Science Art: (Coleoptera: Lucanidae) Mitophyllus macrocerus, male, by Des Helmore
Click to embiggen vastly
A beetle of character. From Wikimedia Commons.
entomology
How larvae leap long with no legs
Science News looks at high-speed photo research that reveals how a gall midge larva can leap up to 36 times its body length without any legs:
… Read the rest “How larvae leap long with no legs”In nature, something has to go wrong for this to
Science Art: Plate LIL, Fig 3: Cepheus bifidatus Nymph, from British Oribatidae, 1884
Click to embiggenMm. Mighty mite.
From a this book of mites.
Luckily for us, these mites (the Oribatidae) aren’t parasitic. They live in dirt (which they turn, like earthworm), and… Read the rest “Science Art: Plate LIL, Fig 3: Cepheus bifidatus Nymph, from British Oribatidae, 1884”
Science Art: Ichneumon Fly, from the USDA’s Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, 1941
Click to embiggen“Lays eggs on larva boring in wood.” Add just one comma and that comes across as harsh criticism, but it’s really meant as a compliment.
This is from … Read the rest “Science Art: Ichneumon Fly, from the USDA’s Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, 1941”
We’ve discovered a tarantula with a horn on its back.
National Geographic has details that are bound to give arachnophobes THE WILLIES, but for the rest of us, there’s this rather large spider in Angola that’s new to science, … Read the rest “We’ve discovered a tarantula with a horn on its back.”
Mathematical bees. The insect, not the competition. They know their numbers!
The Guardian demonstrates mathematical skills in creatures that don’t even have internal skeletons, with Australian research that shows bees handling some rather sophisticated… Read the rest “Mathematical bees. The insect, not the competition. They know their numbers!”
Diet drugs can prevent malaria and encephalitis – by making mosquitos less hungry.
Nature reports on a lifesaving use for diet drugs:
… Read the rest “Diet drugs can prevent malaria and encephalitis – by making mosquitos less hungry.”Female Aedes aegypti, like other mosquito species, feed on blood to get the protein they need to produce their eggs, and spread diseases
The honeybee’s greatest foe isn’t after their blood – it’s sucking their *fat*.
Science Daily puts the beekeeper’s foe, the varroa mite (believed to be a key player in Colony Collapse Disorder), in a new light. The parasite had long been thought to be a blood-sucker,… Read the rest “The honeybee’s greatest foe isn’t after their blood – it’s sucking their *fat*.”
Parasitic wasp makes zombie cockroaches.
That’s a string of creepiness there, isn’t it? Everybody knows (I hope) the way some parasitic wasps turn caterpillars into living meat lockers for their offspring. But Science… Read the rest “Parasitic wasp makes zombie cockroaches.”
Science Art: Introverted Millipede (Magukbaforduló ikerszelvényesek).
This is an old, old fellow named Polydesmus. One of the first land animals there ever was.
From the image’s description on Wikimedia Commons:
… Read the rest “Science Art: Introverted Millipede (Magukbaforduló ikerszelvényesek).”Earth had been conquered
Mushrooms could save the bees. Maybe.
Wired shares the latest unexpected benefit from mushroom fundi Paul Stamets, who may have found a weapon to beat back CCD, the syndrome that’s devastating bee populations. He noticed… Read the rest “Mushrooms could save the bees. Maybe.”
This jungle wasp has a stinger almost as long as the rest of its body.
Science Daily introduces us to a newly discovered Amazonian wasp that’s singularly well-endowed in the stinger department:
… Read the rest “This jungle wasp has a stinger almost as long as the rest of its body.”“The stinger of the new parasitoid wasp called
Science Art: De XII Afbeelding (Banana) by Maria Sibylla Merian
At the end of the 17th century, this was some weird and wild stuff – a fruit that in the Americas, they call “banana” (if I’m reading the Dutch text… Read the rest “Science Art: De XII Afbeelding (Banana) by Maria Sibylla Merian”
Science Art: 1. Papilio Memnon? 2. Pap. Aeneas
Butterflies of South Asia and Central and South America.
Pretty butterflies. Or, as James Duncan and Sir William Jardine called them, Foreign Butterflies.
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Monarch migration mystery – solved! (We think.)
BBC reports on the computer model that seems to explain how the monarch butterflies make their amazing Canada-to-Mexico trek:
… Read the rest “Monarch migration mystery – solved! (We think.)”Lead researcher Prof Eli Shlizerman, from the University