The Insect World

30 wasps destroy 30,000 strong bee colony

2012-01-12T11:46:00.000-08:00

the 30 wasps work together to take down this larger colony.

-jay

LAST CHRISTMAS

2012-01-05T14:52:00.000-08:00

this last christmas I was given a specimen that made my in class collection blush with jealousy. it was from the bone room in berkeley, california. it is a malaysian jungle nymph.
here's a picture of one still kicking and not pinned under glass:

happy holidays
-krystal

Dead oaks and fire ants

2012-01-02T15:40:00.000-08:00

While visiting San Antonio TX I saw a lot of dead oaks and decided to point out how prevalent they are as well as point out some fire ant mounds. The oaks are dead not because its winter, for oaks in the south do not lose their leaves, they are dead because a fungus has infected their roots which then spreads to near by oaks and causes large areas of land to be ridded of their oaks some of which are hundreds of years old.

-jay

2011-12-16T07:50:00.000-08:00

On last night's Project Accessory the designers go to the Evolution store in NYC and have to pick a bug as inspiration and incorporation into an accessory.

http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/project-accessory/video/full-episodes

-Rosemary

Emergence in Ant Colonies

2011-12-13T18:32:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. To all of you in the six o'clock class, you may remember the presentation i tried to give today on the concept of Emergence and how it applies to ant colonies. Generally, how do ant colonies self organize without a central leader. Anyway, I meant to show segments of two videos and a piece of an episode of radiolab during my presentation. Unfortunately the sound was not working on the projector, and that couldn't happen.

Here are the links to the media I wanted to show, in case any of you were interested in watching them anyway.

Radio lab episode on Emergence; http://www.radiolab.org/2007/aug/14/
E.O. Wilson talking about Pheremones in ants and demonstrates trail pheromone; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HKl8Luuotw&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLB42F5F70CBDFD142
Deborah Gordon on Ted Talks; http://www.ted.com/talks/deborah_gordon_digs_ants.html

Thanks everyone! Enjoy and have a good break.
Isabella

No laggards, those bees and plants

2011-12-13T16:14:00.000-08:00

As Climate Change Sets In, Plants and Bees Keep Pace

Rosie

Sahara Desert Beetle

2011-12-13T15:48:00.000-08:00

Heres a photo I took last March in the Sahara Desert in Merzouga, Morocco. These little guys were scurrying around every where and in the morning when we woke and the sand was fresh and untouched there were beetle tracks everywhere.

Mating Dance

2011-12-12T07:57:00.000-08:00

Paul Taylor has put together an amusing show for his dance company, showcasing the mating habits and rituals of insects.

sorry couldn't find a video!

Here is the article...
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/arts/dance/paul-taylor-dance-company-at-purchase-college-review.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=insect&st=cse

-Rosemary

I hvae no idea what is going on

2011-12-07T22:16:00.001-08:00

strange things i find on the internets...

-jay

Enter the mantis with David Attenborough

2011-12-07T13:39:00.000-08:00

-jay

Insect Like/Inspired Creations

2011-12-06T12:14:00.000-08:00

I found these mechanical creatures and they seemed to me very insect inspired. I got Katita as a present. It sort of shakes/jumps. Some really look more like insects than others and some don't look like them at all. But I thought was worth checking them out. They each have a short description with how they came into being. The artist is Chico Bicalho.

Wind Up Katita

Designed by Chico Bicalho

"KATITA (THE HERO) (1999

Katita happened around four AM in a hotel room in Hong Kong, a child of severe jetlag. The key is an allusion to the leather hats "Cangaceiros," the herdsmen of Northeastern Brazil wore in the past. Katita was named after a small female mutt in Rio who had just given birth to a litter of six puppies. She became a national hero in Brazil for having saved the life of a three-year-old boy that was being mauled by two vicious pit bulls. She was very badly hurt after fending off the beasts, but survived. This product is homage to Katita's courage.

Booty and key colors are assorted, we pick color based on availability."

http://www.kikkerland.com/designers/chico-bicalho/

-EI

Wasps Never Forget a Face

2011-12-04T12:42:00.000-08:00

Here is an interesting article about facial recognition in wasps and humans: Wasps Never Forget a Face.

- Rachel

WETA CUTIE

2011-12-01T16:46:00.000-08:00

So the heaviest insect was discovered in New Zealand. The giant weta is three times the size of a mouse and heavier than a sparrow. I dunno about you guys but I think it's pretty darn cute.

Here's the article with video:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2068547/Meet-worlds-heaviest-insect-weighs-times-mouse.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

-krystal

I'm alive! and still reading about stuff,

2011-12-01T15:32:00.000-08:00

Here is a cool ditty about wasps, Hope y'all are well.
Clara

Dry Humor

2011-11-29T12:56:00.000-08:00

Rosie

"Traveling Salesman"

2011-11-29T07:03:00.001-08:00

Once again StumbleUpon has lead me to an interesting article on insects.

This particular one is discussing some of the problem solving skills associated with hymenoptera–specifically Bumblebees.

The test was set up to determine if the bees could "find the shortest route between cities" (here as faux-flowers). Two researchers, Laura Chittka and Mathieu Lihoreau assessed how the bees would respond to the flowers: seeing "whether the bees would go after the flowers in the order in which they were discovered, or if they would figure out the shortest route among all the flowers even as new ones were added"

Ultimately they found that however the simulated field was manipulated, the Bumblebees consistently determined and followed the shortest path.

The article itself is not that long, it's definitely worth checking out.

-DiAnna P.

Robots Learn Hamilton's Rule

2011-11-28T20:43:00.000-08:00

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-05-robots-validating-hamilton-video.html

-jay

Flies of the Season

2011-11-28T09:33:00.000-08:00

And just how relevant might the insect world be to people besides entomologists or art students? This article in the New York Times discusses the seasonal nuisance of flies, alas in the Home and Garden section of the paper.

What to do about them? There are tricks the article discusses in some very nice entomological detail, but overall:

As the eminent British dipterologist Harold Oldroyd wrote in his 1964 classic, “The Natural History of Flies,” “A house or other building is therefore no more than a large fly-trap. It is found that the same building is infested year after year, while the house next door may be immune.” He added, “At present there is no known remedy for these visitations except to move.”

The author notes the following truth:

Flies are, paradoxically, ubiquitous and mysterious. We see them. We hear them. We know next to nothing about them.

I should mention that we have a passage by Oldroyd in our Insect Lives boook on p.118 on this very issue, the essay called "Swarms of Flies" (likely drawn from his book "the Natural History of Flies").

2011-11-27T15:28:00.000-08:00

I came across this informative and amusing blog post by "insect ecologist" Jeffery Lockwood, in which he answers the question, "do bugs feel pain?". He goes as far as to advocate the anesthetization of bug subjects in experiments, just in case they do.

"... there are relevant biochemical similarities between insect and human nervous systems. At least some invertebrates possess endorphins and enkephalins. These chemicals are opioids (think opium) produced by the body to alleviate pain and stress. So the presence of these in insects suggests that they might experience pleasure/pain. We also know that the mechanisms of neural transmission are similar in insects and humans.

This is one of the reasons that neurotoxic insecticides also poison you along with the cockroach in your kitchen. In fact, the organophosphate insecticides are based on the nerve gases developed during World War II. Kinda creepy, eh?"

Whatever your stance I think its a relevant question...is there enough evidence to suggest that insects feel pain, and if so, does it matter?

http://blog.oup.com/2011/11/bug-pain/

-Susie

MuShiKing

2011-11-23T19:47:00.000-08:00

Robotic Beetles you can battle!!!!!

http://www.tons-of-toys.com/mushiking_c336

-jay

SURGERY ANTS

2011-11-22T13:19:00.000-08:00

so I went to the museum of surgical science last saturday and was in an exhibit depicting the evolution of various sutures and lo' and behold: ants were once used as a medical staple!
using an animal's defenses for our own benefit, clever us.

-krystal

Insect Origami

2011-11-21T12:18:00.000-08:00

Silverfish

Pillbug

Longhorn Beetle

Leaf Insect

Kabutomushi Beetle

Earwig

-Jay

Trans Bee

2011-11-21T12:16:00.000-08:00

-jay

STINK BUGS

2011-11-15T14:33:00.000-08:00

I want one of these little guys for my collection, but I'm not sure if keeping an eye out for one is worth a possible broken leg.

"Go after remaining stink bugs now"

Rosie

Look who is really cool! urban bee keeeeepers

2011-11-09T05:13:00.000-08:00

http://www.good.is/post/makin-it-meg-paska-urban-beekeeper/?utm_source=pulsenews&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+good%2Flbvp+(GOOD+Main+RSS+Feed)&utm_content=FaceBook

clara

Mimic?

2011-11-08T21:45:00.000-08:00

While looking for something completely unrelated, I came across this image of a fish, found in Korea, with a human face. It reminded me of the mimics we talked about, although I doubt this fish is using a human face to deter predators...

-CJ

Deleuze's orchid and wasp

2011-11-08T14:29:00.000-08:00

All semester, I've been trying to integrate these ideas into my comprehension of the course material, and this weeks segments about co-evolution were the tipping point for me to finally post about it. Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari are the philosophers that have gotten me thinking of evolution in terms of becoming, and the potentials and pitfalls of thinking this way. For one, it is very confusing, but then again life is not simple either. A quick search came up with a few things, and here is a quick quote describing what the concept of the orchid and the wasp means in terms of becoming.

"Deleuze and Guattari imagine there to be a wasp-orchid assemblage, where the boundaries of the one cannot be thoroughly distinguished from the boundaries of the other. Rather it is in terms of code and traces that the stratum of a plant line intersects unexpectedly (there is nothing in the nature of a plant that would anticipate it becoming-animal in code), with the stratum of an animal line, where each becomes the function of the other."

That comes from this source, a lengthy piece on the idea. http://kvond.wordpress.com/2008/05/15/23/

this source is quite lengthy, and likely needs some background for comprehension.

This source is a good summation of the concept, that build on the theories of evolution put forth by Darwin.

http://christopherkinman.blogspot.com/2008/05/beyond-darwin-becomings-of-orchid-and.html

Hopefully the diagrams we made for the queen of trees made clear the rhizomatic structure of ecologies.

read at your leisure and maybe blow your mind!

-jais

Pierre Huyghe at Esther Schipper, Berlin

2011-11-07T21:07:00.000-08:00

Pierre Huyghe, Influants-Slides

This is a Q+A with Pierre Huyghe about this exhibition.

An excerpt:

"ZAMPETTI Are the ants metaphorical? Does the context of the gallery elevate them?

HUYGHE The ants are just ants. There are two small holes where they nest, and from there they just cross the room. They are present in the space, you can see some lines and there is a sort of trajectory. When you come into the gallery, you assume your normal trajectory. Then you notice the insects, and you take another. Then you see the spiders. There is a co-habitation, a co-existence, but there is not much relating. I am trying not to define the relations in between these live entities."

Super awesome....right?

My friend Emma had the unfortunate case of getting sick after this show. Upon walking out, you apparently become the third work on the checklist, Influenced, 2011. The description reads "A person in the space is carrying a flu virus."

Maybe Huyghe was asking for a little too much out of the viewer?

-LB

Trip to the Field Museum

2011-11-07T11:38:00.000-08:00

Photos of some of the Field Museum's insect collections. November 1, 2011.

-E.I.

Chirps and Cheers: China’s Crickets Clash

2011-11-06T17:18:00.000-08:00

Young men in China are bringing back an old tradition- cricket fighting. They're becoming harder to find in urban areas, but once you have a winner, it's worth all the work in taking care of them and prepping them for financially fruitful fights. All the details are in the NY Times article Chirps and Cheers: China’s Crickets Clash.

-CJ

Trip to the Field Museum

2011-11-05T21:00:00.001-07:00

Here are just a couple photos I took while we were backstage at the Field Museum.
Enjoy. - RS

*these photos may not be appropriated without permission from the artist

Hawk-ing Awesome Hawk Moths

2011-11-05T15:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's Science Friday on NPR! These hawk moths can hover when drinking from a flower with their proboscis. Check out the interview and the video - The best part is seeing the moth get hit by a cannonball-in super slow motion.

Interesting that it takes so much energy to flap its wings like that, but the moth sacrifices energy for stabilization and promise of food! And the wing motion is very similar to hummingbirds.

Analogous traits? Scientific Method? I say YES.

~Amy M.

In regards to Island theory...

2011-10-31T22:00:00.000-07:00

So although this doesn't directly implicate insects, it does involve Island biogeography theory, with very large islands (the continents) and an even more rabid species (humans). At some point today (31st-Halloween-monday) our human population passed the benchmark of 7 billion people. I can personally remember in grade school talking about the population, its estimates 1 billion less than we have now, and it seems phenomenal that we we've gone that far in that time. I came across this and was struck by the visualization they used to describe the phenomena, as it so closely resembled the example that Andy gave of species coming into an island, and extinction leaving. We truly don't have anything threatening us other than ourselves.

Visualizing How A Population Grows To 7 Billion

-Jais

More Revenge

2011-10-31T11:38:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIC0Sb6pLvI

Insects of 1912 documented through a narrative of infidelity.

-Rob S.

5 States Bring Asian Carp Woes to Supreme Court

2011-10-27T18:46:00.000-07:00

In light of our discussion on invasive species in last week's class, I thought this Huffington Post article (on the impending doom of the Great Lakes by the asian carp) was a case of synchronicity.

The states of Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin want the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to speed up their investigation of how to block the aquatic pathways between the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes--a development that could save the Great Lakes from certain devastation. Considering the asian carp could eat enough plankton to irreversibly ruin the biodiversity of the largest fresh water bodies in the United States, I think these states are right.

The Supreme Court has denied two previous requests from Michigan to order closure of Chicago-area locks, but maybe this time they'll recognize the severity of this situation. There is much debate!

-Moira

"Re-Thinking Soup!"

2011-10-26T19:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I journeyed over to UIC'S Jane Addams Hull-House Museum for their weekly "Re-Thinking Soup" talk, which conveniently happened to be about the consumption of insects. One of the first to show up in a room lined with six long tables, I got a chance to look around and notice a tray of rice cakes with a cricket delicately centered on each playing the role as the table's surreal centerpieces. What I found even more odd was a table filled with three basket of dinner rolls, which were probably purchased from Jewel- a combination that eventually made the idea of eating insects seem normal, even more so when the room started to fill with people, bringing forth chatter, people eagerly grabbing cricket cakes and covering them with honey, and eventually an aroma as well once the soup was brought out. I was at a soup kitchen, watching people ranging from their teens to their 80s get in a line that wrapped around the room to fill their bowls with not french onion, but a potato-bug soup. I never thought I'd see so many eager cricket consumers.. and I got the best seat in the house, right next to the soup table...

20 minutes later, after the capacity-reached room all happily had their bowls of soup with fried crickets did the talk finally start. Even against all the excited chatter, I was enthralled, picking up on tidbits I did not know about. 80% of the world practices entomology with pleasure.. including Oaxacan, Venezuela and parts of China, peanut butter and chocolate can have insect parts in them, and they are economically, environmentally and nutritionally awesome for us folks. Sushi caught on, maybe insects will as well. It wouldn't be a bad idea considering consumption will greatly rise by 2050 and if a third world war arises, it would most likely be over a food and water shortage. Eating bugs just might be the answer. This talk definitely got me thinking and I feel a fair argument was made for team entomology. However, I'm still not sure I'm hopping on board just yet.

The cricket rice cakes!

Bowl of fried crickets to add to your potato soup.

The bowls of fried crickets slowly running low as the line continues.

Soup man mentioned, "They aren't bad, just crunchy!"

-Rosie

Vampire Moths !

2011-10-26T19:24:00.001-07:00

2011-10-25T20:54:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we discussed the mating swarms of mayflies. This town gets visited every year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBL69W7G3gc&feature=related

Also going back to learning about ant lions, here's a kid comparing them to creatures from star wars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEseS7NTr2M

RS

2011-10-25T09:58:00.000-07:00

There's a band called Insect Grinder whose singer is a cricket.

JMULK

2011-10-25T09:53:00.000-07:00

http://www.crabrevenge.com/index.html

Anyone looking for some new additions to your insect collection or some revenge? This site sells pubic lice for the purpose of revenge.

JMULK

Two New Bee Species Found

2011-10-25T08:52:00.000-07:00

"Two New Bee Species Are Mysterious Pieces in the Panama Puzzle"

"ScienceDaily (Oct. 18, 2011) — Smithsonian scientists have discovered two new, closely related bee species: one from Coiba Island in Panama and another from northern Colombia. Both descended from of a group of stingless bees that originated in the Amazon and moved into Central America, the ancestors of Mayan honeybees. The presence of one of these new species on Coiba and Rancheria Islands, and its absence from the nearby mainland, is a mystery that will ultimately shed light on Panama's history and abundant biodiversity..."

Cited: Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (2011, October 18). Two new bee species are mysterious pieces in the Panama puzzle. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 25, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2011/10/111018155223.htm

Click here for the link to read the fill story: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111018155223.htm

This relates to our current topic about insect migration from mainland to island. And also sheds light on a debate about the age of the connection between North and South America due to the discovery that 17 million years ago the bees had already been established in Central America.

-EI

Human bot fly removal. I am terrified.

2011-10-25T07:57:00.000-07:00

Human Bot Fly Removal from Eli Adler on Vimeo.

http://vimeo.com/4974886
I couldn't get it to connect the link...
cak

Pretty Death Fungus & Ovipositing Wasps

2011-10-24T19:12:00.000-07:00

Poor Ants...

LINK: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110829114554.htm

Only a few Parasites manage to break through the ant's very dominant well equipped defenses.

We read this week about the Ant-decapitating Fly [the Conopidae fly or a new family of Phoridae fly] and the ant-narcotic excreting Assasin Bug [Ptilocerus ochraceus] and here are two more: Videos of some Wasps ovipositing [laying eggs inside of] Ants, and a video of some beautiful fungus called Cordycps, which infects ants along with a variety of other insects.

The eggs of one kind of wasp develop inside adult ants. The eggs of the another kind of wasp develop in the larvae of ants. How the newly developed young wasps manage to survive inside the ant nest is still unknown. One possible explanation is that the dead ants may be deposited outside the entrance of the ant nest, giving the young wasps a chance to be born and avoid ant attacks.

Below is an AWESOME video of the fungus that infects insects. In the Ant example, we see non-infected ants carrying off infected ants. This might be how the young wasps live when hatching from the ant.

More ovipositing:

RMP

So many Monarchs in one place

2011-10-24T17:58:00.000-07:00

-jay

Winging it

2011-10-24T15:10:00.000-07:00

Ah, wings. Do I mean Buffalo wings? No. The 70's prog rock band The Wings headed up by (the just re-married) Paul McCartney? No again. Obviously I am talking about the most interesting kind of wings there are - insect wings.

In considering whether I should renew my subscription to WIRED magazine I came across this small slideshow of insect wings that is also a nice and brief guided tour of their function and evolution! Check it out.

Bugs as Food! Talk at "Re-thinking Soup"

2011-10-24T13:07:00.000-07:00

On the subject of lice and hair

2011-10-18T11:56:00.000-07:00

Here's a modern way we've grown to deal with Lice,
"Hair Fairies" in San Francisco, a salon-esque place
where parents bring their children to get 'nit-picked'.
It was featured on Dirty Jobs, which is where I pulled this clip.

N.A

kuwagata tsumami くわがたツマミ

2011-10-17T21:53:00.000-07:00

In the reading this week, Yearnings, from Insectopedia, there was a small reference to a Japanese TV show for kids about a little girl who has a human mother and a father that is a beetle. So, I looked it up out of curiosity and here it is...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3pq9MsWGEw

Enjoy
Kate Patterson

Shaggy The Bed Bug Beagle

2011-10-17T09:09:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Recently my roommate and I discovered a bed bug...but we made an appointment with a very friendly bed bug Beagle named Shaggy.

Here is Shaggy after he searched my apartment...

The Beagle sniffed through the apartment in search of odors that smell sweet like raspberries or moldy. If Shaggy found anything he would scratch the floor with his paw indicating that there was a bed bug or egg.

Shaggy and his trainer didn't find anything so I am completely bed bug free!!If you do find a bed bug call these guys! http://www.bedbuginspectors.com/

I got my bed bug from the train so try not to sit on the seats folks!

2011-10-15T18:36:00.001-07:00

2011-10-12T07:33:00.000-07:00

Jorge Pardo at neugerriemschneider

Just thought I'd share...not because I'm particularly interested in it, but it relates to insects at a superficial level/life on a grander level.

"All the works revolve around the exhibition space, its walls, the room, the images, the viewer, a lot of circles and of course themselves."

and he sticks the landing!

2011-10-11T18:08:00.001-07:00

Hubert Duprat

2011-10-11T11:49:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e78hni1LoSo

Artist Hubert Duprat's collaboration with CADDIS (tune in at 2:39 to hear about this project in particular). Working off the knowledge that caddis construct protection out of their surroundings, he placed the larvae in a laboratory where they would construct his piece out of the gold he provided. There were no other materials surrounding them, so they had no choice but to work with what he made available to them...a forced collaboration of sorts.

snapshots from Montrose Beach

2011-10-11T10:28:00.000-07:00

As I am sure you all know, this weekend for our collecting trip we went to Montrose Beach. The weather was beautiful and the insects were visible. Here are a few pictures I took along the way.

They had cut some down some of the taller grass near the docks, so we ended up spending most of our time in the Bird Sanctuary.

There were many grasshoppers. This guy found his way into my net while I was just making my way through some of the taller grass.

A couple of students [myself included] also caught some praying mantis.

Like Isabella, I have decided to keep my little guy as a pet until he passes a month or so from now. He is living in a retired terrarium with plenty of small branches, leaves and of course food (crickets). So far he hasn't been too active– he mostly hangs from the top of the screen.

DiAnna P.

Collecting in early August....

2011-10-10T20:50:00.000-07:00

The weather was simply glorious Sunday - what it should have been like the past few weeks, but alas was towards the very end of insect season... And an interesting season it seems to have been. Certain species of butterflies appear to be doing fine fluttering-by, like this member of the Pieridae that Susie netted ~

And another here....

This small guy had lost some scales over his time out-and-about, but still was in great shape,

Other members of the Lepidoptera seem to be doing less well (or at least are less abundant around here) this year. For instance, we found hardly any Monarchs in the last few weeks to tag and release compared to years past ~ This one Jack found had only it wings left (in perfect shape, I might add), having been snatched up and eaten by what I suspect was a praying mantis (?)

Speaking of which, here was a pair of them in the same tall grass in mid-mating. Of course we've been reading about the females purported proclivity for eating males, though there was no such evidence of those kind of shenanigans here....

In fact, on closer inspection of the female, it was clear she had had her own close-calls and run-ins with other wildlife. Given the damage to her abdomen I doubt she was in much shape to mate or lay eggs.. . it looks like she dodged the (incompletely) the curoius peck of a bird's beak a few days back.

A number of people caught some interesting wasps (this one stung me, but only just glancing...)

And some cicadas, in the midst of their last "hurrah" were also around, sometimes even outo fth ehight rees(this one flew stright into my neck!)

Some beetles earwigs, and associates were also to be found as we looked around. Overall, some nice work for a late season trip ~

Egg Case!

2011-10-10T11:14:00.001-07:00

Hello Everyone,

The Praying Mantis I caught at the Rosemont location a couple of Sundays back laid her egg case! (Maybe yesterday morning or the day before, I think.) I discovered it when I went to feed her.

- Julia

Weevils!

2011-10-07T17:04:00.000-07:00

Here's an article I found in the BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-15168542

Kate Patterson

Biotope

2011-10-07T07:59:00.000-07:00

While looking through the New York Times style magazine, T, I came across this chandelier designed by Ingo Maurer, a German lighting designer. It was made for the dining room in a 19th century apartment in Munich. It is a twelve foot tall mass of sponges, LEDs, and hand made and colored insects, lizards, and other little creatures. Maurer worked in collaboration with a few artists to accomplish his vision, including a California artist/photographer, Graham Owens. I investigated him further and found he specializes in making super realistic replicas of insects and insect behavior. His site is worth checking out, his realism is amazing! http://www.grahamowengallery.com/index.html

Also, the article on Maurer's Biotope chandelier is interesting, and the online version of the article has great photos/closeups and a feature where you can super zoom on its surface to look for the hidden insects that live there.
http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/30/super-natural/?ref=design-issue

CJ

japanese kabutomushi beetle

2011-10-06T20:28:00.000-07:00

some impressive beetles!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9PD3WwTJBk

this video is just cute, not really anything else.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci3LC0tUp_k

Kate Patterson

Sylvia Mantis and Matt Jr. Mantis

2011-10-05T13:55:00.001-07:00

On the collection trip this past Sunday I caught two pregnant female Mantids. I decided to keep them as pets until they lay their eggs and die a natural death. Here are some photos and a status update for you guys on how they are doing!

This is Sylvia Mantis, the bigger of the two, crawling onto my friends face to say hello.

A close up of Sylvia.

This is Matt Jr. Mantis, who is much smaller and less intimidating than Sylvia. Matt Jr. enjoys sitting on my shoulder and climbing to the top of piles of random stuff on my desk. Both Mantids are living in Tupperware containers filled with leaves, sticks, and a few crickets. Sylvia is refusing to eat anything, which probably means she is going to lay her eggs soon. Matt Jr. however, has no reservations about eating. She is averaging 3 to 4 crickets per day.

Hopefully you guys are as enamored as I am.

- Isabella

Katydid Nupital Gifts

2011-10-05T13:08:00.000-07:00

This article is right in line with what was discussed last class. Males offering other gifts other than his sperm to the females. Females choosing mate based on best gift. Best gift = best male/genes for healthy offspring.

More nutrients for the young, something to occupy the female during insemination. Yay Sexual Selection!

ARTICLE LINK

A new study of katydids in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B -- co-authored by U of T Mississauga professor Darryl Gwynne -- supports a theory that females will search if males offer a lot more than just sperm.

"In this beast [in this study], it's a big cheesy, gooey substance that the male ejects when he copulates," says Gwynne. "It's attached to his sperm packet, so while she's being inseminated, she can reach back and grab this mating gift and eat it."

"Males mostly do the searching, because the Darwinian sexual selection process is typical stronger in males; they're competitive, says Gwynne." As a consequence of their eagerness to get to the females, the females just hang out waiting for the males to come to them."

And from the male's perspective, a large food gift not only potentially benefits his offspring, but distracts the female long enough to ensure that he has time for a full insemination. Otherwise, says Gwynne, "she's hungry...if he didn't give her this gift, she'd just pull off the sperm packet and snack on that like a little hors d'oeuvre."

Ryan M. Pfeiffer.

Insect Art

2011-10-05T12:08:00.000-07:00

A friend showed me this site.

The artist uses insects to create cute scenes, like two bugs having ice cream.

Heres the link, enjoy: http://goldbugpasadena.com/lisa-wood-1

Kate Patterson

Monarch Butterfly and Other Insects

2011-10-03T16:51:00.000-07:00

From the collecting trip to the Chevalier Woods Forest Preserve on the 25th of September 2011.
A Monarch Butterfly we caught tagged and released.
An egg sack from a preying mantis and milkweed bug on a milkweed plant.

EI

Mantis Day at the Forest Preserve

2011-10-02T19:49:00.000-07:00

This week found us with MUCH better weather at Chevalier Woods, where it was sunny and the mantises in particular were FLYING! I think everyone who came caught at least one...

The glee in the chase was evident in many eyes, including those of Hernan ~

While the eyes of others, like Jay, seemed to play off the colors, patterns, and shapes of the very insects we were collecting:

Of course there were a wide range of others insects too, including curious looking moths:

And charismatic beetles that looked surprisingly like "ladybugs" (but aren't!) ~

Some other red & blacks that typically loiter on milkweed plants ~

And some insects pairing up for the act of procreation!

Bees and others could also "bee" found...

As well as a whole mess of dragonflies. Most were flying too high and fast for anyone to catch, though Isabella snagged this one:

And Ryan bagged one as well - though sadly (as thestory often goes) that was the one that got away on (when trying to get it out of the net...)

He stuck around after we left in pursuit, so I'll be curious to hear if he got one in the end ~ ?

10,000 bugs

2011-10-01T15:27:00.000-07:00

This week in the insect world we find an artist taking their numerical dominance seriously in a recent exhibit in Nottingham Castle (of all places). Remember the estimate is 200 million insects for evey human individual on the globe - while this show only features 10,000 handmade bugs, it is still an impressive feat to say the least.

I don't know anything more about the piece, its intentions, or the use of insects, but this slideshow from the BBC lets us have a look at some of the process...

AY

Colors of Beetles and Fossil Research

2011-09-28T21:25:00.000-07:00

Hello,

My roommate just showed me this short article from BBC News. Since we were recently discussing beetles in class I found this pretty interesting-

Fossil Beetles Show True Colors

- Julia

Trip To Chevalier Woods (rain be damned)

2011-09-26T22:53:00.000-07:00

Well, brave or fool-hardy I am not sure, but a set of us went out this past rainy and cold Sunday to make the most of a chance to collect insects. It started out wet, but cleared up - for some moments even spots of sun!

Julia wasn't shy about taking a hatchet to this rotting to tree to see what we might find

While the nets were useful for Emily and Ana to nab fast flyers like hover flies..

Some classic Orthopterans could be found hanging around,

While praying mantises, though tough as ever to find, also made some appearances! A not uncommon occurrence out at Chevalier Woods ~

Little juveniles of a certain bug in a milkweed pod....

As well as some non-arthropod friends too. Snakes, field mice and a few other Friends Of the Forest were about. (This guy gave us permission to take his photo, so no copyright or in..formed consent issues here...)

Bees from the Hive...

2011-09-26T16:27:00.000-07:00

This past week as I was working at Common Ground Fair I met some people I thought us hexapod fans should know about. The Beehive Collective, and activist non-profit community, based out of Maine that uses the animal kingdom to depict epic stories of our current world. All of the murals and tapestries are anonymous and bought strictly on suggested donations. Not only does their mission support working together as one organism like a hive but their art uses plenty of six-leggers to reference animal behavior in humans.

Really cool, beautiful stuff.

Check them out:

Visit the Hive

CAK

Hiding in the city

2011-09-26T16:20:00.000-07:00

Look what I found hiding amongst the weeds in the SAIC courtyard garden! Could it be?! A White Lined Sphinx! My My...

CAK

happening of gynandromorphy

2011-09-25T21:38:00.000-07:00

From the website of the Natural History Museum in London, I came across a nice article on a recently hatched (this past July) gynandromorphous butterfly.

This Great Mormon is described as being, "...a pure bilateral gynandromorph. One half of the butterfly is female, with paler colouring and flecks of blue, red and tortoiseshell. The other half is male, with darker colouring."

Gynandromorphy itself is not all that much of a rarity in nature, however, "Pure bilateral gynandromorphs are incredibly rare," according to the NHM's butterfly house manager, Luke Brown.

There are actually a few things that can lead to this:

"Bilateral gynandromorphy results if this error occurs during the first cell division, resulting in an insect that has male cells on one side and female cells on the other.

Gynandromorphy can also occur when an egg with two sex chromosomes, instead of the normal one, gets fertilised by two sperm."

If you check out this (brief) article itself, the author goes into a bit more deal about the museum's excitement over their unique Great Mormon butterfly, gynandromorphy and the "Sensational Butterfly Exhibit" in which this guy/gal is exhibited.

DiAnna P.

Japanese Bug Fights

2011-09-25T15:47:00.000-07:00

Hello,

So a friend of mine introduced this to me a while back, and although I am unsure of the actual title of which this is broadcasted, the footage seems to be a bunch of videos under the umbrella subject of 'Japanese bug fights' (Centipedes, Scorpions and others included.) I was not too sure of what to make of it- but they are in a way addicting to watch, even with no subtitles.

Giant Centipede vs. Giant African Mantis

These websites are video collections of them:

http://www.japanesebugfights.com/

http://www.gladiatorbugs.com/

- Julia

Animal Sex Issue #2, Bugs and Slugs

2011-09-25T13:31:00.000-07:00

Hello All,

Recently I have been working on a self published Zine called Animal Sex Issue #2, Bugs and Slugs. This zine is a sequel to a book I did last year, Animal Sex; You Might Not Want to Know, which highlighted the strangest animal mating habits I could find. The second issue, Bugs and Slugs, highlights some of the mating habits of slugs, snails, insects, and some non-insect Arthropods. The book is not finished yet, but I thought it would be nice to post a sneak peak on this blog. The Following Images are pages as they will appear in the zine.

Thank you for checking out these sneak peak pages! I hope you learned something new and disturbing. This book should be finished and available at Quimby’s and Chicago Comics, along with the first issue of Animal Sex, by early October.

Isabella Rotman

Sweet Nest

2011-09-24T15:19:00.000-07:00

A while back I left my window open in my room before leaving for a few weeks. When I came back I found this wasp nest built all around the window so you could see the insides.

-Rob S.

insects and candy

2011-09-24T10:26:00.000-07:00

The other day I decided to stop into a candy shop near my house and while in there my friend and I came across some "novelty" insect-edibles. They had "Salt N' Vinegar" and "Bacon and Cheese" Crick-Ettes as well as BBQ "Larvettes" .

The box Crick-Ettes described them as being The Other Green Meat and on the back showed a diagram explaining the cuts of meat on a cricket (as well as the nutritional facts).

We decided to try out some of the Crick-Ettes: both the Salt N' Vinegar and the Bacon and Cheese flavored ones.

They were terrible.

And when I say they were terrible, I don't want you misunderstand my reasoning. The fact that they were insects is not what made them unappealing, but rather the horrible chemical flavor that they were coated in is what made them so nasty. I'm sure the fake "bacon" flavor was put on their for the purpose of making the idea of eating insects more digestible to the general public, but it made them totally repulsive to me.

Hotlix is the distributor of this specific candy and if you visit their website they have some other (slightly more appealing) product, such as chocolate covered ants and scorpion suckers. There are also some popular websites that will sell some insects as novelty foods. On ThinkGeek you can find toasted leaf-cutter ants and oven baked-tarantula.

If you want to try out eating insects for the first time I would recommend you stay away from anything marked "bbq" or "bacon". Shoot for something chocolate dipped or be daring and find a recipe for some chapulines.

-DiAnna P.

Butterfly Scale "Micro-Mosaics" at the MJT

2011-09-23T17:20:00.000-07:00

Hey you guys!

In case you're from the Los Angeles area, or might want to visit there, there's a great museum in Culver City called The Museum of Jurassic Technology. It's an amazing little museum of odd relics and artifacts of questionable authenticity. There is an entire history of trailer parks, a natural history of the Cat's Cradle, mice on toast, tiny statues of The Pope, Napoleon, and Goofy inside the heads of sewing needles, and at the end of the tour, you get free tea and cookies--seriously. There's also an exhibit of "micro-mosaics" made entirely out of real butterfly scales. The artist somehow placed the butterfly scales on a microscope slide with tweezers into beautiful little glittering pictures you have to look at under magnification. Here's a couple of them:

Pretty, huh?
I strongly urge you to check this museum and these butterfly scale mosaics out.
The Museum of Jurassic Technology

-Moira

the bedbug wars (self-inflicted wounds)

2011-09-23T13:20:00.000-07:00

Here at the Insect World we've done a number of posts about bedbugs, though granted not as many as we could given just what a menace they have become in the U.S. in the last few years.

As the NY Times reports, a new study by the Centers for Disease Control shows that over the past few years 111 people have become very sick from using pesticides in hopes of getting rid of the critters, including, sadly, even one death but mis-use of them:

"The poisonings serve as a warning, experts said, that people could do more damage to their health by misusing pesticides than they would suffer from the bedbugs, which are upsetting and unpleasant, but not known to be carriers of disease.

“People lose their minds and, yeah, they’ll do a lot of things trying to get rid of them,” said Dini M. Miller, associate professor of urban pest management at Virginia Tech. “Certainly the over application of pesticides is one of them.”

The stories recounted in the article are quite something...

Of course it is in fact the overuse of pesticides (and the consequent evolution of resistance to them) that has lead to the current state of affairs....

For a little primer on bedbugs, check out this National Geographic video.

AY

Orthopterans, and More Orthopterans

2011-09-21T12:59:00.000-07:00

This past week in the Insect World found us dissecting grasshoppers (sometimes known as "Louisiana Lubbers" of the genus Romalea). Here we have them rinsing pre-event...

And once you carefully pull the one apart, you can see details like tracheal tubes that let the insect

breathe ( alas, no need for lungs! )

This configuration, post dissection, made me think of the National Geographic image from their

"photo of the day" series.

OK, enough about hoppers, time I better hop along myself...

ANT COMIC

2011-09-21T07:16:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite current young cartoonists, Michael Deforge, is currently working on a project that will consist of 50 one page comics. A new one appears every other Monday and it is called Ant Comic. I'm really excited about this project because Deforge has a great surreal and colorful style and a funny way of storytelling. It's also interesting to see ants depicted in such a human and kind of pathetic way.

-Krystal

"hairs" to insects!

2011-09-13T11:04:00.000-07:00

Adrienne Antonson has an interest in two things that might not seemed connected at first: Human hair and insects. Hmm... how to put these together in to one artistic practice?

Viola - make bugs out of cut bangs.

The Huffington Post reports of Antonson's work and its connection to ethics and material sustainability, as well as of course bugs. Her method of making these insects makes me think of the fly lures that people tie for fly fishing. SAIC faculty Joseph Grigley did a nice piece on that topic for Cabinet magazine a little while back...

Read about and see a slideshow of some of this work here ~

AY

Collecting Trip Uno - Montrose Beach

2011-09-12T18:52:00.000-07:00

The first excursion for the Insect World found us on a stunning day at Montrose Beach. Only six of us total (ahem) but that was fine - more insects for us!

Here a bee is enjoying some lovely flowers of early autumn - get in on it while you still can...

Monarch butterflies were around and about and we tagged and released a couple that we caught as part of the Monarch Watch program.

Speaking of the Lepidoptera, caterpillars were in large numbers, be they spiny or smooth:

And of course the crooners of the season, annual cicadas....

And the odd butterfly here or there ~

crikey cricket. marvellous mantid.

2011-08-06T07:53:00.000-07:00

A cute little camel cricket (Family: Rhaphidophoridae) found strolling about and spending a summer evening in the Roger Brown house.

These guys love houses with crawl spaces rather than basements, as this lovely modernist piece of architecture does.

iiii

A teenager praying mantis was also on the scene a couple of days earlier. Precocious (as those mantises are wont to be) and indulging of a couple quick photos...

insect internal anatomies

2011-06-19T09:33:00.000-07:00

The internal anatomy of insects is something few come across in their lives, unless perhaps a particularly insightful 5th grade teacher of your had you dissect a grasshopper. Malphigian tubes, ovarioles, the hemocoele and other such parts are likely to sound like Greek to you (or perhaps Latin, after all).

These two drawings by Christa Donner make the internal anatomies of a wasp sing. Be they of humans or hexapods, it is wonderful to see what she draws out from the inside.

AY

the insect roadshow

2011-06-06T15:10:00.000-07:00

After just finishing a little road trip through New England and Quebec I thought I'd share just a sampling of the six-legged I was lucky enough to come across....

a beetle in an open Massachusetts field,

a pale green moth on a maple tree,

dragonfly in Leominster State Forest

a spittle bug (spittle included there on the tip of the finger...)

a Vermont crane fly

underwing moth glory on a Montpelier porch ~

Chocolate covered crickets

2011-05-16T18:09:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-07T08:15:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-06T04:04:00.000-07:00

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...

2011-05-06T03:47:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-04T08:44:00.000-07:00

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

Awesome Article on Altruism and Ants

2011-04-26T09:22:00.000-07:00

Was browsing the interweb and stumbled upon this article about fire ants and rafts

It's pretty interesting.

Check it out here

-Ariel

DIMMING LIGHTS

2011-04-25T12:25:00.000-07:00

The world has more than 2,000 firefly species. There are a host of websites set up to tally population totals.

- Firefly Watch
mos.org/fireflywatch

-Fireflies in Houston
burger.com/firefly.htm

-U.K. Glow Worm Survey
galaxypix.com/glowworms

These sites also have some great firefly photography.

-rachel

"The Coming Plague"

2011-04-25T12:16:00.000-07:00

I came across this photograph in an old National Geographic.
A cloud of plague locusts descending on a field outside Melbourne, Australia, in 1955.

-rachel

the worm and the caterpillar

2011-04-25T12:13:00.000-07:00

-rachel

Wicked Bugs Very Interesting

2011-04-25T12:09:00.000-07:00

http://www.amystewart.com/wickedbugs.html

Honey Bee CO-OP

2011-04-25T11:36:00.000-07:00

http://www.chicagohoneycoop.com/

Blattodea In High Fashion, 5 Years Ago

2011-04-24T17:36:00.000-07:00

Do you all remember this fashion trend about 5 years ago? Perhaps it didn't run in your social circles, but attractive ladies would wear these bejeweled giant roaches on chains- The Roach Brooch. I don't think this is done all that much anymore though.

http://articles.latimes.com/2006/apr/15/business/fi-roachbrooch15
-Nick

wasps abducting ants

2011-04-24T14:56:00.000-07:00

An interesting article/video of wasps abducting ants.

Max

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/04/110406-aliens-wasps-ants-drop-food-new-zealand-animals-science/

?Mullerian Mimicry?

2011-04-18T12:04:00.000-07:00

While I was Looking over Some youtube videos, This interesting looking caterpillar.

I can't be sure but, My hypothesis about this particular look is the Lepidopteran caterpillar Mullerian attempt to look like a bat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eyh9v6qhlu4&feature=related

I could very well be wrong!

insects, parasites, and Radiolab...

2011-04-18T01:48:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

So here's a podcast I found in the Radiolab archives that has some cool insect related info. It's pretty long (an hour long) but super entertaining. The whole thing isn't about insects, the topic is parasites in general, but here are some bookmarks...

http://www.radiolab.org/2009/sep/07/

Around 4:50 they talk about caterpillars and cockroaches infected with parasitic wasps

Around 13:00 they talk about parasitic nematodes who infect ants to spread their seed

There are also a bunch of other weird little topics covered like how the hookworm is responasble for the invention of the outhouse.

Anyway, enjoy!

-Marisa

p.s. Check out ANY of the episodes on this site. They are all awesome.

Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Help Against Malaria?

2011-04-10T17:30:00.000-07:00

Here's an interesting article about some genetic manipulation going on to try and create a malaria resistant mosquito, which may then be able to spread this genetic advantage on to future generations... Playing Mother Nature, even if the results seem promising, one has to wonder what else may happen here... (I couldn't find a blogger link, so I've pasted a link to the BBC story here. Robb

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-10654599

Strange People Interact With Giant Insects!

2011-04-06T10:54:00.000-07:00

Probably my favorite comic-artist is Mark Beyer, an early 90s nightmare-maestro. "Amy and Jordan"- tales of urban paranoia, loneliness, and general desolation- and crawling with insects! Here's a few gems. Click 'em to make 'em big!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------posted by Nicholas Jackson