I come across a large number of interesting blog posts, news articles, scientific papers and various other types of media every week, which I try and share through Twitter on a regular basis. Since I know not everyone has been bitten by the Twitter bug yet1, I figured I’d start a weekly round up of links to some of the stories I find interesting, important or just plain entertaining.
True to form, most of these links will be insect related, but I have broad interests, so some other topics are sure to turn up from time to time2. The internet is full of talented people, and I hope you enjoy their work as much as I have.
The Flies (Diptera)
The 8th International Congress of Dipterology is coming up in a few years, so be sure to start saving your pennies for the trip to Potsdam, Germany!
I prefer studying flies (dead or alive), but if that’s not your thing, check out these creative photos of dead house flies and blow flies having the times of their (already finished) lives. Here’s the full collection by photographer Nicholas Hendrickx.
The BugBlog has a nice series of photos of Helophilus pendulus, commonly called the Footballer Hoverfly in the UK. Why call it that, you might ask? Apparently the striped patterns on the thorax reminded someone of a soccer jersey.
The Dragonfly Lady shows off a nice hilltopping site in Arizona. Plenty of fly talk in the comments.
The Beetles (Coleoptera)
The Edmonton Journal has a great biography of Dr. George Ball, a beetle taxonomist at the University of Alberta who has impacted the careers of dozens of top entomologists across North America.
This short film is both beautiful and bizarre all at once. A stop-motion portrayal of the life of a beetle taxonomist who makes the discovery of a lifetime.
Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis) has now been found in most major urban centres across Ontario, and has recently turned up in Quebec. Chris Buddle discusses the affect that EAB will have on Montreal.
While not EAB, Chrysobothris vivida looks quite similar on first glance. The Field Museum shows off the holotype and label data, helping to explain the role that natural history collections play in day to day science.
Speaking of natural history collections, a volunteer at the Natural History Museum in London, England shares why she loves helping out with the beetle collection in her spare time.
Check out this awesome longhorn beetle (Cerambycidae) Ted McRae of Beetles in the Bush came across while working in Argentina recently. While you’re there, share your ideas on the purpose of the strange tufts of hair!
The Ants, Bees, and Wasps (Hymenoptera)
The School of Ants is gearing up for another summer of discovery by sampling the ants around our houses and picnic areas.
Ants are to ________ as clown fish are to anemones. Think you know the answer? Better check Not Exactly Rocket Science (NERS) by Ed Yong for an excellent tale of commensalism.
It may not be 1984, but Big Brother is watching what Orchid Bees are up to (but don’t worry, it’s for a good reason).
Scientific American ran an interesting story about native bee populations in eastern North America, and included an excellent slideshow of some beautiful bees with it.
Some of photos in that slideshow came out of the Packer Bee Lab at York University, as did a newly published review and key to the Dufourea bees (Halictidae) of Canada in the Canadian Journal of Arthropod Identification.
Other Arthropods
Marine water striders (Gerridae) are making the news this week with the release of a new study finding that a massive raft of plastic pollution in the Pacific is harboring a growing population of these bugs. Ed Yong is excellent again on his NERS blog, and the paper is Open Access if you’d like to take a look yourself.
These plastic-loving water striders aren’t the only insects that have taken to the open ocean, and the North Carolina State University Insect Collection has a few more examples to share.
Caterpillars come in a wide variety of colours, shapes and forms, but these translucent, jelly Jewel Caterpillars are some of the most beautiful!
I saw Avengers this week, and it was really, really good. Prior to the movie, there was a trailer for the upcoming Spiderman reboot, promising plenty of web-slinging action. Before the movie comes out this summer, meet the backyard spider that may have served as inspiration for Peter Parker’s gadgets.
Taxonomy, Biodiversity, Academia, Science Communication/Photography
Although written by a marine ecologist and discussing a paper about plant taxonomists, this post on the Sea Monster Blog is one of the most best stories about the role of taxonomy and the decrease in taxonomists being hired and funded. A must read for anyone who depends on biology in their day-to-day lives (that means you).
The NCSU group shares an entertaining story and asks you to decide whether it’s fact or fiction. What do you think?
The Tepuis of Brazil are way up on the list of places I want to explore and collect one day. This excellent New York Times article by Carl Zimmer makes me want to go even more.
A new project was launched this week which hopes to provide interactive range maps for all the worlds flora & fauna! Nature has a nice feature explaining some of the goals and obstacles the project faces in the early phases. Right now they only have terrestrial vertebrates and North American freshwater fish mapped, but the interface is excellent and has a lot of potential! Now to get some insects into the project…
Most research papers only discuss results and experiments that worked. The Canadian Field Naturalists Blog discusses the importance of publishing projects which didn’t work as expected.
Just because it’s summer vacation for undergraduate university students, doesn’t mean their professors get a break too. Chris Buddle outlines some of his labs plans for the summer.
To get a job in academia, your peers (and more importantly, your hiring committees) need to know you and your work. But is all self-promotion viewed equally? Excellent discussion on the evolving role of social media and blogging to the world of academia by Scicurious.
Photography & Other Fun Stuff
Have you ever wondered what it’d be like to be a press photographer tasked with covering President Obama? This account by a Reuters photographer shows just how stressful the assignment can be.
I don’t know who started it, but the #InsectSongs suggested by Twitter users this week was an afternoon of hilarity. Check out some of my favourites, and then see which ones Bug Girl selected.
Finally, enjoy this fun stop-motion video detailing the everyday lives of insects.
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1- If you need more convincing why you should sign up for Twitter, here’s another excellent piece on the benefits of Twitter for academics
2- Ed Yong, and Bora Zivkovic do extensive weekly link round-ups covering a very broad spectrum of science writing if you need something else to read this weekend!
By chance I was looking to ID some insects seen today. They appear to be fruit-fly like (wings with transparent (?) tips held in delta (Concorde/Vulcan) pattern, but bigger – 10 – 12mm body length, but with enormous pale antenna (hence not flies?) 3cm long, held vertically when flying, else slightly spread or held apart at 60degrees and waved/flicked when resting. Thorax & abdomen quite densely covered in black hairs. Wings apparently one pair (but did not get close enough to see halteres) parked in delta formation, often then folded in curved tent over abdomen. Distal third (+/-) transparent and/or very shiny. Flight meandering (when alone) or ponderously gnat-like when in pairs or groups of 4 – 6 (displaying to one another); short duration flights (around 5 secs) followed by sunbathing on Medlar leaves for 10 secs plus or so before the next display. Tolerated movement of leaves and twigs in slight breeze, but v. sensitive to my attempts to move twigs for a better view. Around a dozen individuals observed from about 1100 – 1200 on 2012 May12, location W Somerset about 1 mile from Bristol channel. Have some photos if I can get my mobile camera to admit that it has some and copies them to my PC.
Best wishes,
Jim Kent
P.S. I lean towards plants – I reckon they (are able to) display quite ingenious (evolutionary) solutions in dealing with the problems of each cell enclosed in its own (cellulose) coffin.
Hi Jim, thanks for stopping by!
It’s hard to tell for certain, but I would guess you found either fungus gnats (Sciaroidea) or perhaps ichneumon wasps (Ichneumonoidea). Some fungus gnats can have very long antennae and are about the correct size you referred to, but I’m not sure about the antennae flicking behaviour, which the ichneumon wasps are particularly known for (and they are also potentially the size you observed). If you have photos, feel free to send them along (my email is above) and I’ll see if I can help out further.