Water Bear can survive the vacuum of space.
Water Bear can survive the vacuum of space.
Showing posts with label insects. Show all posts
Showing posts with label insects. Show all posts
19.4.12
2.3.12
80 YEAR HIDEOUT
Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides For 80 Years
"Here's the story: About 13 miles from this spindle of rock, there's a bigger island, called Lord Howe Island.
On Lord Howe, there used to be an insect, famous for being big. It's a stick insect, a critter that masquerades as a piece of wood, and the Lord Howe Island version was so large — as big as a human hand — that the Europeans labeled it a "tree lobster" because of its size and hard, lobsterlike exoskeleton. It was 12 centimeters long and the heaviest flightless stick insect in the world. Local fishermen used to put them on fishing hooks and use them as bait.
Then one day in 1918, a supply ship, the S.S. Makambo from Britain, ran aground at Lord Howe Island and had to be evacuated. One passenger drowned. The rest were put ashore. It took nine days to repair the Makambo, and during that time, some black rats managed to get from the ship to the island, where they instantly discovered a delicious new rat food: giant stick insects. Two years later, the rats were everywhere and the tree lobsters were gone.
Totally gone. After 1920, there wasn't a single sighting. By 1960, the Lord Howe stick insect, Dryococelus australis, was presumed extinct.
There was a rumor, though.
Some climbers scaling Ball's Pyramid in the 1960s said they'd seen a few stick insect corpses lying on the rocks that looked "recently dead." But the species is nocturnal, and nobody wanted to scale the spire hunting for bugs in the dark....."
7.3.11
3.3.11
ZOMBIE ANTS
"A stalk of the newfound fungus species Ophiocordyceps camponoti-balzani, grows out of a "zombie" ant's head in a Brazilian rain forest.
Originally thought to be a single species, called Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, the fungus is actually four distinct species—all of which can "mind control" ants—scientists announced Wednesday."
Read more from National Geographic and click through the other pictures to keep reading.
25.8.10
4.8.10
WHISPERING IN THE LEAVES
Chris Watson is a field recording sound artist. His new work Whispering in the Leaves is a sound installation now on view (on listen?) at the Kew Gardens, London.
6.5.10
11.2.10
ART OF ENTOMOLOGY
More information on the Observatory website.
Opening: Friday, February 26; 7:00 - 10:00
Hours: Thursdays and Fridays 3-6;
Saturdays and Sundays 12-6
OBSERVATORY and Curious Expeditions’ Michelle Enemark are delighted to announce “Entomologia,” a group show of art incorporating and inspired by insects, on view from February 26th through April 4th.
“Four years of hard work in the darkness, and a month of delight in the sun - such is the Cicada’s life. We must not blame him for the noisy triumph of his song. For four years he has dug the earth with his feet, and then suddenly he is dressed in exquisite raiment, provided with wings that rival the bird’s, and bathed in heat and light. What cymbals can be loud enough to celebrate his happiness, so hardly earned, and so very, very short?” -Jean Henri Fabre
16.10.09
4.10.09
6.9.09
2.5.09
23.1.09
17.12.08
NEW ANIMALS SOUTHEAST ASIA DIVISION
Many new species discovered in Southeast Asia's Greater Mekong River region. These animals include the Kachin woolly bat and this proud pink cyanide-shooting millipede. Also, the world's largest spider with a leg-span up to 12 inches, was discovered in a cave in Laos. More scary and deadly animal discoveries here and here.
22.11.08
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