بواسطة كريس Grinter, on October 4th, 2011 A few months ago a magnificent key to the Lepidoptera of Canada (all of them) was published by Jason Dombroskie – a PhD student from the U. of Alberta. The program is available for windows users only so I haven’t had a good chance to explore it yet – but the PDF is available online and covers the same material. All known Canadian Lepidoptera are included in this key and most of them down to subfamily or even tribe! يوجد 222 taxa, 73 characters and 266 character states that help narrow things down. This is the first reference of its kind to accurately and completely cover the fauna of an entire country and the first to use a well illustrated and interactive key. It’s surprising how well known the leps are yet how few good references exist, almost none of which have a usable key. For everyone out there who has struggled to identify leps before this will be an incredibly helpful resource. منحت, there are likely a few US moths that could throw a wrench into the flow of things, but by and large I doubt there will be many problems.
بواسطة كريس Grinter, على 3 أكتوبر, 2011  الزوج Gnophaela الدودي الشكل
هذه العثة ويوم الاثنين هو وArctiinae, Gnophaela الدودي الشكل. وكانت هذه العث يوم تحلق جميلة وفيرة عن أصفر هيليانثوث الزهور حول 9000′ في سانتا الوطنية للغابات, نيو مكسيكو. اليسروع تتغذى على البلوبلز, ولكن البالغين يفضلون أعلى مستوى من الجودة مصدر الرحيق في المنطقة – والتي لحسن الحظ ليجعل من السهل وجذابة موضوعات الصورة.
بواسطة كريس Grinter, يوم 30 سبتمبر, 2011 يصادف اليوم يوم حزين في تاريخ الفيزياء, ال Tevatron accelerator at Fermi Lab in Batavia Illinois was powered down for the last time. مرة واحدة في الثانية مسرع الأكثر نفوذا في العالم (والأقوى في الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية), the new LHC has made this beautiful machine obsolete. I can only assume the teams of scientists working at Fermi were hopeful for further funding, but the grand ol’ days of big-budget physics was crushed by congress in 1993 with the cancelation of the SSC. Off to Europe our physicists go!
I have many fond memories of visiting Fermi with my grade school science class. Every year Mr. House would take us to explore the physics and nature surrounding the lab. I recall a feeling of privilege when you visited a real working lab where there were no public displays with cute goggly-eyed atoms, just chalk boards full of Feynman diagrams and 3 day old cups of coffee. But it was probably the fully restored big bluestem prairie that grew on and around the 4 mile collider ring was where I had the most fun and is what left a lasting impact on my scientific career.
And so it goes, the evolution of science in the US. I have noticed this particular trend: 1) An active science facility with lots of research has a tiny museum for public tours. 2) The research loses funding and the tiny museum takes over. 3) The museum is renovated to be more “الأسرة” friendly and “interactive”, while science is pushed into the basements. 4) Whatever scientists are left (or students hired to act like scientists) are put under glass for the public to watch like strange creatures; all while true research fades into memory.
 Tevatron at Fermi: Reidar Hahn/Fermilab
بواسطة كريس Grinter, يوم 30 سبتمبر, 2011 ال 2011 اي جي نوبل أقيم أمس في مسرح ساندرز بجامعة هارفارد. وترعى هذه الجائزة عن طريق البحث الغير محتمل, منظمة التي تجمع رائعة, غريب, والأوراق البحثية فرحان صراحة أن انتصار فكرة أن ليس كل العلم هو مملة. من بين المستفيدين المميزين لهذا العام كان زميل عالم الحشرات والمدون ديفيد رينتز, الذي حصل على IgNobel في علم الأحياء ل اكتشاف صنع في 1983 مع زميله داريل جوين في المناطق النائية بأستراليا. ولدهشتهم إلى حد كبير نمط معين من الزجاجة البنية مع المسافات البادئة في القاعدة (“ستيبس”) ثبت أنه لا يقاوم من قبل ذكور خنفساء بوبريستيد يulodimorpha bakewelli Julodimorpha saundersii (نرى ورقة المصدر والتعليق أدناه).
مبروك ديف وداريل!
 Julodimorpha bakewelli يحاول الجماع مع زجاجة من البيرة. تصوير د. جوين
بواسطة كريس Grinter, on September 19th, 2011 [youtube kZyIN23Cy4Y 480 360]
The microscopic insect world is a very different one from ours and we rarely are given glimpses into it. Thanks in part to the impressive Phantom camera system and the Flight Artists project researchers have filmed the minute (1مم!) Trichogramma wasp (Chalcidoidea) in flight. These insects are egg parasites of Lepidoptera (amongst other groups undoubtedly) and can be used as effective biocontrol agents. As you’ll see in the video it’s been long understood that these wasps hitchhike on adult Lepidoptera waiting for fresh eggs, but it wasn’t know how they got there and if they were even flying onto the adult hosts. Stunningly, this wasp flaps its wings at ~350 times per second to achieve some astounding feats of movement. The biomechanics of this wing mechanism must be fascinating.
انتقل إلى الأمام إلى 1:07 ومشاهدة تفاعل الدبابير – الشخص الذي ينقلب إلى يسار الشاشة يتحرك بطريقة غريبة تبدو مثل CGI سيئة. أنا متأكد من آمل أن يسجلوا المزيد من أنواع الحشرات الطائرة الدقيقة!
بواسطة كريس Grinter, on September 19th, 2011  Trosia nigrorufa (Megalopygidae)
This Monday moth is a stunning female of the Neotropical Megalopygidae – Trosia nigrorufa. Ed Ross and Ev Schlinger collected this specimen in Peru in 1955, and I’ve heard many stories about these epic expeditions. I can’t really imagine travelling via cargo ship, being gone for six or more months at a time and relying mostly on hand written correspondance. It must have made the world feel like a much larger place than it is today.
بواسطة كريس Grinter, يوم 13 سبتمبر, 2011 This is a pretty epic fail. اعتقد ان “الشباب البالغين” المبادئ التوجيهية للنشر هي أقل صرامة مع “حقائق”.
Thanks to Richard Lee Brown for first posting this on Facebook.
بواسطة كريس Grinter, on September 12th, 2011 عفوا, I skipped last monday’s moth, so here are two! These are some stunners from the CAS Philippines expedition and I think I have figured out their names. If you know better, please correct me.
 Parasa darma (Limacodidae)
 Parotis marginata (Crambidae)
بواسطة كريس Grinter, on September 4th, 2011  Plebejus samuelis
We all saw this day coming, the rise of the butterflies, the day they will take vengeance on us. No longer will they passively fly around their habitats as they are bulldozed for malls and polluted with runoff. One particularly angry Karner Blue has submitted a letter to the Onion warning us that our time is about up. Endangered little Lycaenidae will join hands and come after us some quiet night while we’re asleep in our beds. We at the Lepidopterists’ Society have even made their list for failing to take action. Together we should act before it is too late – let us preemptively strike before the rise of the blues. Save your families! Burn those styrofoam containers, pave the prairies, drive your off-road vehicles and take a stand against these fluttering fanatics!
(or we could just save them…)
بواسطة كريس Grinter, على 31 أغسطس, 2011 كان هناك نقاش مستمر على مدى السنوات القليلة الماضية لماذا تبقى عدد قليل جدا من النساء في مجال العلوم. بينما أنا لن الغوص في هذا الموضوع هنا, you can find great discussions هنا, هنا, هنا و هنا. إلا أنني لا أعتقد أن أحدا يجادل حول لماذا المرأة لا تدخل العلم في المقام الأول, especially when you see things like this. Way to print that soul crushing stereotype right on the front of your daughters shirt, JCPenny.
(بواسطة Skepchick)
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