Last week, I wrote about the bad news: that monarch butterfly populations have been plummeting since the 1980s. The good news is that a revolutionary new tracking device may help those populations recover. Naturalists have been trying to track monarchs for nearly a century, but mass ID-ing (with tiny stick-on tags) only began in large […]
insects
Posted inField Notes
Monarch Butterflies
Part 1: Migration Magic It’s not easy being a monarch butterfly these days. Your caterpillar’s essential milkweed food is no longer abundant; illegal logging and beetle infestations threaten your main winter roosts in Mexico, and climate change is playing havoc with nectar plants on your migration routes. Where hundreds of millions of monarchs roosted annually […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
HumBug: The Current Mass Extinction
There have been five major mass extinction events in the fossil record. Some folks claim the human race is causing the sixth right now. Dumping massive amounts of greenhouse gasses, saturating the world with never before seen chemicals and introducing all manner of non-native species willy nilly are touted as the major causes. I have a […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Humbug: That’s One Big Moth
Coming home late from the Fortuna fireworks display on July 3, on a whim, I stopped at the Carlotta Fire hall. To my surprise I got to see a species of moth I photographed for the first time last year. Near the light was a Polyphemus Moth. At 6 inches it has the largest wingspan […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Wicked Bugs: The Meanest, Deadliest, Grossest Bugs on Earth
Many benign and useful insects, spiders and arthropods do exist in the world, but you will not find them in this adaptation of Wicked Bugs: The Louse that Conquered Napoleon’s Army & Other Diabolical Insects for young readers. Local author Amy Stewart is intrigued by the dark side of the bug universe; the dangerous, destructive […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
HumBug: Look What the Sun Brought Out
I for one have had enough rain to last me a while. Many insects don’t have very long to get down to the business of procreation and continually postponing it due to rain can be worse than deadly. In nature, insects only live for one purpose: reproduce, that’s it. So, now the weather has turned, […]
Posted inNews
HumBug: An Inordinate Fondness for Beetles
The great geneticist and evolutionary biologist J.B.S. Haldane once said, “The creator, if he exists, has an inordinate fondness for stars and beetles.” It is believed there are more species of beetles than any other order of animals on the planet. They fill so many niches in the environment it is no surprise to happen […]
Posted inNews
HumBug: The Devil’s Coach Horse
It is a rare event that I go out looking for a particular species of insect and find it. Well, for once I succeeded. A week ago on one of those sunny-ish days I took a walk down the Van Duzen River and noted dozens of tiny flying insects. I chased a couple down and […]
Posted inNews
HumBug: All Aglow
The other day I received my new ultraviolet (black light) 51 LED flashlight from Amazon.com ($9.99). A significant upgrade from my old one. I discovered that some millipedes glow brilliantly under UV. Outside in the dark it’s like a different dimension in a sci-fi story — the trees are in the same places but everything […]
Posted inNews
HumBug: No Bugs Today
Last week, for the first time in several hundred excursions along the Van Duzen River spanning over 20 years, I saw no bugs. Only the sad remnants of a few abandoned spider webs and a bit of residual leaf damage testified to their existence. Despite a lifetime of experience at picking out tiny critters and […]
Posted inNews
HumBug: Great Beginnings
A great way to start the New Year! Astronomically, meterologically and biologically, winter solstice marks the end/beginning of our annual cycle. My year is starting off most auspiciously. About 1 a.m. on December 21st I counted eight glow work rms in the little grove, a record for the year. The day started sunny and bright […]
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 […]