Chicago = Mosquito Heaven

___________
____
Surprisingly hot weather and heavy rainfall has resulted in Chicago having a 20 year peak in the summer mosquito population (I can personally attest to the fact: they are bad this year!).

The season has now shifted to Culex species of mosquito that carries West Nile virus, with the first human case in the region just being reported.






All this buggy and biting news makes me think of the classic comic by John Porcellino, Dairy of a Mosquito Abatement Man, which chronicles his own experiences working the mosquito-ridding beat in Chicago land back in the 1990's... If only John was in Chicago to join the fight!


AY

Cicadas..s...s...

____
On a recent visit to Shikoku, Japan I found myself bathed in cicada songs. In Japan the biodiversity of cicadas is quite something in terms of size, coloration, and indeed song. Some even sound like birds calling! Occasionally one could spot a cicada (like to the right), but it was tricky as they are usually either very well camouflaged, very high up a tree, or both.

Finding their old clothes, however, was much easier. Hanging lightly on tree bark and across the ground their molted husks from being a pupae could be easily spotted, delicate but colored like amber.

AY

Eating the Six-Legged

--
A promise is a promise, and I swore to the class last semester I'd eat the giant Thai water bugs I bought at my neighborhood grocery (discussed in originally in this post).

I can't say I was looking forward to this meal per se, but I wasn't too apprehensive either. Being a New England boy, I love shellfish, and so shell-on shrimp, lobsters, and full-bellied clams all taste good to me. How different would this be? So I went with that culinary theme and decided to go with the Deep-Fry option , having it be part of a side dish to my lunch:





















Am I feeling squeamish, or focusing with laser-like attention
on my palate? You be the judge.



I finished it off with garlic and some curry powder sprinkle to accompany my tofu and shiitake mushrooms.

I have to say, it wasn't at all what I was expecting. The texture was crunchy and a bit scaly (I anticipated that), however the flavor was odd ~ it was like an aromatic blend of banana leaves and something else I can't put my finger on - somewhat nutty, almost like a pungent jasmine, and VERY salty. All that said, I can't say that it was tasty, at least not the way I prepared it, the novice that I am.


One thing I marveled at was the meat inside the thorax, clearly these guys fly a fair bit as their flight muscles were bulky and fleshy the way you see in dragonflies, in fact, you can actually make it out by texture distinctively as meat:
























I didn't end up eating every last bit, but gave it a good "college try" as they used to say. Some parts were just a little to chitinous to manage...




















For some more entomophagy related posts from the Ecology of Food blog, go here, there, and this one!

A recent post on this blog also highlights some advanced cooking of insects Creole style in New Orleans.


AY

Hive Mind

click to> Feel the BuZZ

The web designer Baby Dinosaurs Eyes gives us some visual play as one ponders the ways of bees and their collective flying huuum.

I love the way they appear and then fade to the distance, as they age and as they forage outside. It feels like a lovely visual metaphor for the real demographics of bee colony life....

ay

Insectariums - New Orleans/Montreal

On my recent trip to the city I so wanted to go to the Audubon Insectarium, but alas, it was Monday and so it was closed... My good friend and fellow insectologist, Corrie, told me just how fabulous it is so I'l have to make a point of going.

This article on it in the Smithsonian Magazine gives a taste (and literally A TASTE, including a video bit on preparing using crickets in a cajun redfish dish!)


On the topic of insectariums and North American francophone cities, let me then make a plug for Montreal's Insectarium. An amzing place housed in the old Winter Olympics complex, it is a real pleasure.


And more locally (for me), the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago and its Butterfly Haven - one of the better butterfly houses I've seen, with a wealth of birds as well. Check out the Butterfly Haven's Blog for some nice images.

ay

factZooing

FactZoo - a little factoid page on insects with some nice (if a bit random) images and notes on insects and other creatures.


ay

Crazy fungi thing that shoots out of the brain of insects!

It's a fungus called Cordycep, David Attenborough will explain:

- Ji Soo

Law and Order: Entomology

PBS: Nature has a good documentary on how insects help with forensics called Crime Scene Creatures it's a little cheesy but still fascinating

-Ji Soo

Maria Fernanda Cardoso: Art and Insects!

Stick insects on rod from Maria Fernanda Cardoso on Vimeo.


-M.Ramirez

evolution by hybridogenesis theory debunked and a hermaphrodite moth

In response to the evolution by hybridogenesis theory, it turns out there were no interspecies relationships that led to the creation of caterpillars. the full article:

http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2009/10/no_species_mixing_to_make_cate.html

And this moth is a very rare find, it is completely sexually dimorphic within one body. The moth is a gynandromorph, literally half male and half female.

read more:

http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2008/05/picture_post_strange_dual_sex.html

How to eat June Bugs.

Apparently, they're delicious.

Their medicinal uses

How To

Posted by Joe

Metamorphosis and a Brain Hormone

"In its overall design, insect metamorphosis is very much like passage through puberty," O'Connor says. "From a biological point of view, both puberty and metamorphosis accomplish the same goal -- to provide reproductive capacity for the species at the appropriate developmental time." The brain hormone becomes active when insects have reached a threshold body weight, which is also a trigger for human puberty.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090331201522.htm

- w

Let's talk about fruit flies baby, let's talk about you and me

So, I have been on a bit of binge of sordid fruit fly sex research today. There are so many interesting articles being written about the role that genetics play in mate selection, sexual orientation, and the desire to settle down and have a family. Here are three articles I have found especially arousing-(scientifically speaking).

For that Urge-to-Merge, "Will you still love me in the morning?" romantic:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071210163142.htm

We're here-we're fruit flies-and we're fabulous:

http://www.wbez.org/content.aspx?audioID=13745

and finally, "It's who I am, or, It's who science made me":

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/03/science/03cell.html

J.Kent

Cricket lollypop

Cricket Lick-Its

http://coolbugstuff.com/product_info.php?cPath=27&products_id=43


It says the insects in the middle of the lollipops are real.
-w

Bug art

Beginning in 1977, a well-known San Francisco Area restauranteer, and character, named Juanita Musson, operated a bar and restaurant , ( The Warehouse Cafe) located below "Dr. Gladstone's Wonders of the World Museum" in downtown Port Costa. As a joke on Juanita, Clayton Bailey made several large ceramic Bugs to hang on the walls and ceilings of his Wonders Museum claiming that the bugs came upstairs from Juanita's restaurant.

http://www.claytonbailey.com/bug.htm

-w

Bed bugs

Here's an interesting documentary about bedbugs. It is graphic so be careful!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qx751dNw7Q&feature=player_embedded

-w

Insect Pheromones Used As Insecticides

http://www.beyonddiscovery.org/content/view.article.asp?a=2702

Throughout the semester we have learned about the importance of pheromones in insects. Two weeks ago we learned about how the queen bee secretes pheromones to prevent her workers from laying eggs. This article is about how entomologists and chemists have learned to harness pheromones and use them as a form of pest control.

A.B.

The insects of Birmingham

Still collecting in Birmingham and thought i share some of my finds with you all.

Grasshoppers in Birmingham are well, bigger. This is a Southeastern Lubber Grasshopper (Romalea Microptera) next to a quarter for comparison. they have very tiny wings and tend to walk around rather then hop or fly. when alive they have yellow bee like bands that run the length of their abdomens.

Another interesting grasshopper i've come across is this little guy. At first i thought it was in the pygmy grasshopper family (Tetrigidae), however its pronotum isn't elongated, an attribute of the Tetrigidae family. As you can see it's virtually wingless as well.

One more insect i wanted to share with you guys is this beautiful butterfly, The Great Purple Hairstreak (Atlides Halesus). This species has two small tails and is iridescent blue. The underside of their abdomens are bright red which is very nice in contrast to their bodies.

The cockroaches down here are also quite large and numerous, but i'll get to that another time.

hope all is well in Chicago,

Kara

Ugly Bugs ... but really, who are we to say?

A short blurb on the Scientific America site describes Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University's second annual 'ugly bug contest.' The voting is open to the public. The contest is conducted by offering lush microscopic photographs and short behavioral profiles on each contestant. Even though the contest designers do not address the subjective nature of ugliness, it is still pretty fun.

Here is the Scientific America blurb

And here is the actual contest

Andrew Douglas Campbell