Chocolate covered crickets

Hey Guys, here are the photos from our last day of class with Rachel's delicious little cricket treats. Enjoy! -Marisa

Thorny Moms Warm The Heart

Mother's Day- Less than a day away! Don't be an ingrateful child, folks. Let the woman who suffered the excruciating pain of your birth and the mental anguish of your upbringing- let her know that you care.

And remember the thorn insect. A lot of the insects we've looked at will pop out the offspring and then jet off to other things, eating, mating AGAIN, etc. But not these moms - They dig out thin troughs in the tree bark for their young, just right for their baby-mouths to ingest sap. And then if predatory wasps descend to carry the helpless babes away, the thorn-mom blunders over and kicks it! She doesn't have much in the way of defense, but she does what she can! Ka-Pow! Roundhouse in the compound eye! 3 out of 4 times the babies are saved - pretty good ratio in my book.

http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/picks-from-the-past/12497/thornbug-to-thornbug

Happy Mother's Day!

- Nick

Steambugs

I thought these little critter creations were really beautiful. Two websites showing insect inspired steampunk pieces. The first shows pieces created entirely from recycled materials, such as bullets. The second website shows pieces which are part machine, part insect. Enjoy!

http://1800recycling.com/2011/03/steampunk-insects-recycle-bullets/

http://inventorspot.com/articles/insect_lab_13432

-Marisa

A little bit of a stretch, but...

In light of our shared difficulty finding a variety of bugs to cook up for our possible bug pot luck, here are two websites which breakdown some of the insects we consume everyday in unsuspecting products.

http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/course/ent425/text18/food.html

http://www.takepart.com/news/2011/02/22/that-figures-the-insects-you-unknowingly-eat

Maybe someone should just bring in a a bottle of ketchup?

-Marisa

insect larvae versus dead frog

Although we didn't get to see the dermestid beetle room in the vertebrate prep section of the Field Museum a couple weeks back, I came across this video that gives us a nice time-lapse view of the phenomena...

ay