Bug Photo of The Week

Thomas R. Buckley, Dilini Attanayake1 and Sven Bradler (2008). Extreme convergence in stick insect evolution: phylogenetic placement of the Lord Howe Island tree lobster Proceedings of The Royal Society

I am living proof against Intelligent Design

Take a look at Casey Luskin’s diagram in his most recent post over at Evolution News and Views. Believe it or not, this diagram hits close to home to me. You see, the very fact that I’m alive is proof positive that this diagram fails the most basic test of irreducible complexity. I have a [...]

Bug photo of the week

Newly emerged Actias luna photographed at the Christina Reiman Gardens butterfly wing on the Iowa State University campus.

Natural Selection Parallels Artificial Selection in Fighting Crickets

If you’ve ever found big, black crickets in your backyard you’ve seen something from the genus Gryllus. They’re the guys you probably see in your garage during the summer looking for shelter and chirping in your backyard during those warm, lazy nights. They’re pretty ubiquitous and generally pretty recognizable. Crickets chirp to attract mates using [...]

My encounter with the largest moth in the world

I went up to the Christina Reiman butterfly garden the other day…it’s embarrassing it took me this long since I’m an entomology major, but I’ve been busy with school and various custody-related legal things. But I made time last week, so it’s all good. I just so happened to be lucky enough to catch this [...]

Spider mimics in lepidoptera

One of the coolest adaptions insects use to survive is when they try to look like something else in order to fool predators into not eating them. Normally, they look like something which tastes bad or a group of harmful species mimic each other to spread that blanket of protection. Occasionally, though, some take a [...]