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!?” Ar ndóigh, 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” chun “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, yes – 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. Mar sin féin, I did come across a handful of beautiful microleps. All of these moths are in the genusAdelaand familyAdelidae (or some would sayMéncurvariidae). 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? Go raibh maith agat, 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 withthis article?
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. Go dtí seo, only one new species – a sole specimen of a small Acrolophidae from western Texas (determined by Peter Jump who is writing the MONA fascicle on the group). Plenty left to still ID.
On the board for this year: A trip to Leavenworth, Washington for the 2010 Lepidopterists’ Society meeting. The two week collecting trip will shoot north to Washington then loop east through Idaho, Utah and Nevada on the way home. But as always, Arizona and Mexico are beaconing. And now that I live in Berkeley I will have to get into the Sierra a few more times this year!
Tá mé i ndáiríre ag caillteanas do thuiscint eile fós Staidéar acupuncture dearfach go raibh chomh deartha go maith le mo thionscadal cothrom eolaíocht 8 grád. Deonaithe, Bhí mé a kid eolaíochta nerdy, ach d'fhéadfadh liom a dhéanamh ar meisce poist níos fearr. I mo thuairimse, ba chóir dom a staidéar follow ina mé tástáil ar an éifeachtúlacht torcán tossed ar do chúl. Bheadh sé a bheith cinnte níos amusing; agus go hiomlán de luach eolaíochta díreach faoi an oiread. Gan trácht ar, Tá torcán kinda gleoite.
Na fadhbanna fíor leis an staidéar:
Unblinded
n = 15. Is féidir a n-tástálacha x² bheith mar thoradh ar freagra suntasach, ach in aon samhlaíocht ar bith cruinne dhéanann 15 comhionann le sampláil suntasach go staitistiúil ar bith daonra, áit ar bith.
Aon smacht diúltach. Déileálfar siad go léir a n-othar a bhfuil acupuncture nó vitimíní. Tá Vitimín B casta a chóireáil (fós an-lag tacaíocht), agus gan ach a rialú dearfach. Cé leis a rá nach raibh boladh a fheabhsú go nádúrtha le linn an staidéir? Ní féidir leis na húdair.
Mar sin, tá mo cheist, cad is féidir a bheith, b'fhéidir, an spreagadh don staidéar? Is féidir liom a shamhlú conas a bhí sé seo dreamed suas, ar fud na leabhair dathúcháin lá amháin “Hey Doc Julia, acupuncture oibreacha cinnte huh?” “Cén fáth yes a dhéanann sé leathcheann eile, a ligean ar chruthú staidéar i ndáiríre crappy a thaispeáint go díreach!”. Féach ar mo phost acupuncture níos sine le naisc níos mó agus plé beagán níos mó ar leigheas Sínis cén fáth a ársa go bhfuil cur amú airgid. Ar ndóigh, má tá tú tástáil 15 daoine is féidir leat scrape le chéile de thoradh dearfach do díreach faoi rud ar bith. Ach mar a dtosaíonn tú a thabhairt isteach staidéir níos mó agus rialú níos docht tús a chur leis na héifeachtaí dearfacha a Laghdaigh.
Ridiculous. Agus anois go bhfuil mé ag féachaint ar air, bhí mo tionscadal cothrom eolaíocht ghrád 8 a rinneadh le dhá thacar de rialuithe, blinded, agus bhí méid na samplaí de 18 (éifeachtacht antibacterial de glantóirí cistine). Go raibh maith agat, Feicfidh mé a ghlacadh cineálta mo sheasamh ag Ollscoil Köln Ionad Leighis anois.
A continuation of the aquamoth series, this time withvideo from Science Friday! Is ea, I have to link it because wordpress won’t embed… Go raibh maith agat Ted, figured it out!
Tá cúpla íomhánna ó mo thuras mothing deireadh seachtaine síos go dtí Shell Creek, San Luis Obispo Contae. Tá an earraigh Luath feadh chósta lárnach néal, agus bhí pacáilte bóithre ar ais le feighlithe bláth. Bhí mórán de na carranna áitithe ag teaghlaigh amach le haghaidh tiomáint deireadh seachtaine, Bhí lón pacáilte ag go leor acu agus shuigh siad chun féachaint ar na bláthanna ag fás. Cé go bhfuil áthas orm daoine a fheiceáil ag baint taitneamh as an áilleacht nádúrtha, tá sé deacair an damáiste is féidir a dhéanamh dá satailt a fheiceáil. Mar sin féin, dá dtiocfadh níos mó daoine amach le meas a bheith acu ar an dúlra, b'fhéidir go mbeadh sé níos éasca a chosaint. Bhí na bláthanna chomh geal agus chomh dlúth go raibh sé deacair díriú ar leamhain, agus tar éis cúpla uair an chloig thosaigh mé ag dul beagán sneachta-dall (nó mar a dtabharfar go deo anois é, bláth-dall). Seo cúpla iarracht lag chun an áilleacht a ghabháil.
Cruthaíonn na píosaí ealaíne seo Robert J. Go raibh maith agat. Tá seans má tá tú ag feiceáil roinnt origami dÚsachtach ná mar a bhí siad a chruthú. Is ea, iad siúd atá déanta go hiarbhír as aon phíosa amháin de pháipéar uncut. Soláthraíonn sé an patrún crease don chuid is mó dá chuid dearaí, ach ní mór go mbeadh sé beagnach dodhéanta rud éigin a fhilleadh ón bpatrún sin gan an t-ord a fhios agam. Tá sé an-suntasach, ach má tá tú rud beag leisciúil, is féidir leat do chuid feithidí simplí féin a ghearradh agus a fhilleadh amach ina ionad.
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 (tá brón orainn, it’s annoying but I couldn’t find it anywhere else) and read a response to the interview by Dr. Cognato, anseo. 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…). Mar sin féin, 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.
