Por Chris Grinter, em 4 de outubro, 2011 A few months ago a magnificent key to the Lepidoptera of Canada (todos eles) was published by Jason Dombroskie – um estudante de PhD da U. de Alberta. O programa está disponível para usuários do Windows apenas para que eu não tive uma boa oportunidade para explorar ainda – 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! Tem 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. Garantido, 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.
Por Chris Grinter, em 3 de outubro, 2011  par de Gnophaela vermiculata
Esta segunda-feira mariposa é um Arctiinae, Gnophaela vermiculata. These beautiful day flying moths were abundant on yellow Helianthus flowers around 9000′ na Floresta Nacional de Santa Fé, Novo México. As lagartas se alimentam de campainhas, mas os adultos preferem a fonte de néctar da mais alta qualidade na área – which fortunately makes for easy and attractive photo subjects.
Por Chris Grinter, em 30 de setembro, 2011 Today marks a sad day in Physics history, o Tevatron accelerator at Fermi Lab in Batavia Illinois was powered down for the last time. Once the second most powerful accelerator in the world (and most powerful in the USA), 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 “family” 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
Por Chris Grinter, em 30 de setembro, 2011 O 2011 Ig Nobel ceremony took place yesterday at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre. O prêmio é patrocinado pela Improvable Research, uma organização que reúne fascinantes, chance, e artigos de pesquisa hilariantes que triunfam a ideia de que nem toda ciência é chata. Among this year’s distinguished recipients was fellow entomologist and blogger David Rentz, who received the IgNobel in Biology for a discovery made in 1983 with colleague Darryl Gwynne in the Australian outback. Much to their surprise a certain style of brown bottle with indentations at the base (“stubbies”) proved to be irresistible to males of the Buprestid beetle Julodimorpha bakewelli Julodimorpha saundersii (ver source paper and comment below).
Congratulations Dave and Darryl!
 Julodimorpha bakewelli attempting to copulate with a bottle of beer. Photo by D. Gwynne
Por Chris Grinter, em 19 de setembro, 2011 [youtube kZyIN23Cy4Y 480 360]
O mundo dos insetos microscópicos é muito diferente do nosso e raramente temos vislumbres dele. Thanks in part to the impressive Phantom camera system and the Flight Artists project researchers have filmed the minute (1milímetros!) Trichogramma wasp (Calcidoidea) em vôo. 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.
Scroll ahead to 1:07 and watch the interaction of the two wasps – the one that flips off to the left of the screen moves in such a bizarre way it looks like bad CGI. I sure hope they record more species of minute flying insects!
Por Chris Grinter, em 19 de setembro, 2011  Converter nigrorufa (Megalopygidae)
Nesta segunda-feira traça é uma mulher deslumbrante da Megalopygidae Neotropical – Converter nigrorufa. Ed Ross e Ev Schlinger este espécime coletado no Peru 1955, e eu ouvi muitas histórias sobre estas expedições épicas. Eu realmente não posso imaginar que viajam via navio de carga, 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.
Por Chris Grinter, em 13 de setembro, 2011 This is a pretty epic fail. eu acho que o “jovem adulto” diretrizes de publicação são menos rígidas com “fatos”.
Thanks to Richard Lee Brown for first posting this on Facebook.
Por Chris Grinter, em 12 de setembro, 2011 Ops, Eu pulei a mariposa da segunda-feira passada, então aqui estão dois! Estes são alguns stunners da expedição CAS Filipinas e acho que descobri seus nomes. Se você souber melhor, Por favor me corrija.
 Parasa darma (Limacodedae)
 Parotis marginata (Crambidae)
Por Chris 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…)
Por Chris Grinter, on August 31st, 2011 There has been a continuing discussion over the last few years of why so few women remain in science. While I’m not going to dive into that topic here, you can find great discussions aqui, aqui, aqui e aqui. I don’t however think anyone argues about why women don’t enter science in the first place, especially when you see things like this. Way to print that soul crushing stereotype right on the front of your daughters shirt, JCPenny.
(através da Skepchick)
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