butterfly
gregladen | June 5, 2017A Swift Guide to Butterflies of North America is a field guider's field guide. It is the shape and size of a traditional field guide. The designers of this book said "we don't need no stinking margins" so there are no margins. Color bleeds on the page edges allow a quick index to major butterfly categories. There is a two page spread visual index. A no nonsense introduction give you the basics about how to use the book, how to be a butterflyer, and how to not be a jerk about butterflies (like, don't net them and kill them). The front covers even have those flaps that you can use as…
gregladen | December 3, 2013This is a cool two part Youtube video that explains a lot of interesting science.
Part I:
Part II:
dr. dolittle | September 29, 2013 Amazonian butterflies drinking turtle tears.Image from: Jeff Cremer / Perunature.com
The Amazon region is notoriously deficient in sodium because of its large distance from the ocean and because the Andes mountains block the delivery of windblown minerals from the West. Some minerals travel from the east, but much of the air is cleaned by rain before the minerals can make it to the western region of the Amazon Basin.
So if you were a butterfly, where would you find a readily available source of salt in the Amazon? The answer is not very obvious, unless you look at the photo of a yellow-…
dr. dolittle | May 24, 2013The top 10 new species discovered in 2012 has been announced by the International Institute of Species Exploration at Arizona State University.
Tope 10 new species discovered in 2012. Image from: International Institute for Species Exploration, Arizona State University
My favorites:
The adorable tiny frog, Paedophryne amanuensis, from New Guinea that is only 7mm (pictured above on a dime). It is currently considered the smallest living vertebrate.
Glow-in-the-dark cockroaches, Lucihormetica luckae, from Ecuador (top right in composite above). Consider them night lights. Species of glow-in-…
dr. dolittle | August 29, 2012I was browsing through The Scientist and came across this image of a Venezuelan poodle moth that I could not resist sharing:
Image by: Arthur Anker on flickr
What is interesting about this particular moth is that scientists are currently trying to figure out exactly what type of moth it is (its phylogeny). Needless to say, the image of this fluffy moth has gone viral. The flickr website by Dr. Arthur Anker, a Zoologist, contains photos of numerous other beautiful butterflies and moths.
Other favorites:
Leucanella maasseni, which looks like it could be related to batman (from this…
jchosy | May 13, 2010When you lose your job, you find yourself taking on new hobbies and projects. Some of them are productive. Some are fun. And some just satisfy the kid in you.
So, say hello to my painted lady caterpillars!
These cuties will be spending the next three weeks of their lives with me before being released into the flower-filled courtyard of my building, where they will hopefully get busy and help make more flowers during their short, 2-4 week lives.
I thought it would be fun, distracting, and great CV-fodder to take you all along with me. Aren't you lucky?! I'll keep you up-to-date on the…
edyong | February 19, 2010It's not every day that you hear about spy missions that involve a lack of sex, but clearly parasitic wasps don't pay much attention to Hollywood clichés.
These insects merge the thriller, science-fiction and horror genres, They lay their eggs inside other animals, turning them into slaves and living larders that are destined to be eaten inside-out by the developing grubs. To find their victims, they perform feats of espionage worthy of any secret agent, tapping into their mark's communication lines, tailing them back to their homes and infiltrating their families.
Two species of…
edyong | November 5, 2009Walk through the rainforests of Ecuador and you might encounter a beautiful butterfly called Heliconius cydno. It's extremely varied in its colours. Even among one subspecies, H.cydno alithea, you can find individuals with white wingbands and those with yellow. Despite their different hues, they are still the same species... but probably not for much longer.
Even though the two forms are genetically similar and live in the same area, Nicola Chamberlain from Harvard University has found that one of them - the yellow version - has developed a preference for mating with butterflies of its own…
edyong | September 10, 2009The drawers of the world's museums are full of pinned, preserved and catalogued insects. These collections are more than just graveyards - they are a record of evolutionary battles waged between animals and their parasites. Today, these long-dead specimens act as "silent witnesses of evolutionary change", willing to tell their story to any biologist who knows the right question to ask.
This time round, the biologist was Emily Hornett, currently at UCL, and her question was "How have the ratios of male butterflies to female ones changed over time?" You would think that the sex ratios of…
edyong | June 15, 2009
In 1979, somewhere in Dartmoor, a butterfly died. That would hardly have been an exceptional event, but this individual was a Large Blue butterfly (Maculinea arion) and it was the last of its kind in the United Kingdom. Over more than a century, the Large Blue's population had been declining and it was finally declared nationally extinct 30 years ago.
Now, it's back. A bold conservation effort managed to work out the factors behind the butterfly's decline, and resurrect this vanished species. The Large Blue's reintroduction has been one of conservation's flagship successes and it was the…
bioephemera | June 2, 2009
Evolve
Electroformed Copper, Vitreous Enamel, Sterling, Pearls, Lens, Feathers, Steel, Worm
Photo: Courtney Frisse
Last week I featured electroformed copper pendants by Kristina Glick Shank. I also found another outstanding electroformed copper artwork, this one by Kristin Mitsu Shiga. I think it's a wonderful idea to portray a chrysalid, the very symbol of transience, in metal - one of the most permanent materials possible. I am sorry it's titled Evolve - I don't love it when the concept of evolution is conflated with the concept of individual development. But this piece is so interesting…
edyong | February 6, 2009Ants are among the most successful of living things. Their nests are well-defended fortresses, coordinated through complex communication systems involving touch and chemical signals. These strongholds are stocked with food and secure from the outside world, so they make a tempting prospect for any burglars that manage to break in.
One species of butterfly - the mountain alcon blue (Maculinea rebeli) - is just one such master felon. Somehow, it manipulates the workers into carrying it inside the nest, feeding it and caring for it. The caterpillar does so little for itself that it packs on 98…
grrlscientist | October 21, 2008tags: Gulf fritillary, Agraulis vanillae, butterfly, photography, Image of the Day
Gulf fritillary, Agraulis vanillae,
photographed at Smith Point Hawkwatch, Texas.
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 7 October 2006 [larger view].
grrlscientist | October 20, 2008tags: long-tailed skipper, Urbanus proteus, butterfly, photography, Image of the Day
Long-Tailed Skipper, Urbanus proteus,
photographed at Smith Point Hawkwatch, Texas.
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 7 October 2006 [larger view].
grrlscientist | October 19, 2008tags: common buckeye, Junonia coenia, butterfly, photography, Image of the Day
Common Buckeye, Junonia coenia,
photographed at Smith Point Hawkwatch, Texas.
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 7 October 2006 [larger view].
zooillogix | March 27, 2008We have brought you the outstanding time lapse photography of Mochimochi Land in the past, but these new works are breathtaking.
No-holds-barred snail on slug rumpus!
"The Great Foot Race!"
Friends below the fold
Reversible chicken and egg. If only life were so easy.
"Beware the Ninjabun...He's covert, sneaky, and hungry!"
"The world's fattest butterfly thinks it might be time for a diet. The flowers agree."
bleimanb | January 3, 2008A new scientific paper has shown a strange, deceptive adaptation in the Maculinea butterflies of North Western Europe--an adaptation that has caused a genetic race between the butterflies and many different species of ants. The butterflies' caterpillar larvae emit a powerful smell that tricks the ants into believing that they are in fact ant larvae. The ants then...
...carry the larvae back to their secret lairs, and feed them. Just like the famed cuckoo birds, the larvae trick the ants so effectively that the ants give up on taking care of their own brood to focus exclusively on the…
grrlscientist | October 25, 2007tags: mystery butterfly, Image of the Day
Image: Karen Davis. [wallpaper size]
I am almost certain that I know what this species is, but because you enjoy naming species, I thought I'd let you have some fun with this lovely image. What species is this?
Location: College Park, Maryland, 16 October 2007
My guess is below the fold.
It is a crescent butterfly species, resembling either a pearl crescent, Phyciodes tharos, or a northern crescent, Phyciodes selenis, although I suspect it is a different, but close, species instead.
I also asked an entomologist about this species and he said that…
grrlscientist | July 16, 2007
A male Blue Moon or Great Eggfly butterfly, Hypolimnas bolina.
A butterfly-killing bacteria that is only lethal to males has given rise to skewed sex ratios in populations of this species on two islands in the South Pacific, but researchers have found that male butterflies on one island have bounced back, thanks to the rise of a suppressor gene. [larger].
In a dramatic demonstration of how quickly evolution can occur, a butterfly species that is found on two adjacent islands in the South Pacific Ocean has rapidly evolved genetic defenses against a bacterial parasite that is lethal only…