Mosquitoes and host range evolution on Galapagos

Let’s talk about something that really isn’t given top billing amongst many vector biologists for a minute. It’s not that the subject is taboo, it’s simply that most of the money that comes into researching vector borne disease comes in to fight diseases which afflict humans and animals that are important to humans. Most vector [...]

Back in a bit…but for now, bugs in the news!

Yeah…sorry I haven’t kept up with the bug-blogging as of late. Had a few things going on in my life…but I dare not turn this into a ‘bitch-about-my-life’ blog. There are far too many of those and quite frankly, my strifes aren’t that interesting. So…let’s go through some of the news that’s been brewing since [...]

Bug Photo of The Week: Tachinid Growth Inside Bombyx Mori

I always write about these cool parasitoids which eat the host from the inside out…but I rarely, if ever show pictures of the process. Let’s change that, shall we? If you’re a regular reader of this weblog, you’ve seen me mention Compsilura concinnata before. It’s this neat little parasitoid fly which, unlike many parasitoids, can [...]

Tree Lobsters: Convergent Evolution in Phasmida

Phasmids are really cool insects. You probably know them better as stick insects. They’re insects which have evolved probably the most perfect cryptic coloration in the animal kingdom-they’ve evolved to look like sticks. They’re very, very good at this because not only do they look like the last thing a predator would ever eat, many [...]

New Species Discovered Along Mekong River

Okay…totally breaking my moratorium on science posts for this. It’s a picture show which shows many animals discovered in a remote region of Laos, Vietnam, China…a region in there somewhere. There are some really cool species here…and it just goes to show that we still have a lot more to discover. You can see a [...]

Compsilura concinnata

Yesterday, I wrote about a fly that’s been killing our native silkmoths. It’s really an unfortunate story, but I didn’t really write anything about the biology of this guy. I’ve been writing about various parasites and going into their biology a little bit, but I don’t think I’ve ever hit on tachinid biology. You can [...]

This is exactly what the internet is supposed to be used for!

I’m doing some research right now on how biocontrol programs have basically destroyed our native moths. Basically, we have a problem with an introduced pest called the ‘gypsy moth’ which I better know as Lymantria dispar. It was introduced way back in the early 1860s and has been nomming up our forests ever since. Infestations [...]