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!?” Natürlich, Ich wartete auf die Insekten besondere an der Luft, bevor ich darüber gebloggt, 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” zu “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, z. 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!
It was a beautiful day today in the bay area, so I headed up to Napa and the Pope Valley. I was scouting some new territory for a small flower moth, Heliolonche celeris, that apparently is waiting for more contiguous nice weather to emerge. This season has been a bit tardy because of all of the cold and rain, but I hold out hopes for a successful return visit in a few weeks. Jedoch, I did come across a handful of beautiful microleps. All of these moths are in the genusAdelaand familyAdelidae (or some would sayIncurvariidae). They are commonly known as “fairy moths” because they appear to dance over patches of flowers – which apparently fairies love to do. It looked like males were defending a small area, with two to three at a time, twirling around each-other a few inches above the blossoms. I assume these dances were territorial because no mating was observed. While females have long antennae, the males take it to excess. I collected a nice series but Ihaven’t nailed down the species yet – how many do you see? Dankbar, all of theAdelidaewere covered in a 1969 paper by Jerry Powell, who also happens to live down the street from me.
After looking through the collections here at the CAS, and reading the monograph, it looks like most of these areAdela trigrapha. It is a common Adelid of the San Francisco Bay area and most of the coastal ranges of CA. Variation is noted to be considerable, with broken and unbroken bands as well as variation of the red on the crown. The other Adelid is easily ID’d toAdela flammeusella.
Another installment of Genius of the Press, and perhaps a bit of a softball. (Yikes these are easy to find) Who can tell me whats wrong withDieser Beitrag?
Die Wolken brachen heute Nachmittag in San Francisco auf und die Sonne begann zu scheinen. Das bevorstehende warme Wetter rief ein allzu vertrautes Gefühl hervor, eine, dass ich draußen Insekten sammeln und nicht drinnen sitzen sollte! Während ich diesen Frühling schon an einer Handvoll Orten war, Ich habe eine lange Zeit der Erhebung vor. Wir freuen konnte ich nicht anders, als sich auf den letzten beiden Jahren die spektakulären West mir gegeben hat zu reflektieren. Um meine Sucht zu veranschaulichen, hier ist ein caption meiner Google Earth GPS-Punkte.
Jedes Flag stellt einen separaten Auffang Ereignis (die gelben Pins ignorieren), zwischen Herbst 2007 und Winter 2009. Ich habe nicht für Sammelreisen gewidmet gehalten Spur der Meilen (vielleicht, um Schlag zu vermeiden), aber es muss sein Annäherung 30,000. Meine Honda Accord kann nicht eine typische Feld Fahrzeug, aber es macht die Distanz deutlich erschwinglicher. Natürlich sind die zwei platte Reifen und gebrochene Windschutzscheibe nicht zu helfen. Sie können ganz einfach sagen, dass ich lebte in Südkalifornien mit dieser riesigen Klecks flags. Die meisten von denen sind in Santa Barbara County konzentriert, das zwei neue Arten und Dutzende von Landkreisaufzeichnungen ergab. Arizona kommt zweite mit zwei 10 Tagesausflüge mit jeder Nacht in einem anderen Ort. Ich brach dann frei von Südwesten im vergangenen Sommer und fuhr eine lange Schleife durch den Mittleren Westen im Laufe der zweieinhalb Wochen. Ich zog in der Umgebung 4,000 Schmetterlinge und habe gerade angefangen, den letzten Schliff auf der letzten der Proben. Bisher, nur eine neue Spezies – ein Einzelexemplar von einem kleinen Acrolophidae aus West-Texas (von Peter Jump wer schreibt die MONA Faszikel auf die Gruppe bestimmt). Plenty links nach noch ID.
Auf dem Brett für dieses Jahr: Eine Reise nach Leavenworth, Washington für die 2010 Lepidopterists’ Society Meeting. Die 2 Wochen Sammel Reise wird dann nach Norden bis Washington Schleife Osten durch Idaho schießen, Utah und Nevada auf dem Heimweg. Aber wie immer, Arizona und Mexiko Befeuerung. Und jetzt, wo ich lebe in Berkeley, ich muss noch ein paar Mal in diesem Jahr in die Sierra zu bekommen!
I am really at a loss for understanding yet anotherpositive acupuncture studythat was as well designed as my 8th grade science fair project. Zugegeben, I was a nerdy science kid, but I could do a better job drunk. 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. Not to mention, 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). Danke, I’ll kindly take my position at the University of Cologne Medical Center now.
A continuation of the aquamoth series, this time withvideo from Science Friday! Ja, I have to link it because wordpress won’t embed… Dank Ted, figured it out!
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. Jedoch, 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.
Diese Kunstwerke sind die Schöpfung von Robert J. Lang. Wenn Sie einige verrückte Origami gesehen haben, stehen die Chancen gut, dass sie seine Kreation waren. Ja, Diese sind tatsächlich aus einem einzigen Stück ungeschnittenem Papier hergestellt. Er liefert das Faltmuster für die meisten seiner Designs, aber tatsächlich etwas aus diesem Muster zu falten, muss nahezu unmöglich sein, ohne die Reihenfolge zu kennen. Es ist sehr beeindruckend, aber wenn du etwas fauler bist, Sie können Ihre eigenen einfachen Insekten schneiden und falten und er erkrankt an Malaria, während er vor Elefanten in Kenia davonläuft.
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 (Es tut uns leid, 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…). dennoch, 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.
