Sometimes when I’m out looking for insects to photograph, I see other things. Imagine a creature sporting a neurotoxin hundreds of times more deadly than cyanide in sufficient quantities to kill a full grown man. And it’s common in our area. The Rough Skinned Newt (Taricha granulosa) sports the same toxin that makes the pufferfish […]
Science
Posted inNews
HumBug: Rainy Day Critters
As the song says, “It’s raining again/ Oh no, it’s raining again.” So what does an entomological photographer do when it’s been raining for days and days? He gets wet. Today, taking stuff out to the compost, I noted the rosemary is blooming. At first I couldn’t see anything moving, then bit by little bit […]
Posted inNews
HumBug: Glow Worm vs. Snail
Tonight I counted four glow worms (Pterotus intergrippinis) under my redwood trees. I have counted as many as 27 in the leaf litter beneath my small 20-foot-by-50-foot grove (roughly 1/50th of an acre.) The first ones I ever saw were beneath redwoods at Grizzly Creek Campground. So far I’ve seen them in every grove I’ve […]
Posted inNews
Wake-up Call: 6.5 Quake a Reminder to Prepare
Today’s magnitude-6.5 quake centered 100 miles off the coast of Ferndale has already produced a trio of aftershocks and more are likely to follow in the weeks to come, earthquake experts note. The 6:50 a.m. quake was caused by an east-west strike slip on the Mendocino fault, which runs along the boundary of the Pacific […]
Posted inNews
HumBug: Fly Fishing
A very long time ago I got into fly fishing. It is a highly technical method for fooling an animal with a brain smaller than a pea into thinking that bits of feathers and fluff are something good to eat. Those somethings are usually members of three orders of insects: mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies. The first books […]
Posted inNews
HumBug: Seasons Change
Seasons change, and with them the insects we see. Headed toward winter now, there are fewer dragonflies. It seems the big common green darners are all gone now, migrated elsewhere. But on a recent stroll along the Van Duzen, I saw several others. A solitary dusty, old-looking western river cruiser and a couple too far […]
Posted inNews
HumBug: False Scorpions
A little over 20 years ago, after moving to the country, I noticed a tiny, dark critter, no bigger than a newsprint letter “o” scurry across my counter. I scooped it up and checked it out with a hand lens. It was an animal I had only read about, a book scorpion or pseudoscorpion. After […]
Posted inNews
HumBug: Uninvited Guests
The black lights of my “light trap” don’t make for a regular trap; the insects are free to come and go as they please. That’s the trick, though — the lights are irresistible. Moths, of course, come by the dozens, but there are others. An opportunistic praying mantis seeks an easy dinner. A burying beetle […]
Posted inNews
HumBug: Like Moths to a Black Light
Last week I wrote about setting up a light trap in my backyard with only limited success. At the suggestion of some folks in an entomological chat room, I tried it with black compact fluorescent lights rather than Coleman lanterns. The old gas lanterns give off a great deal of heat and frequencies in the […]
Posted inNews
HumBug: Missing Giants
The last couple of nights I’ve been running an experiment to answer a question. When I was a kid, I could leave the porch light on almost any night and there’d be a bunch of insects around it in an hour or so. Lately, I’ve been noticing that there don’t seem to be nearly as […]
Posted inNews
Feds Find Improper Care After Fisher Death at HSU
The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently found that Humboldt State University failed to follow laboratory protocols as staff observed the declining health of a dying fisher for nearly a week without calling a veterinarian. The routine inspection report dated Aug. 3 includes a daily log kept by the animal’s caretakers in the days before the […]
Posted inNews
HumBug: An Afternoon on the Van Duzen
Trying to stay up to date with the entomological fauna in my area, I went for an extended hike, braving ankle-deep waters and wading upstream from my usual haunts. I saw quite a few pale-faced clubskimmers (Brechmorhoga mendax), one of my many favorite dragonflies. You usually see them flying within inches of the surface at […]