънуърт, Вашингтон за 2010 Lepidopterists’ Среща на обществото. Двуседмичното пътуване за събиране ще започне на север до Вашингтон, след което ще премине на изток през Айдахо, Юта и Невада на път за вкъщи. Но както винаги, Аризона и Мексико са маяци. И сега, когато живея в Бъркли, ще трябва да вляза в Сиера още няколко пъти тази година!
I am really at a loss for understanding yet anotherpositive acupuncture studythat was as well designed as my 8th grade science fair project. Дадено, Бях изперкал науката дете, но не можех да направя по-добра работа пиян. I think I should conduct a followup study in which I test the efficacy of porcupines tossed at your back. It would certainly be more amusing; and full of just about as much scientific value. Да не споменавам, porcupines are kinda cute.
The real problems with the study:
Unblinded
n=15. Their x² tests may have resulted in a significant response, but in no imagination of any universe does 15 equal a statistically significant sampling of any population, anywhere.
No negative control. They treated all of their patients with acupuncture or vitamins. Vitamin B complex is a treatment (still a very poorly supported one), and only a positive control. Whose to say smell didn’t naturally improve over the course of the study? The authors can not.
So my question is, what can possibly be the motivation for this study? I can imagine how this was dreamt up, around the coloring books one day “Hey Doc Julia, acupuncture sure works huh?” “Why yes it does fellow idiot, let’s create a really crappy study to show just that!”. Take a look atmy older acupuncture postfor more links and a bit more discussion on why ancient chinese medicine is a waste of money. Of course if you test 15 people you can scrape together a positive result for just about anything. But as you start to introduce larger and more tightly controlled studies the positive effects start to shrink.
Ridiculous. And now that I look at it, my 8th grade science fair project was conducted with two sets of controls, blinded, and had a sample size of 18 (antibacterial effectiveness of kitchen cleaners). Благодаря, I’ll kindly take my position at the University of Cologne Medical Center now.
Продължение на поредицата aquamoth, този път с видео от Science Friday! Да, Трябва да го свържа, защото wordpress няма да се вгради… Благодаря Тед, разбра!
A few images from my weekend mothing trip down to Shell Creek, San Luis Obispo County. Early spring along the central coast is stunning, and the back roads were packed with flower watchers. There were dozens of cars occupied by families out for a weekend drive, many had packed lunches and sat to watch the flowers grow. While I am happy to see people enjoying the natural beauty, it is difficult to see the damage their trampling can cause. Обаче, if more people could get out to appreciate nature, perhaps it would be easier to protect. The flowers were so bright and dense it was difficult to focus on moths, and after a few hours I started to go a little snow-blind (or as it shall forever be now known, flower-blind). Here are a few feeble attempts to capture the beauty.
These pieces of art are the creation ofRobert J. Lang. Chances are if you’ve seen some insane origami than they were his creation. Да, 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 (Добре, for those who didn’t, here it is), you will be interested to hear his side of the story.
Take the time to register (съжалявам, it’s annoying but I couldn’t find it anywhere else) and read a response to the interview by Dr. Cognato, тук. 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…). Въпреки това, 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.
