Category Archives: Insects

Some Good Citizen Science: Calbug

Posted on May 26, 2013 by

Calbug, which attempts to harness the general public to improve nine Californian insect and spider collections, came across the transom: Calbug is an effort to digitize terrestrial arthropod-specimen records with a focus on California. The project represents a collaboration among … Continue reading →

Posted in Insects, Museums etc. | 2 Comments

Things We All Know, Yet Are Not True: The Colony Collapse Disorder Edition

Posted on May 4, 2013 by

You’ve probably heard of Colony Collapse Disorder (‘CCD’), where workers from a bee colony suddenly disappear (SPACE ALIENZ?!?). Given the importance of pollination by bees to agriculture (while birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it, plants … Continue reading →

Posted in Insects | 1 Comment

Butterflies of the Week

Posted on April 6, 2013 by

Observed at the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum: I tried them all and they taste great! (I kid–I didn’t eat the butterflies…)

Posted in Insects, Museums etc.

Praying on Exeter Street

Posted on August 25, 2012 by

Or perhaps I mean…preying (BWAHHAHAH!!!). Observed on Exeter Street, Back Bay, Boston: My experience has been that six-inch long insects are a rare occurrence around these parts.

Posted in Boston, Insects | 2 Comments

Say Hello to My Little Friend

Posted on April 23, 2012 by

No, it’s not a gun. It’s a butterfly from the National Museum of Natural History which has landed on my jacket collar: Here’s a big-ass moth (“big-ass moth” is not a common species name…) Mealtime

Posted in Insects, Museums etc.

Neonicotinoids, Colony Collapse Disorder, and ‘Bee Medical Research’

Posted on April 2, 2012 by

Peter Dorman, who writes one of my favorite economics blogs, raises two problems with Carl Zimmer’s recent NYT article about neonicotinoid pesticides and their possible link to colony collapse disorder (‘CCD’). First, Dorman states: There followed comments from four of … Continue reading →

Posted in Funding, Insects

Ramblin’ Hercules Beetle Style

Posted on December 8, 2011 by

From the Insect Zoo at the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum, we bring you this speedy Hercules Beetle: Well, speedy is a relative term…

Posted in Insects, Museums etc.

Hannity and Carlson’s War on Entomology

Posted on March 16, 2010 by

It’s nothing more than Palinist politics of the blood, with scientists cast in the role of the ‘unreal’ Americans.
Continue reading →

Posted in Conservatives, Funding, Insects, NSF, The War on Science | 11 Comments

About That Fruit Fly Research…

Posted on October 25, 2008 by

This isn’t Palin, this is mainline Republican operatives doing this. This pig-headed, willful stupidity is institutional, not individual.
Continue reading →

Posted in Conservatives, Fucking Morons, Funding, Insects, The War on Science | 10 Comments

Oldest Bug EVAH! Discovered

Posted on October 16, 2008 by

A 310 million year old mayfly.
Continue reading →

Posted in Insects | 6 Comments