Two moths, pictured in The Field Book of Insects by Frank E. Lutz.
A. io, with the big roundels on its wings, is better known as the io moth. D. rubicunda is more commonly called the rosy maple… Read the rest “Science Art: Auiomeris io, Dryocampa rubicunda by Edna Libby Beutenmüller, 1918.”
SONG: “Butterflies”.
ARTIST: grant.
SOURCE: Discover, 3 Nov 21, “How Citizen Scientists Uncovered the Strange Behavior of ‘Vampire’ Butterflies,” as used… Read the rest “SONG: Butterflies”
Discover magazine reveals a grisly bit of previously unknown insect behavior recorded by Yi-Kai Tea and his fellow citizen scientists on the island of Sulawesi, where they photographed… Read the rest “Indonesian citizen scientists discover VAMPIRE CANNIBAL BUTTERFLIES”
Scientific American looks at scientific Kenyans, who have taken advantage of one of the few things elephants are actually afraid of – stinging honeybees – to keep their fields… Read the rest “African farmers use bee hives as elephant-proof fences.”
From the June 1949 issue of Natural History, the magazine of the American Museum of Natural History (which is archived here) comes a handy reference guide for telling the temperature based… Read the rest “Science Art: The Cricket Thermometer, by Cleve Hallenbeck.”
Scientific American marvels at caffeinated bumblebees, and the researchers who give busy bees caffeine and sugar to make them more focused and efficient:
… Read the rest “Bees on java.”[University of Greenwich ecologist
SONG: “Lawns are the Enemy”.
ARTIST: grant.
SOURCE: Scientific American, 9 Apr 21, “Brood X Cicadas Could Cause a Bird Baby Boom,” as used in the post “… Read the rest “SONG: Lawns are the Enemy”
Science News looks beyond the domesticated honeybee for unsung pollination heroes: the bumblebees, mason bees, carpenter bees and other native bees that do an enormous amount of crop … Read the rest “Wild bees do $1.5 billion-worth of pollinating for six crops alone.”
Reuters has a sweet story on honeybees that have been trained by Wim van der Poel at Wageningen University to expect a treat every time they smell a COVID-infected sample – so within… Read the rest “Bees trained to detect COVID can speed up testing.”
Handsome field crickets.
That’s not a name for them, just me admiring them. Gryllus is a genus of field crickets. Once, they were all put in the same species, but then people started… Read the rest “Science Art: Gryllus: Gryllus formosus, Gryllus hirtipes, Gryllus trifasciatus.”
Scientific American‘s 60-Second Science recently covered the neurology of parenthood, revealing how sleep deprivation for caregivers extends to insects as well:
… Read the rest “Baby bees keep their moms up all night, too.”Researchers
Science News brings attention to male shortcomings and the gender’s creativity in overcoming them with a story about crickets who use leaves as megaphones, amplifying their mating… Read the rest “Male crickets use leaves to make themselves seem bigger… in THAT way, yes.”
Science News reveals the one chemical that transforms harmless, solitary insects into a crop-destroying, famine-triggering locust swarm:
… Read the rest “The one molecule that turns grasshoppers into locusts.”Now, scientists have pinpointed a compound
The Guardian has grim news for bugs (which include critters like the bees that pollinate our crops) with a little flash of hope. Insect populations have dropped by 25% over the last 30 years,… Read the rest “Insects are dying off – except those living in fresh water.”
You know, I went looking for some non-coronavirus science news, and Nature provided this gem of a headline about a plucky Drosophilia fruit-fly species and its unusual infatuation with… Read the rest “Nature: “How a fly came to love the vomit fruit””
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