Ili reignite Jumatatu nondo mfululizo hapa ni stunner: Melemaea cupcake (Geometridae).
Hii uzuri nadra awali tu imekuwa inajulikana kutoka kutawanyika maeneo hela magharibi mlima na tu kutoka watu wachache kila msimu mwingine. Hiyo ni hadi mfanyakazi wa kujitolea wa Makumbusho ya Denver Barbara Bartell alipoanza kuorodhesha nondo kwenye mali yake karibu na Mbuga ya Jimbo la Golden Gate Canyon kwenye safu ya mbele ya Mlima Rocky.. Zaidi ya 8,000′ nondo hawa huwa wageni wa kawaida katika chumba chake cheusi na sasa tuna safu kubwa zaidi inayojulikana ya aina hii ya kushangaza. (na yote yametunzwa kikamilifu!).
Kuondoka kwa Denver kuchanganya mambo mawili kamili kwa ajili ya blog hii – entomolojia na wasiwasi! Kama hawajaona sehemu hizi kisha kuchukua pili kuangalia video juu. Kwa uchache sana hii inaonekana kuwa jambo halisi, camera crews from the news station were able to record the very same effect. So what could they be?
I had an instantaneous recognition of what these UFOs were – flying insects, probably flies of some kind (Diptera) mating in the warm afternoon sun. It has been nice here in Denver and the hours around 1pm are always the warmest (strangely the same time the “UFOs” are most active). But it’s hard to tell with any degree of certainty what these objects are because of the way thatKDVR shows the clips. Odd angles, 2 second flashes, fast forward, super slow motion, super contrast… you only have fractions of a second to see the clip in real time. But when you do it seems so very obvious – and in my professional opinion – that these are insects.
Unfortunately they now have a quote from a Denver entomologist, Mary Ann Hamilton (misspelled as Mart on the KDVR website), saying these are not insects. Facepalm. I don’t know Mary and I certainly can’t blame her for being uncertain as to what these are after staring at the footage over and over and over again. In my opinion it was too hasty to rule out insects. Especially because once you enhance… enhance… na ENHANCEthe footage you being to lose all track of reality. The camera footage has recordedveryout of focus insects, and the very nature of optics means you have lost most of the information outside of the depth of field. And so enlarging and slowing down these images only makes this problem infinitely worse. The pixels become too large to render any meaningful information and an effect known aspareidoliastarts to kick in. Our brains start jumbling together often meaningless data into something recognizable. This is why people see a face on Mars, or rocket boosters coming out of the butts of these insects flying over Denver. And I don’t blame Mary for looking at some of these shiny objects whipping around in weird directions and not seeing insects. But perhaps KDVR could have requested an interview with someone at the Denver Museum (which they did not) – they would have been given an entomologist with much more field experience. I can’t say Mary is unqualified and I don’t mean any disrespect to her, but I don’t believe running a butterfly house is the same thing as being an active research entomologist.
This video is pretty excellent for explaining insect UFOs – although these are much larger insects than the ones captured above Denver.
And check out this cool video of a Syrphidae fly hovering in the sun – imagine these out of focus and hurtling around in front of the camera…
Majira hayo hakika yalipita, na inabidi nikiri kwamba kutokuwa na kazi kweli, kweli aligeuza tija yangu kuwa upuuzi. Lakini habari njema ni kwamba nimehamia Denver kwa kazi ya entomolojia huko Denver Makumbusho ya Nature na Sayansi! Nitakuwa nikifanya kazi ya kuweka hifadhidata na kupiga picha wadudu kwa Mikusanyiko ya Kusini Magharibi ya Mtandao wa Arthropods (SAKATA). Inafurahisha kurudi kazini na ninahisi kublogi zaidi kunakuja… bila kutaja hii ni moja ya ecoregions ya kushangaza zaidi nchini Marekani. Tayari ninapanga njia nyingi za kuchukua fursa ya milima hii katika msimu wa joto.
Kwa hivyo kwa nini usitembee kwa ufupi ofisi yangu mpya kupitia glasi inayoonekana ya wackos wa ubunifu. Ni vizuri kujikumbusha kwa nini ninapenda kuzungumza juu ya sayansi.
Nondo wa Jumatatu mwenye rangi ya waridi isiyoeleweka – inajumuisha (Saturniidae). Nondo hizi za maple ni za kawaida sana kusini mwa Illinois, lakini daima ni stunner wakati wao kuja mwanga.
Si nondo kawaida, lakini wanajulikana kuangalia moja. Hii ni catocala ilia (Erebidae) ((zamani Noctuidae)), na ni feeds juu ya wachache wa Oaks. Ni kufika katika mwanga yangu juu ya mwishoni mwa wiki katika Southern Illinois, chini katika Trail ya Machozi State Forest. Kama ilivyo kwa nondo wengine wengi aina hii iliyoenea ina idadi ya tofauti ambazo zinaweza kuwa tofauti – inasubiri monograph ya aina…
Sasa nimeweka benki picha chache nzuri za nondo kwa hivyo tarajia nondo zaidi za Jumatatu! (ingawa hii ni nondo ya Ijumaa).
habari za mitaa kwa zaidi ya Marekani mashariki na Canada imekuwa aflutter (ina) recently with reports of the irruption ofVanessa atalanta – Butterfly Red Admiral. Wakati huu ni tukio la kawaida kila spring kwa vipepeo hawa kuhamia kaskazini kutoka maeneo yao ya overwintering katika Marekani ya kusini, idadi kubwa ya mwaka huu inashangaza. Kuna maelfu ya maajabu katika yadi zetu za nyuma.
Kwa hivyo ni nini tofauti mwaka huu?
Kuna maoni mengi juu ya hali ya hewa ya joto ya msimu wa joto (joto zaidi Machi kwenye rekodi kwa maeneo mengi) na mara nyingi habari nyingi potofu kwenda pamoja na entomology ya kiti cha armchair. Vyanzo vingi vya habari ambavyo nimepata kusema chemchemi ya joto imeruhusu vipepeo hivi kushamiri na kuzaa kwa idadi isiyo ya kawaida. Hiyo haiwezekani kabisa hata hivyo, V. atalantaoverwinters as anadult. The southern states provide temps just warm enough for adultVanessabutterflies to hide in the fall and be the very first to awaken in the spring to get a jump start on mating. Hata kama vipepeo walikuwa wameamka mnamo Februari mimea ya mwenyeji haikuwa bado imeinuka (miiba); vipepeo katika yadi yetu ni kutoka mwaka jana.
Lakini vipi ikiwa hali ya hewa ilichukua jukumu katika mzunguko huu wa boom? Mwaka jana ulikuwa mwaka wa La Niña na msimu wetu wa baridi mzuri na mpole. Mwaka uliopita ilikuwa El Niño, most of the eastern US was assaulted with winter and we suffered at the hands of the epic Chicago “snowpocalypse”. Labda mchanganyiko huu umeshuka idadi ya watu vya kutosha katika 2010/2011 ambayo ilipungua mzigo wa vimelea, kuruhusu upana zaidi wa kipepeo katika msimu wa joto wa 2011. Vipepeo hao waliopindukia walipewa majira ya baridi kali ambayo ingeweza kuruhusiwa kwa vifo vya chini vya msimu wa baridi. As the butterflies moved north this spring there were no frosty nights to cut into populations – just lots of hungry birds. Matokeo yake itakuwa utitiri usiokuwa wa kawaida wa vipepeo wanaohama.
Today’s moth is an understated brown Crambidae, Loxostege brunneitincta. While this isn’t a particularly captivating moth it does have an interesting story that illustrates the need for scientific collections and museum loans. If you read the label image you will notice the moth was originally collected in 1927 na E. P. Van Duzeein Truckee, CA. Van Duzee was a noted Hemipterist and a curator at the California Academy of Sciences for 24 years until his death in 1940. His collections of bugs (in the literal sense) alone totaled164,442 vielelezo, and like many entomologists Van Duzee collected everything he came across and likely added another 100,000 specimens to the museum of groups he wasn’t even studying. And so this little brown moth remained in the CAS until the 1970’s whenEugene Munroeborrowed specimens for his work on the genusLoxostege.The resulting 1976 fascicle described this species as new to science and even used this specimen as an illustration in the book. If you’re unfamiliar with the term paratype it’s a specimen from the series (excluding the holotype) that was used to describe that species. And while this particular moth doesn’t seem to be abundant, the genus does have some more notorious pests like the southern beet and alfalfawebworms. More often than not the pets themselves are well known but the genera they belong to might be enigmatic. But thanks in part to Van Duzee and many entomologists like him, Munroe was able to assemble a collection of specimens that would have taken decades (if not longer) to gather. And only with a sufficient collection is a comprehensive assessment of species possible.
On brisk 37 shahada ya asubuhi katika Northern Illinois niliamua vumbi off kamera yangu na kuchunguza maendeleo ya “chemchemi”. Nilipiga Hifadhi ya Msitu ya Rollins Savanna na 6:30katika, muda tu kwa ajili mwanga wa kwanza kuyeyuka baridi utasababisha. Wiki moja na nusu iliyopita halijoto zilikuwa zikisukuma miaka ya 80 ya juu na majira ya kiangazi yalihisi kushika kasi. Kwa mtindo wa kawaida wa Chicago mambo hayakuchukua muda mrefu, hali ya hewa ilirudi katika hali yake ya chemchemi isiyobadilika na dhoruba na (sasa ilionekanaje) baridi kali.
Licha ya a 3 mwendo wa saa moja nilikutana na kipepeo mmoja tu – admirali mwekundu, Vanessa atalanta, na kupe karibu nusu dazeni ya mbwa (Dermacentor sp.). Ombaomba hawawezi kuwa wateuzi, hapakuwa na wadudu hata mmoja. Ninaweza pia kuchukua picha za ndege…
Ndege wa kwanza kabisa na wengi zaidi walikuwa Ndege wa Kumeza, Tachycineta bicolor. Wawili hawa walikuwa wakisalimiana tu na alfajiri na kunyoosha miguu yao midogo. Walionekana kuwa watu wenye subira, picha nzuri ya ndege-kwa-milele!
Mbuga haijakamilika bila kwaya ya Redwinged-Blackbirds.
Licha ya juhudi zangu bora hii ni mojawapo ya picha bora za Sandhill Crane ambazo ningeweza kupata. Ukibofya seti yangu ya Flickr utapata moja zaidi, lakini kuwanyemelea kwenye kinamasi ilikuwa ngumu sana. Sipati ndege bado…
Coyote huyu aniruhusu nimkaribie sana, inaonekana kama wanalishwa vizuri katika vitongoji.
Back hadi Jumatatu nondo! This beautiful insect isStiria dyari (Noctuidae) zilizokusanywa juu ya safari Februari nje ya Cataviña, Baja California Mexico. Naamini mimea jeshi bado haijulikani, but all of the moths in the genusStiriahave these brilliant yellow forewings that help camouflage them on the stem of a yellow flowered plant. Kuna 7 currently described species most of which are found in the SW United States and northern Mexico, lakini Stiria rugifronsmakes it into the great plains. All of the species have poorly defined and often overlapping ranges, not to mention the genitalia can highly variable. It’s very likely the final word has not been written about these beautiful noctuids quite yet.
Nyuma kutoka hiatus na nyuma Genius ya Press wadudu habari-kushindwa mfululizo! Safi mbali ya mitambo ya kuanzia mwaka jana, Idara ya Mazingira, Chakula na Vijijini nchini Uingereza lilifungwa kwa infestation mkubwa wa nguo nondo. picha inavyoonekana hapa kutoka “Taifa” hadithi ni mbali na nondo sahihi nguo (Tineidae) – inaonekana kama Noctuidae ya aina fulani.
Lakini ni ngumu kuwalaumu kwa kukosea nondo wakati kampuni za kudhibiti wadudu za Uingereza hazijui hata nondo ya nguo ni nini.. Hapa ni Toleo la Instakil ya “nondo” hiyo hutokea kuwa Plusiinae noctuid.
Na mshindi wa utambulisho ulioshindwa huenda kwa kampuni hii nyingine ya Uingereza “Nguvu ya Hawk“. Hakuna hata nondo – lakini kipepeo nahodha!
