Owlet Caterpillars of Eastern North America
My same friend Susan who brought us the critically acclaimed Omega Institute in Your Pants, 2010 edition today supplied the following list, from the book Owlet Caterpillars of Eastern North America by David L. Wagner, Dale F. Schweitzer, J. Bolling Sullivan, and Richard C. Reardon:
Sordid Snout
The Herald
Feeble Grass Moth
Dead-wood Borer
The Betrothed
The Little Wife
Serene Underwing
The Consort
Dejected Underwing
Inconsolable Underwing
Tearful Underwing
Sad Underwing
The Penitent
Sappho Underwing
Youthful Underwing
Darling Underwing
Read more
At the height of the Battle of Alcaniz on May 23, 1809, as he was about to give the order for a desperate charge by French troops into the center of the Spanish line, Col. P.F.M.A. Dejean happened to glance down.
The air around him was thick with gunpowder and blood, but on a flower beside a stream, he saw something unusual. A beetle. Species unknown. He immediately dismounted, collected it, and pinned the specimen to the cork he had glued inside his helmet.
The first lines of The Species Seekers by Richard Conniff, which came out yesterday.
headline of the day
Beetles Die During Sex With Beer Bottles
headline of the day, II
Washington man lights beehive on fire after sting
Transparent ants drinking colored liquid
twenty common insect songs
Lucy linked to this beautiful collection of twenty insect songs from Twitter where she asked which one is your favorite. Except she spelled favorite with with a u because she’s European.
photo out of context
the world’s loudest dick
Males of the Micronecta scholtzi species serenade their sweethearts with a three-part song made by rubbing their genitalia against their abdomens, but it remains a mystery how or why the creatures make such a loud mating call.
anybody know what this little feller is?
Update:
It’s a mantisfly, family Mantispidae. It’s a member of the order Neuroptera . . . and not a praying mantis.
A wonderful word
Cindy and I have been saying this word all day:
Trees cocooned in spider webs after flooding in Sindh, Pakistan
(Via @josephpearson)
Deely Bobber
A Deely Bobber (also Deeley Bobber) is a novelty item of headgear comprising a headband to which are affixed two springy protrusions resembling the antennae of insects or of stereotypical little green men. These “antennae” may be topped with simple plastic shapes or more elaborate and fanciful decorations, such as mini pom poms or light emitting diodes. The name “deely bobber” is a genericized trademark; other names include deely-boppers, bonce boppers, or space boppers; In June 1982, The New York Times headline called them Martian antennae.
They were invented by Steven Askin in 1981 based on the “Killer Bees” costumes on Saturday Night Live.
I’ve heard the phrase, “What’s the deely bop?”
headline of the day, II
Idaho Rejects Rape Exception In Abortion Bill Because ‘The Hand Of The Almighty’ Was At Work
woken by mosquito hawk
It’s the time of year the mosquito hawks get stuck behind the blinds — flapping against the paper — and you have to decide if you are going to kill them to get some sleep or hunt them in the dark so you can fling them into the yard.
Amy said
I hate the word Corolla. You might as well be saying corn chip or rolly polly.
printing flying insects
The flapping wings of the hovering robotic insects (known as ornithopters) are very thin, lightweight and yet strong. Traditionally, the manufacturing process for these wings is time-consuming and a case of trial and error. However, advances in rapid prototyping have greatly expanded the possibilities for wing design, allowing wing shapes to replicate those of real insects or virtually any other shape. Furthermore, this can be done in minutes.
tweet of the day
“It’s related to the fungus that LSD comes from,” Hughes said. “Obviously they are producing lots of interesting chemicals.”
You know those fungi that infect an ant’s nervous system, turning them into zombies for the fungus’s propagation? They found four more of them.
Of the four new species, two grow long, arrow-like spores which eject like missiles from the fungus, seeking to land on a passing ant. The other fungi propel shorter spores, which change shape in mid-air to become like boomerangs and land nearby. If these fail to land on an ant, the spores sprout stalks that can snag ants walking over them. Upon infecting the new ant, the cycle starts again.
“Next Time, I’ll Spend The Money on Drugs Instead”
From: Jane Gilles
Date: Wednesday 8 Oct 2008 12.19pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Overdue accountDear David,
Our records indicate that your account is overdue by the amount of $233.95. If you have already made this payment please contact us within the next 7 days to confirm payment has been applied to your account and is no longer outstanding.
Yours sincerely, Jane GillesFrom: David Thorne
Date: Wednesday 8 Oct 2008 12.37pm
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Re: Overdue accountDear Jane,
I do not have any money so am sending you this drawing I did of a spider instead. I value the drawing at $233.95 so trust that this settles the matter.
Regards, David.
quote out of context
In China, keeping crickets for their music was originally an aristocratic hobby. The tradition is said to have started 1,400 years ago in the Tang Dynasty. Then, imperial concubines kept chirping crickets in golden cages, the insects’ captive existence a sad reflection of their own lives.
One of the Benefits…
Of being unemployed (except when snow flies). Today, I hung new light fixtures in two closets, emptied my closet in preparation for its renovation, I did the dishes from a birthday dinner party last night, I folded some laundry and I watched this:
Be my valentine
Flowers wilt. Chocolates melt. Roaches are forever.
A clock that eats flies, and insect eating robots
(via Zoe Pollock at the daily dish)
hakuna matata
This is one of my favorite things about ants — the ant death spiral. Actually, it’s a circular mill, first described in army ants by Schneirla (1944). A circle of army ants, each one following the ant in front, becomes locked into a circular mill. They will continue to circle each other until they all die. How crazy is that? Sometimes they escape, though. Beebe (1921) described a circular mill he witnessed in Guyana. It measured 1200 feet in circumference and had a 2.5 hour circuit time per ant. The mill persisted for two days, “with ever increasing numbers of dead bodies littering the route as exhaustion took its toll, but eventually a few workers straggled from the trail thus breaking the cycle, and the raid marched off into the forest.”
(thanks, Robert)
from the comments
My first encounter with Starewicz was his extraordinary animated film The Mascot, which was tacked on to a cheap imported DVD of Vampyr for reasons unknown. I watched it repeatedly and, charmed and amazed, ordered more of his work. I love the story of his accidental inauguration into stop-motion: working on a nature documentary, he found the insects wilting under the heat of the lights….
