A ghost is born

Welcome to the new year, and nearly a full year of blogging! It’s amazing how fast the time flew by, but again it always does. As you likely noticed December turned out to be my weakest posting month with a whopping 2 posts. Resolution: more posting!

Now I haven’t started blogging about music (for those . . . → Čítajte viac: A ghost is born

Biology of a Ghost

This moth is just about as rare as its paranormal namesake (except that it’s real) – it’s a Gazoryctra sp. in the family Hepialidae. They represent a basal lineage of the Lepidoptera and are commonly known as ghost moths or swift moths. Ghostbecause males of some species are known to fly in . . . → Čítajte viac: Biology of a Ghost

Jednoducho príliš ľahké

Prirodzene, to bolo menované Phallus drewsii. To je tvorí zoznam vrchole 10 druh uvedení v 2009, splnené Arizona State University (nie je moc dobrý zoznam, ak 7 z mojich nových druhov neboli tam…). Aj keď mám tendenciu vyhnúť falický a O'Keeffesque botaniku, toto som nemohol odolať, pretože to . . . → Čítajte viac: Jednoducho príliš ľahké

Taxonómie Fail

Recently came across some ridiculously horrible taxonomy from China (.pdf). If you scroll down a bit you can see the english translation. At first glance this looks like a standard taxonomy paper with bare-bones species descriptions. You might even think to yourself, “huh, wonder why they are describing species from only one specimen”. Not the . . . → Čítajte viac: Taxonómie Fail

Aj môžu riadiť príliš veľa

Mraky zlomil dnes popoludní v San Franciscu a slnko začalo svietiť. Nadchádzajúce teplé počasie vyvolal príliš známy pocit, ten, ktorý by som mal byť vonku zbieranie hmyzu, a nie sedieť doma! Aj keď som už bol na niekoľkých málo miestach tento rok na jar, Mám dlhú sezónu zberu . . . → Čítajte viac: Aj môžu riadiť príliš veľa

Aquamoth!

Another amazing animal from Hawaiia completely amphibious caterpillar (published in the March 22 PNAS). While there are a few aquatic Lepidoptera, all of them have gills that keep them restricted to the water (mind you, we are talking only about the larval stage). If their stream dries up, so does the caterpillar. . . . → Čítajte viac: Aquamoth!

Inaugural post

Tak, how do I begin a new blog? Tough question, but perhaps this is a good time to show off a fun new species. This moth was collected last year outside of Santa Barbara, CA. The massive wingspan, at 15mm, makes it pretty large for a Gelechiid moth. The genus, Gnorimoschema (pronounced nor-a-mosh-ma), . . . → Čítajte viac: Inaugural post