On my daily commute back to Berkeley, I have spotted this (apologies for the cruddy image). Actually, I’ve seen a handful of these pop up around San Francisco and it makes me want to tear my hair out every time. For those who are new to my blog, this goes back to my Genius of . . . → Read More: It just won’t leave me alone
 7 comments - (Comments are closed)  Entomology  Bad Science, Butterflies, Entomology, Mimicry, Taxonomy Fail While I work on a more substantial post, you can name this butterfly – and the plant should be pretty easy too. Extra bonus if you can guess the county (state won’t be too impressive) in which I took this photo. This was pre-DSLR, but my old beat up canon point-and-shoot did manage to get . . . → Read More: Mid-week Mystery Share this!For regular readers of my blog you might already know my stance on the monarch, but catch up here if you’d like to. Yesterday I came across this article in the LA times – regarding the overwintering colonies of monarchs in Pacific Grove, CA. Out here, west of the continental divide, there are quite a . . . → Read More: Monarch Madness Share this! 4 comments - (Comments are closed) Entomology Butterflies, Conservation, Invasive Species, Lepidoptera, Monarchs This one is just too easy. The billboard is on I-35 south of Burleson, Texas. I don’t know the true provenance of this image, but it came my way from Omar Bocanegra via Mike Quinn on the Texas Lepidoptera list-serv. Share this!Here is a hill-topping male Papilio zeliacon, or Anise swallowtail. This butterfly is widespread in the western Pacific states and is probably much more common than it once was. After the introduction of fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), and subsequent escape from horticulture, the anise swallowtail took hold as a common California butterfly. Perhaps before this . . . → Read More: Butterfly Porn Share this! 5 comments - (Comments are closed) Entomology Butterflies, Conservation, Entomology, Extinct Species, Lepidoptera Here are a few more images from my recent northern road trip, this time from western Idaho. Right outside the town of New Meadows were fields of flowers thick with life. It was some of the best day collecting I’ve done in years, and fellow road tripper Peter Jump and I discovered this . . . → Read More: This time, with a moth Share this!In eastern Lassen county, on the vast high juniper hills of the California-Nevada border, there are herds of “wild” horses, sheep and cattle. Par for the course, the only flowering plant around was horehound (Marrubium vulgare). Despite the non-native flora and (semi)mega-fauna, the insects were still at home. Being the only nectar source, the small . . . → Read More: The only bar in town Share this!Welcome to volume eight of the inconsistently reoccurring series, Genius of the Press. I came across this article recently regarding an endemic Puerto Rican butterfly. Who can tell me exactly why this report is misleading? It may be a little trickier than the standard GOP (I suggest discarding any previously associated acronyms with those letters). . . . → Read More: Genius of the Press VIII Share this! 5 comments - (Comments are closed) Entomology Butterflies, Conservation, Contest, Entomology, Lepidoptera, Media
A once in a lifetime occurrence, a bilateral gynandromorph. In short, a glitch during cell differentiation creates asymmetrical chromosome patterns, which leads to asymmetrical sex expression in the adult insect. If you haven’t clicked the link above, do so, it’s an excellent description with some awesome photos. Back to the butterfly. I . . . → Read More: An Awesome Little Butterfly Share this!News in from India, a butterfly photographer has been kidnapped. A local park official who was visiting the north eastern province Arunachal Pradesh was taken at night by a gang of armed youth-rebels. Efforts to find him have been hampered by the weather and remote terrain. India has recently become one of the most difficult . . . → Read More: The Dangerous Life of a Lepidopterist Share this! |
Skepticism |
