Expiscor (2 September 2013)

September 2, 2013September 2, 2013 / Chris Buddle / 4 Comments

Welcome to September (and Labour day, today)! September is favourite month here in the Montreal area - the weather remains fantastic, the maple trees start to change colour, and migrating birds begin moving through. And best of all, the Academic term starts - for me, lectures begin tomorrow. For now, however, let’s see what discoveries were uncovered over the past week…

Although spider bites are exceedingly rare, scientific research into spider venom reveals new secrets.

Make room for spiders in your garden. Good work, Calgary Herald - a positive story about spiders.

A terrific post all about Pseudoscorpions (thanks for tweeting that link, Malcolm Campbell). I’m thrilled to know there are other folks out there as obsessed about these critters as I am)

Spider in da house. Take part in some arachnological citizen science!

Ever want to be a spider? Here’s a game that lets you explore an abandoned house, as a jumping spider.

An incredible spider photo to share with you, from Sean McCann. Here’s a pair of mating Hyptiotes gertschi (Family Uloboridae) (reproduced here, with permission)

A taxonomic misunderstanding. A good (and important) rant.

Speaking of taxonomy (and what DNA can reveal…), overlooked diamondback moth from Australia.

Ten threats to Monarch migration - an excellent post by About Insects.

Cicada-killing wasps. Run for the hills, cicadas!

Advice on how to kill fleas (from 17th century). As Bug Girl points out, don’t try this as home. Yikes.

More great stuff from #6SecondInsects, including this beautiful Membracidae

An arthropod mystery is upon us… have a look.. WHAT THE HECK?

Wallace’s beetles on FLICKR. So. Awesome. (thanks Max Barclay!)

More great beetles: a little rove beetle monster (via Stelio Chatzimanolis)

Flies are neat, too: Out of Africa: more strange flies. A post by my colleague Terry Wheeler.

OK, let’s spread around the love. Ants are also beautiful (look, a moustache!), as Alex Wild shows us here:

Cephalotes atratus (photo (c) A. Wild) - THANKS Alex, for allowing me to post your photos on Expiscor!

MOOC on Dinosaurs at the University of Alberta. If I had the time, I would take part in this one!

How to write short. Although a longer read, a worthy one! (via Canadian Science Writers Association)

Far is great, but so is near. In praise of boring, local field sites.

Dan Simberloff reviews a book by his former supervisor, E.O. Wilson.

Speaking of E.O. Wilson, check out this video from his Biodiversity Foundation. Yes, we do need to inspire kids (thanks Adrian for posting that video!).

Over at XKCD, “Questions“. As Andrew MacDonald points out, many relate to Biology!

And the tweet of the week goes to… Andrea Kirkwood:

Art and Science: a wonderful blog to follow (thanks Amanda for that tip!)

Insect Origami = WOW. (thanks Marianne Allenye for that link)

How musical rhythm impacts learning and memory. Fascinating read!

#Overlyhonestsyllabi: Dr. Dez writes a thoughtful and critical piece about this hashtag…

Early career ecologists wish they had more quantitative training. I must agree! I had a lot, but certainly not enough. (thanks Laura Timms for that link)

Speaking of Laura Timms - her stint as a post-doc with the Northern Biodiversity Program is over. Sigh. We’ll miss you, Laura. You write great papers.

Falling, falling. (go ahead and click it…)

Monty Python + Lego. Oh, I laughed.

The world’s largest collection of belly button lint. (thanks [I think] for that link, Linda Campbell)

Close to home, McGill’s Tomato Tornado! FUN!

Expiscor (26 August 2013)

August 26, 2013October 20, 2013 / Chris Buddle / Leave a comment

After various trips and adventures, regular editions of Expiscor are back… Here are some discoveries from the past week! Hope you enjoy…

The amazing dance of the peacock spider, by Douglas Main. Just awesome.

Some stunning spider photos by Sean McCann about a recent field trip to a site in which widow spiders are ‘super-abundant’. And what do you know, they didn’t get bitten…!

Spider mimics leaf.

Seems that everything gets parasitized, even pseudoscorpions. Laura Timms pointed me to this paper which mentions that fact.

Opiliones (Harvestmen) can learn to associate a chemical stimulus with shelter. Smart little beasts!

WOW! Great resource on Nearctic Syrphidae just published.

Jumping caterpillars! WHAT! It’s true… a great read over at ROM Biodiversity, by Chris Darling. Those little suckers have arms, too.

Cows, poo & beetles.

Beetles are great -here’s a post about an interesting, flightless one. Check out the quote at the start:

Five fascinating facts about aquatic insects.

Lovely lights: Long exposure shots of fireflies.

Giant mechanical mosquitoes inspire design to conquer the Antarctic, in 1920s. (via Mozziebites)

That’s Biodiversity! 100 tiny predatory beetle species discovered in Tahiti.

Speaking of discovering biodiversity, why do mammal discoveries get so much press? Some good thoughts on that topic from Morgan Jackson.

Here’s a shot of doing Entomology on the tundra. Entomology Yoga, anyone?

#EntoYoga (photo by J. Wagner)

Speeding towards birds… in a car… for science. Great read by Ed Yong.

We need interdisciplinary research to solve complex environmental problems. Here are survey results to confirm that.

All thumbs. Terrific post by Malcolm Campbell.

For Academics (and those planning on being one…): It doesn’t get any easier. Sigh. That’s the truth (but it stays really, really fun!)

Another worthy read for Academics “…Feeling boxed in?” - by Sarah Boon.

Scientists work weird hours - an interesting read that focuses on when manuscripts get submitted. Spoiler: it’s often on weekends.

Tweet of the week goes to Joshua Drew. Darn good advice!

There was some discussion on Twitter about whether or not to write in the 1st person. The Lab & Field pointed out that Francis Bacon may have been responsible for the movement to avoid it in scientific writing…

A+ for Canadians: Why Canadian students are among the globe’s smartest.

Interested in Arctic exploration? The hashtag #Franklin2013 is just for you. You can also follow Parks Canada Archaeology for updates on their search for Franklin’s lost ships.

Dr. Who fans: did you know you can go IN the TARDIS? (thanks CBC Radio 2 Shift, for that link)

Photographs of Dried Whisky Residue on the bottom of scotch glasses.

Snail trails. What a neat (and important) story. Here’s the video (check out at 3:08):

Expiscor (19 August 2013) - The Photography Edition (Part 2)

August 19, 2013August 14, 2013 / Chris Buddle / 2 Comments

Last week was Part 1 of the Photography editions of Expiscor (this is because I was been doing remote field work and have thus been unable to keep up on science links, and now I’m on vacation!). Here’s Part 2 - and again, I thank the Photographers for letting me post their work here, and for directing me to their favourite nature image.

First up, a lovely shot from Morgan Jackson, a Micropezidae fly (genus Raineria)

An Expiscor favourite Adrian Thysse submitted this photo, with the following comment: My ‘favourites’ change every week, but here is a shot that was one of themost popular images at the Bug Jamboree at the Ellis Bird Farm last Saturday. It is a meadowhawk, Sympetrum sp. , taken with very shallow depth of field to smooth-out the background and to accentuate those magnificent eyes.

Next, another awesome fly, from Rachel Graham:

Warren Sarle submitting this photo - lovely little jumping spiders!

The next photo comes with a story, here’s what Matt Bertone writes about this image:

I was walking on a trail near our local lake (Raleigh, NC, USA), when I came upon a harvestman. I didn’t think much of it until I saw this tiny ceratopogonid sucking hemolymph out of its leg. I had been wanting to find this phenomenon, so I took a couple photos (others show the whole scene) and then was on my way to find new subjects. After posting on facebook and having Chris Borkent comment on it, I sent the photo to Art Borkent, a world expert on punkies. He was amazed at what I had found - Opiliones as a host was only recorded once ever, and only in Brazil. I was kicking myself for not getting the specimen, but at least the shot turned out well!

Ok, time to move away from the “All Arthropod” show… here’s an image of my own and here’s the story: Last week I was in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, doing field work. While doing a “tundra walk” one afternoon, we stumbled across a tiny patch of Asters, tucked in among some rocks. It was a beautiful moment because it was very late season, and we observed very few flowers. However, these stunning Asters took my breath away. Delicate, beautiful, fragile.

Expiscor (12 August 2013) - The Photography Edition (Part 1)

August 12, 2013August 5, 2013 / Chris Buddle / 5 Comments

I am currently in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, enjoying some Arctic entomology. However, this has meant I’ve been unable to keep up on great science stories, and have therefore opted to bring photographs to this week (and next week’s) Expiscor.

I asked a few of my favourite photographers if there were willing to contribute to this edition of Expiscor by providing me with their favourite nature photograph - i.e., the image that THEY took, that is their favourite. Here are some of the images, and I deeply thank the photographers for agreeing to contribute and giving me permission to post their work, here!

First up, the incredible Thomas Shahan, here’s a jumping spider (Phidippus putnami) shot that he adores:

Next up is a lovely shot from Sean McCann - here’s the story behind this image, and why it holds a special place for him:

In my PhD research I spent four three-month field seasons at the Nouragues Station in French Guiana studying the Red-throated Caracara. The majority of the time, I was working from the ground in the thick rainforest, watching the birds overhead. This does not make for good photo opportunities, as the birds are silhouetted against a bright sky. When we did things such as bird capture or audio playback, the birds would come down to near ground level, but under the canopy the forest is so dark it is really tough to get good shots. Needless to say, for a scientist/photographer studying his favourite birds, this was very frustrating!

Finally, in my 4th field season, toward the end of our stay, I took the opportunity to walk down to the Pararé camp, where there are some towers built that reach above the canopy. I brought my playback device so I could try to lure caracaras to the trees near the tower. Luckily, it worked extremely well, and I was able to capture some good well-lit shots of my study organism for the first time. The tower allowed me to enter the real habitat of the caracaras, the high treetops with the equipment to pull off some good shots. I think this was one of the most exciting days of my research, and having this photo to remember it by is wonderful.

From Alex Wild... he directed me to his set of favourites, so I picked this amazing shot of honey pot ants. Wow!

To finish off this week’s Photography edition, here’s a milk snake from Nash Turley:

Expiscor (5 August 2013)

August 5, 2013 / Chris Buddle / Leave a comment

Welcome to August! I’m heading off for Arctic field work today, but will try to post updates and I will try to keep Expiscor posts coming, despite the remoteness of where I will be…. I’ll see how I manage…

Here are some discoveries from the past week, for your reading pleasure!

A truly stunning photo essay, feature spiders… The most exquisitely, weird and beautiful that you will ever see….

Spider fun with laser-pointers (thanks Bug Girl)

Flying spiders: spiders are excellent aeronauts, thanks to ballooning. However, I didn’t realize that large spiders balloon, too [PDF] (thanks Spider Joe!)

High speed imaging of a jumping spider… catching a fly. Awesome. (via Sean McCann)

A web of spiders - a nice post by Dragonfly Woman

A spidery mystery - Adrian Thysse posted this on Facebook - what is attached or stuck to the spider’s legs?

A mystery….what is the arrow pointing to?

Spiders have personalities. Yup. And you can colour-code them, too. Great feature in Wired!

Speaking of Wired, did you hear the BIG NEWS! Bug Girl will be posting over at Wired Science! BIG congrats from Expiscor.

Open call for Entomological Art - YAY!

Take photographs, folks - you just never know what might come of it. (and here’s the link to the paper about how photosharing websites may improve Hemiptera biodiversity knowledge and conservation.

Where are all the monarchs? Here’s a story from the Globe & Mail.

Scorpionflies - too cool for words - good thing we have amazing photographers out there!

I like bees. My colleague and friend Elena Bennett likes bees, and she has some hives - here’s a photo to show just HOW MUCH she loves bees!

Bees!

33 new ant species described from Central America. SO MUCH BIODIVERSITY TO DISCOVER!

Heck, we are still discovering new species of birds!

Shhhh - be very, very quiet. That’s what veeries do when owls are about.

Birds poop, too. And you can get a bird poop facial. Seriously.

Fossil frogs! Fascinating paper out in PLOS (thanks Protohedgehog for tweeting that)

Congrats to Carly Ziter on her new (awesome) paper: Functional diversity management mediate aboveground carbon stocks in small forest fragment

Tweet of the week goes to…. Insect News. Love it!

New to teaching? A workshop is probably a great idea - here’s a paper in Bioscience Education that explores that idea (thanks Graham Scott for tweeting that!)

Here’s a great post titled “Self-promotion: shamelessly selfish or shamefully misunderstood?“

YES, Boggle is better than Scrabble. That is all.

Winners of the National Geography Traveler Photo Contest. Amazing work.

Oh, and for the geek in me - Trek in the Park. Make it so. Engage.

And to finish, how about a Devonian reef platter! (see here for more amazing stuff from JPOP studios)

A Devonian Platter

Expiscor (29 July 2013)

July 29, 2013 / Chris Buddle / 1 Comment

From the world of arachnology, entomology and beyond… Expiscor is here for you! Here are some things I stumbled across this week:

Find your inner bug dork: The amazing, inspiring Bug Chicks: they are going to take a couch across America, filming and talking about insects. Check out their awesome video here, and you can give them money here. Do it. Just do it.

Need a jumping spider fix? Here’s an oldie but a goodie - jumpers wearing water droplet hats.

Top fears of teenagers. #1 - Terrorist attack. #2 - spiders. Unbelievable!

Mirror mirror on the wall… Nicky Bay with photos of a spider turning its abdomen into a multifaceted mirror.

Do you like Dock Spiders? Hey, that genus is found in Madagascar, too [PDF]

Photo time! Another stunning shot from Adrian Thysse - this one of a crab spiders as prey. You can follow his blog here (and thanks to Adrian for allowing me to reproduce the shot, here)

Dipigon sayi with Xysticus prey

A terrifying ball of flies. What?? Too bad about the title, but the story is awesome.

Populations of grassland butterflies decline (sigh).

Six Second Insects: a great use of the Vine app, from Morgan Jackson.

In case you missed it, pubic lice suck.

Macrophotography of ant warfare - io9 features Alex Wild!

A Catan-style board game with ants. FUN! (thanks Alex Wild)

and even more from Alex Wild - an ant that is 30 million years too early.

Here’s a paper based on a reexamination of weevils collected by Thunberg the late 1700s - and a new genus was described. Don’t forget about the value of museums!

Mosquito season: here’s a must-read article by Cameron Webb - busting myths of mosquito repellents.

Want to learn more about German cockroaches? Why yes, I would!

Spider poop. Spider Joe posted an amazing photo of the stuff (see below); the solids are undigested prey material and the liquid is a slurry of guanine crystals. Wow. (um, and as Joe stated on twitter, Oreo cookie, anyone?)

Bird poop. I had some land on me earlier this week. Apparently that should only happen once every 195 years. (I take that as good luck). Thanks Lab & Field for the link!

Having trouble figuring out authorship for a paper? Why not determine it by croquet? (thanks Karen James, for that tweet!)

Dinosaur Train: A review of a kids book in a scientific journal. A fine idea! (and a good review, good work Canadian Field Naturalist)

Tweet of the week goes to my (young) colleague Dr. Dez:

Changing families behind the decline of field stations? Terry McGlynn has a good point…

First Impressions: a great piece of nature writing from Kim Moynahan.

Editors and authors of this Journal of Animal Ecology paper should be ashamed: “Who wears the pants” in the title of this paper.

Stunning video of a meltwater lake forming around the North pole.

The greening of Canadian Campuses. Hey, my campus is featured!

For Academics: The awesomest 7-year post-doc.

Alcohol-free whisky. Seriously, this doesn’t sound like a very good idea.

And finally, a Happy Birthday (today!) to my big sister. She’s awesome (and she writes books!)

For nature geeks everywhere… True facts about owls. I love this:

Expiscor (22 July 2013)

July 22, 2013 / Chris Buddle / 1 Comment

Expiscor is back! Here are some discoveries from the past week. I hope you enjoy!

Over on unpopular science, a nice write-up on peacock spiders. Yeah, these little critters are just awesome.

Poetry, spiders and Dr. Suess. To name a jumping spider and a connection to the Lorax. Wow. And for more: here’s a video about Lapsias lorax. (big thanks to Dr. Dez for this one, and to Morgan for link to the video)

Looking up: How about a jumping spider that lives in the Himalayas?

As Spider Joe pointed out on twitter the other day, it’s been known since 1944 that two joints in spider legs extend via hydraulics and not muscles.

I know you are ready for it… a spider photo! This one, an amazing photo of a trapdoor spider by Matt Bertone (thanks Matt, for permission to post here!)

Creepy or cool? How about anal phoresy in mites? Check out this twitter conversation for some fascinating biology; thankfully a blog post was written to wrap it all up.

More creepy or cool, with a summer twist: blow fly maggot in a bikini, anyone?

What is summer without a celebration? Happy Moth Week, everyone!

Some big news in the world of parasitoid wasps - Roger Latour posts a story about Sceliphron curvatum arriving in Montreal (poor little spiders, though…)

Speaking of the lovely city of Montreal, there’s beekeeping on the rooftops! (thanks McGill for tweeting that story)

Epic video of spruce budworm moths flying in Quebec - truly a stunning video that depicts the beauty of population ecology. (Thanks Chris MacQuarrie for that link!)

Colour changing leaf beetles, a nice blog with some very lovely beetles.

Speaking of beetles, here’s a story of a rare tiger beetle on New England beaches.

On the topic of conservation, we ought to pay attention to the smaller creatures of the world (by Simon Leather)

And the tweet of the week goes to Lab & Field - commentary on being a post-doc and multitasking!

Jonathan Franzen on the plight of songbirds in the Mediterranean.

BIG NEWS in the world of science last week - the drop of pitch finally landed.

The macabre beauty of medical photographs, via the Smithsonian.

Your favourite movies as vintage treasure maps. Awesome.

In honour of the completion of this year’s tour de France, here are some amusing quotes from one of the more colourful riders, Jens Voigt. e.g., Having things organized is for small-minded people. Genius controls chaos

Tour de France, 1973: My how things have changed:

And to finish, I agree with Bug Girl: this is one of the nerdiest Entomology videos out there. Wow.

Expiscor (15 July 2013) - The Thank-You Edition

July 15, 2013July 15, 2013 / Chris Buddle / Leave a comment

I’m currently on holiday, and was unable to put together a typical post of links of discoveries for Expiscor. I therefore thought it would be a nice change of pace to provide a short list of people who I rely on heavily for links and images that are published on Expiscor. This post is, therefore, a “thank you” of sorts - Expiscor would just not be possible without constantly seeing terrific content, and this depends on people promoting interesting stories on Twitter or Facebook, or through other means. Creating lists is far from a solitary activity - quite the opposite. It’s about a community, and the people below are one part of that community.

Here’s a list of great people who consistently provide terrific content (in no particular order):

Dr. Dez: an entomologist with broad interests, from photography, to odd stories, and a deep love of old literature.

Bug Girl: it would be hard to have a set of links about entomology without mentioning Bug Girl - she provides a great dose of entomology, often with sense of humour, wit and sarcasm. Check out her blog here.

Alex Wild: most people who follow Expiscor probably already follow Alex. Entomologist and photographer!

Morgan Jackson is one of my key sources for entomology news in Canada. A Dipterist (that’s OK with me!), a great guy, generous, thoughtful, and a man with a great sense of humour. (he has, by the way, helped me a great deal as I started my venture into the world of social media!)

Terry McGynn is the creator of Small Pond Science - a brilliant blog about Academia, ants, and more.

Malcolm Campbell - the creator of #sixincrediblethingsbeforebreakfast, wonderful writer of blog posts, and someone who finds the most amazing stories from the world of science

For all things #scicomm in Canada, thank goodness for Science Borealis

Ainsley Seago: an American entomologist, currently in Australia. In addition to entomological content, Ainsley is a source of “art with a twist”, Thripsters, anyone?

More from Australia, Cameron Webb provides links about biting flies, medical and veterinary entomology, and so much more.

From South America, Daniel Llavaneras is a source for stunning photos and commentary about biodiversity in the tropics.

Over in Europe, Matthew Cobb, from Academia to Entomology, contributor to “Why Evolution is True” and historian.

Still in the UK, Simon Leather, amazing scientist, and source of great blogs and terrific papers with entomological content.

For spidery great-ness, thanks to Spider Joe, Leslie Brunetta & Sam Evans.

Flying Trilobite provides wonderful content, and as a science illustrator, someone I admire.

For photography, I also enjoy posts and images from Sean McCann and Adrian Thysse - brilliant work, and they are always happy to have their work posted on Expiscor.

For insights into the grad student mind, Barbara Frei, Carly Ziter, and Nash Turley are must-follow. They find and promote terrific comment, and themselves are thoughtful, articulate and, well, just a great source of inspiration.

Finally, you all need to follow Ed Yong. That is all.

….OK, I have missed some amazing people, and for that I apologize… when I’m on vacation again, I’ll do a “part 2”.

From the docks of a cottage, enjoy your week!

Expiscor (8 July 2013)

July 8, 2013 / Chris Buddle / Leave a comment

It’s full on summer in my part of the world! Great to have heat, humidity and fireflies giving a nice show. Here’s Expiscor for this week… some discoveries fished out from the past week, from spiders and insects, to art and flying bikes. Hope you enjoy!

43,678 species and counting: Spider systematics, present & future [PDF].

Next up, a shocking story of spiders: some webs may be more effective at catching insects because of electrostatic charges. Awesome. What’s also terrific is one of the authors ‘discovered’ this while observing his daughter’s magic wand interact with spider silk.

A win for Arachnology: the surprising cause of spider bites (and it made Yahoo news, too); great work, Douglas Main!

Harvesting air pollution in London with the help of designs inspired by spiders. (thanks Sam Evans, for this!)

Naughty business: how to photograph a spiders’s privates.

Spider egg parasitoids oh my! 32 new wasp species described from the Platygastridae (Hymenoptera)

Just look at this lovely spider! (photo by Chthoniid, reproduced here, with permission)

Dragonflies and the afterlife. A beautify post by Chris Goforth. Just read it, OK?

Invasive fly moves northwards… and forensic entomologists ought to pay attention.

Taxonomy is a beautiful thing. Check out this post on beetles, “A new lineage of Bembidion?” (thanks for tweeting that one, Morgan Jackson!)

Taxonomy can be a tricky business, though: case in point, taxonomic vandalism.

Hummingbird makes a nest with spider silk.

Tennis is OK, but watching wee insects on the tennis courts is even better. Look out, little beetle! (via May Berenbaum)

Stempunk Cicadas. Oh yeah!

Ants of Alberta - fabulous new key, on-line.

Ants, ants, ants… Dr. Eleanor’s book of common ants is available free as a download.

Killing rats to save biodiversity.

Nature is amazing: Guillemot eggs are self-cleaning.

So you think mosquitoes are bad in your backyard…?? Check out this photo from the Arctic (my experience agrees with this, by the way!)

Mosquitoes in the Arctic (photo by J. Krause, promoted by Amanda Koltz)

Mosquitoes in the Arctic (photo by J. Krause, tweeted by Amanda Koltz, reproduced here with permission)

Gosh it was a fun week on twitter, including a hilarious conversation about Odd Science Equipment - weird things that scientists use to get the job done. Here’s the storify of the hashtag, and there are a couple of other related posts over at Dynamic Ecology (here, and here)

Vintage geology panorama. Lovely! (thanks Jacquelyn Gill for that link)

More on Art & Science (and Entomology…) - using art to enhance science engagement. (yes, you should follow ‘biocreativity‘)

Exams - do we need them? A thoughtful post about assessing students.

Some science funnies. (Thanks Chris MacQuarrie!)

And the tweet of the week goes to…. Avi Goldberg. I love coffee, too.

Phew! Pluto’s tiny moons have names. (spoiler: Kerberos and Styx)

Another home run for Malcolm Campbell. Here’s a quote from his latest post: As children, we make use of our human home bases – like mobile harbours – from which we venture out to investigate new surroundings or circumstances. They are also the safe harbours to which we return for comfort, support and reinforcement when we feel unsure, challenged, or threatened by what we have found

In honour of the Tour de France (my favourite sporting event to watch, despite the past problems), a game changer: a flying bicycle (thanks Matthew Cobb for that one!)

Man wears same polyester outfit for 40 years, in a series of school photos. The most fascinating part of this is watching him age. (thanks Rose Eveleth for that link)

Some promotion for my PhD student Dorothy Maguire - here’s a neat video from Ecosystem Services Montreal, about her work on forest fragments, herbivory and insects. And yes, tree-climbing too!

Expiscor (1 July 2013)

July 1, 2013 / Chris Buddle / 2 Comments

It’s Canada Day! For that reason, and since I’ve been doing a bit of field work, this week’s Expiscor is perhaps a bit shorter than usual. However… better some fun discoveries than none at all!

Here are a few things that caught my attention this past week:

In the spirit of Canada Day, there a heck of a lot of species with “canadensis” as part of their name. Wikipedia has a decent list, but some important things are missing (e.g., Clubiona canadensis)

Regenerate one leg? How about two? Dual leg regeneration in a tarantula via Dave Stone.

Speaking of Tarantulas … here’s a ‘jaw-droppingly” gorgeous one.

I watched Breaking Bio‘s recent discussion with the passionate, well-spoken scientist Phil Torres. He mentioned his finding about a spider making a spider decoy. Fabulous story!

Silky fascination: here’s a post from a little while ago all about mesothele silk, from Leslie Brunetta.

Speaking of things not quite being as they seem, I was reminded this week of Tephritid flies that mimic jumping spiders. For more on that topic, check out this paper.

An atypical jumping spider. Some more details here (yes, weird and wonderful)

Right, I should give you a jumping spider photo now. Why? Just because they are so darn cute:

Euophrys monadnock waving (goodbye) from a collection jar (photo by Y. Wang)

Up is down, down is up. An Entomological optical illusion.

More about the Lepidoptera: here’s a neat story of a girl who found a giant moth in her backyard- something rare for Michigan… and Facebook helped her with an identification.

From the Smaller Majority: bugs on bugs (I just love that pseudoscorpion!)

Pipes, tubes, insects & engineering. Check it out! “Going micro-tubular“

Another must-have book for Entomologists: Encyclopedia of Medical and Veterinary Entomology.

Want to know where all the mosquitoes are? There’s an App for that (M-Tracker) (thanks to Mozziebites for that link!)

How a new species is named. A terrific write-up about the process. Taxonomy, yeah it’s awesome.

Speaking of taxonomy, a new species of flea, from the early Cretaceous. And a terrific name: Saurophthirus exquisitus

On the topic of fleas - Robert Hooke sure did a nice drawing in the late 1600s… phenomenal.

Tweet of the week… I know you want it… this one is courtesy of Rachel Graham (by the way, for non-Entomologists, a Malaise trap is used to catch insects, whereas a tent usually catches humans)

Screen Shot 2013-06-28 at 1.56.06 PM

It’s a green, green world.

For the birds: Ornithology in Montreal is alive and well. Here’s a nice video explaining the McGill Bird Observatory.

Natural history museums are essential for science: great post from the Lab & Field.

Connections: How do you relate the London Tube to the Human Body? Here’s how.

If great scientists had logos

Speaking of great scientists, here’s a post by Steven Hamblin on social media and Academics - the comment section is worth a close read.

On to another great scientist, yet another amazing post by Malcolm Campbell on “lasting impressions“.

Thrifty photos - you can do some great things with cameras on smartphones.

A mysterious noise that is driving Canadians crazy. Hmmmmm-It’s A very unusual story.

WATCH OUT! A GIANT SPIDER! Great video, sure caused me to chuckle:

Arthropod Ecology

Writings about arthropod ecology, arachnids & academia at McGill University

Expiscor