Por Chris Grinter, on April 19th, 2011
 Source: Wikipedia It turns out that Richard Branson has a new idea; to save the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) by importing them to his private British Virgin Island. As the article points out Branson spent millions of pounds and years of effort to turn the island into “the most ecologically friendly island in the world”. But it appears Mr Branson has decided to forgo conservation science and rewrite it in a more PR friendly way. In come the lemurs despite the cautions of his own ecological assessment because he wants “…to create a second island habitat and the conditions on Moskito are perfect.” Perhaps Branson has a bizarro world dictionary where the definition of the word perfect is “something completely dissimilar from the original”.
OK sure, at first the idea sounds like a fine one – the lemurs are endangered, why not try to give them a second wild refuge? Bem, Dr James Lazell of the Conservation Agency has had 31 years experience in the Virgin Islands and has pointed out that “Lemurs are agile, dexterous, aggressive, omnivorous animals that could have a detrimental effect on these simple island ecologies. They eat absolutely everything – lizards, fruit, roots, insetos, birds’ eggs.” Oh but don’t worry, nothing bad can happen when you introduce primates to an island (introduced primates devastate Florida Key). Branson knows that the lemurs will only “take the odd gecko” (like the rare endemic dwarf-gecko Sphaerodactylus parthenopion), not to mention they probably won’t spread to other islands since they “hate swimming” (ring tailed lemur swimming).
So why then the ring-tailed? Not because it is the most endangered (existem lots of other more endangered lemurs), but because it is the most iconic. That is what really drives me up the wall about this ridiculous idea. Not only is he naively introducing a possibly invasive species into a sensitive island habitat – but because he is spreading a false message of conservation. Like a slow child Branson has rushed to the ring-tailed to save it while completely missing the entire idea behind conservation. The ring-tailed is a flagship species, one that draws attention to the devastation that is occurring in Madagascar. One cute cuddly animal to represent the staggeringly unique and diverse habitats of its homeland. But not if Richard Branson has anything to say about it. Why bother protect Madagascar when you can swoop in and create a new home for a primate everyone loves? Ufa, crisis averted. Richard fiddles while Madagascar burns.
I suspect this freakish island zoo is simply masquerading as conservation and the real incentive behind it is commercial. Over the next few years there will be a handful of “luxury, carbon-neutral homes built on the island”. A pretty brilliant scheme to incentivize the purchase of homes that undoubtedly will cost tens of millions of dollars each – and you can pretend to feel good about protecting the world while you do it. After all the Virgin Islands lack any charismatic wildlife; nature sure does a terrible job of creating a billionaires wonderland. What comes next to the island?
Maybe… just maybe… Branson has Dr. Moreau moving in first.
Por Chris Grinter, em 18 de abril, 2011 Algumas semanas atrás eu fui convidado a participar de uma aula de entomologia Berkeley em campo no fim de semana. Our destination was the Azul Oak Ranch Reserve; uma das mais novas reservas para o sistema da Universidade da Califórnia, localizada nos arredores de San Jose, no Monte Hamilton (mapa abaixo). It was a joint spider and beetle class trip, hosted by Charles Griswold e Dave Kavanaugh respectively. And despite a frost on Saturday night we managed to find some interesting insects. You’ve already seen my images of the Scaphinotus (carabídeos), but here is a larger set of images from both myself and colleague and fellow blogger Tamas SZUTA.
 Staphylinidae: Aleocharinae?  Pholcidae : likely Pholcus sp.  Salticidae: Phidippus sp. Continue reading Blue Oak Ranch Reserve
Por Chris Grinter, on April 6th, 2011 Está bem – a few apologies for not having full images *yet* of the larvae in question (I will in a few days!). Over the weekend I was out with a group of Berkeley students on Mount Hamilton and PhD candidate Meghan Culpepper collected a few species of Scaphinotus and a some larvae! So the specimen from Monday was indeed the larvae of a Scaphinotus beetle feasting inside the shell of a native terrestrial snail. This challenge was a hard one since these predatory Scaphinotus larvae are rarely encountered and there are zero images of out there – and none of them feeding. Better luck next time!
For now, here is an undetermined Scaphinotus species. In the coming weeks I will have 4-5 species photographed and identified (by Meghan) – and the larvae will have to be sequenced for species ID. Stay tuned.
Por Chris Grinter, on April 4th, 2011 
Came across this guy while out in the field the other day, what’s going on here? Points awarded for Order/Family/Genus – but even experts in this group can’t figure out the species quite yet.
(everyone in the field with me should hold their comments until the guesses come in!)
Por Chris Grinter, em 30 de março, 2011  Vidro klettii: Fotos por abril Nobile, CAS
Na sua maioria, as moscas não são um inseto eu fico muito animado sobre. Contudo, o enigmático família Acroceridae são a exceção. Vou começar a compartilhar alguns gêneros interessantes ao longo do tempo – a morfologia da família é surpreendentemente diversa. Most of my days are spent at the museum inventorying our massive collection of over 16,000 Acorcerids (aka small-headed flies). That may not sound all too impressive when you compare it to other more abundant families (and it does pale in comparison to the over 17,500,000 other specimens we do have in the museum); but it turns out to represent many, if not most, of tudo known specimens for the entire family. While there are likely large assemblages of these flies in other institutions, the California Academy of Sciences can easily claim the record ever since receiving the collection of Dr. Evert I. Schlinger (who occasionally comes in to work from the museum).
Acrocerids turn out to be a rather difficult group to study because of how rare they are in nature, their parasitoid biology, and how difficult they can be to catch on the wing. Their large thorax is packed with muscles that rocket the fly through the air – so if you don’t catch them at a flower you’re left longing for a Malaise trap. Ev did tell me one story of learning to catch these on the wing in Costa Rica. You stand downwind from a colleague in the field – as soon as someone hears something zip past, you swing wildly hoping to snare the fly by chance… it does work every once in a while. These flies are also the only known endoparasites of adult spiders (there may be a record of a Tachinid…). The above genus, NeoLasia, is a parasite of Theraphosid tarantulas (something like Aphonopelma). As a larvae the fly works its way up the legs of a spider and burrows into the abdomen where it then settles in next to the book lung and pokes a little breathing hole. Then it waits patiently for the spider to near maturity. With female tarantulas, the fly could be dormant for decades. Eventually something akin to the movie Aliens happens and the larvae feeds on the internal organs of the spider then emerges to pupate. But figuring out whether or not a spider has a parasite is impossible without a dissection – so large collections of live spiders must be maintained to obtain host records. Parasitoid biology is just so cool.
The above specimen (Vidro klettii a new, unnamed, espécies) was collected in 1977 by Schlinger near the town of Alamos, México – on flowers with the likely mimic model, a Chrysomelidae beetle (beetle people, any ideas beyond family?).
Por Chris Grinter, on March 24th, 2011 Better be careful of what you do while out in the countryside. Farms can be dangerous places, especially if you’re a photographer. Proposed legislation in Florida, titled simply “farms”, is attempting to make photography or drawings in, on or of a farm without explicit written consent a first degree FELONY (até 30 years in prison). What could possibly be the justification for this legislation? Journalist Barry Doyle suggests the good Senator is tightly in the pockets of Agribusiness – looking out for those poor farmers who are targeted by animal rights groups or even worse – human rights groups! I tend to concur, this legislation is a disgusting piece of corruption. It gets pretty bad:
(2) A person who photographs, video records, or otherwise produces images or pictorial records, digital or otherwise, at or of a farm or other property where legitimate agriculture operations are being conducted without the written consent of the owner, or an authorized representative of the owner, commits a felony of the first degree…
I strongly encourage any of my Florida readers to write to Senator Norman and express your absolute disgust in his legislation.
14031 N. Dale Mabry Blvd.
Tampa, FL 33618
(813) 265-6260
Senate VOIP: 41200
I also encourage everyone else everywhere else to write to your US representative and exclaim your outrage over this possible violation of first amendment rights (only a proposed violation at this moment).
And just for good measure, here is a bad cellphone picture I took while in Oregon with lots of farms.
Por Chris Grinter, em 22 de março, 2011 Geralmente me deparo com artigos entomologia horríveis o suficiente regularmente que eu salvar um atraso para a série futuro. Este não foi o caso ao longo das últimas semanas, Eu não encontrei a matriz normal do terrível crud mídia. Talvez eu fico cansado e parar de olhar tão cuidadosamente – but this week I even came across a moth related correction from the Maui News. They fixed their error, but must have deleted the original article…
And for this week I found Este artigo with the image below. Should be pretty easy to spot the weirdness (eles do at least manage to point out that the moth is não the LBAM (light brown apple moth)).
Por Chris Grinter, em 18 de março, 2011 
Talvez o único lugar no mundo onde você pode encontrar um bisonte americano (vs. búfalo) em pé perto de uma praia ao lado de uma palmeira. A semana em Santa Catalina foi um um maravilhoso, e apesar de uma primavera fria com um geadas fora de época poucos, alguns coleta decente foi feito. Here are just a few amusing images and you’ll notice one thing right away: no fields of wildflowers! As it turns out, almost a century of goat, pig and bison grazing has left mostly grass and cactus on the island. At one point there were over 1000 bison and countless herds of goats; it’s a wonder anything survived at all! Hoje, there are thankfully only a modest ~200 bison left that are even on birth control (you guessed it, you can’t shoot the damn things since people “love” them – just like the stupid eucalyptus you can’t cut down). In 1924 a small heard of bison were brought over to shoot the movie The Vanishing American. Naturalmente, the project went over budget, the scene was cut and the animals were let loose instead of paying to return them home. 80 years later and you’re left with an island you can only fight to “conserve” and not restore. Sad fact is that we have no clue what the island actually used to be like. It’s even hypothesized that the endemic island fox (of which we saw 6!) was brought over by indigenous peoples a few thousand years ago from neighboring islands. I guess it’s in our nature to mess with our environment.
As I was photographing the above, this beast walked up behind me. It wasn’t running, I was!
Por Chris Grinter, em 8 de março, 2011 [cetsEmbedGmap src = http://maps.google.com / maps?ll = 33.393039, -118,416824&spn = 0.359452,0.715485&t = h&z = 11 = largura = 330 altura 600 marginwidth = 0 marginheight = 0 frameborder = 0 = auto rolagem]
Amanhã de manhã eu estou fora de um 10 day collecting trip down to Ilha Catalina. Eu tenho a sorte de ser convidado para se juntar Dr.. Jerry Powell da Universidade de Berkeley em uma pesquisa traça, e esta será a minha primeira vez para qualquer uma das ilhas. The Channel Islands are known for their high levels of endemism, and none is more famous than the Channel Island Fox. There are also a handful of endemic butterflies and moths that I’ll be hoping to find, but at the very least I know it’s wildflower season and I’ve got my camera primed.
I will likely have little or no access to the internet while staying on the island, so hang tight for a week. Had I planned ahead I would have scheduled posts or a guest author! Please do stay tuned for some of my first images of the 2011 field season.
Por Chris Grinter, em 3 de março, 2011 
Aparentemente something in the Mazda 6 fuel line is warm and inviting for the yellow sac spider, o suficiente de modo a que eles estão a construir tramas por meio dos sistemas de ventilação do 4 veículos de cilindro (e não a 6!). O problema tem sido considerado um “infestação aranha” pela empresa de carro, and the clogged vent lines then can lead to a cracked gas tank and the possibility of a fire.
“A certain type of spider may weave a web in the evaporative canister vent line and this may cause a restriction of the line”
So far only 20 cases are confirmed, but this problem is prolific enough that it has lead to a recall of over 52,000 sedans! I think it’s high time the major car companies hire entomology consultants – after all, my retainer would be a lot less than the cost of that recall…
I consulted with our resident team of arachnologists here at the CAS, and the above image does appear to be a sac spider. It’s too hard to tell from the image, but it’s probably not an egregious taxonomic failure.
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