originally posted: December 31, 2003 | by chelsie

There is only one thing worse than biting into an apple and finding a 'worm'. It is biting into the apple and finding half a 'worm'. The 'worm' is a caterpillar, the larval stage of the codling moth (Cydia pomonella (Linnaeus)). [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: December 24, 2003 | by chelsie

Robert Chambers theorized that perhaps this odd game dated back to Druidic fire worship. The 1889 Century Unabridged Dictionary called it a "sport". The game was played after dark. It was the Dragon that visited on the vigil of Christmas (December 24^th). And it is proof that people have always had some very brainless traditions for no recollected reason. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: December 17, 2003 | by chelsie

The star-of-Bethlehem or comet orchid (Angraecum sesquipedale Thouars) is a native of Madagascar. The orchid comes into bloom starting in December. The comet orchid is phalenophilus [fal en of' e lus], "moth-loving", the waxy white flowers are scentless during the day and both highly visible and fragrant after dark to attract the night-flyers. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: December 10, 2003 | by chelsie

The flower or crab spider (Misumena vatia Clerck) is cryptically colored; it takes on the color of its surroundings. The female spider is most frequently found hidden among the parts of flowers where it waits for prey. The prey is generally two to three times the size of the spider. The spider ambushes pollinators, especially honey bees, bumblebees, and wasps. The insects are seized and paralyzed by a venomous bite to the back on the neck. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: December 3, 2003 | by chelsie

The Torresian Imperial pigeon (Ducula spilorrhoa Gray) is native to the Oceanic Islands migrating between Papua New Guinea and the reef islands north of Australia. This relatively large pigeon (to 45 centimeters or 18 inches) forms huge nesting colonies on the mangroves of the reef islands. The birds feed on fruit and leaves foraging in rainforests and return to their island colonies at sunset. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: November 26, 2003 | by chelsie

The goldenrod or flower spider (Misumena vatia (Clerck)) is native to the temperate zones of the Northern Hemisphere. It is an ambush predator; it sits and waits, usually on a flower or inflorescence, for its prey to come to it. Adult female flower spiders have cryptic coloration; they are camouflaged according to the substrate (the object they are sitting on) and may be white, yellow, or green. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: November 19, 2003 | by chelsie

The goatweed leafwing (Anaea andria Scudder) is a member of the Nymphalidae, the brush-footed butterflies, and the subfamily, Charaxinae or leafwings. The butterflies are named for their characteristic trait--wings that appear like dried leaves. Leafwings are cryptic butterflies generally found in the tropics and subtropics. At rest, the goatweed leafwing keeps its wings folded together exposing the brown underside. It frequently hangs upside down even swaying slightly in a breeze. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: November 12, 2003 | by chelsie

The woodworm (Anobium punctatum (De Geer)) is a recycler, it is found in temperate zones worldwide. In the wild, it tunnels through dry standing wood. With repeated generations, the tiny tunnels meet and merge eventually converting solid wood to a sponge-like appearance. The wood's structure is weakened, fungi and bacteria find their way in, and the wood is reduced to nutrients for use by other organisms. Once the wood begins to decay though, woodworm is no longer attracted to it. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: November 5, 2003 | by chelsie

The platypodids "flat-footed" or ambrosia beetles comprise about 1,000 species in the subfamily Platypodinae. The genus Platypus has seven species in North America. They are tiny social beetles, most are female. They are haplodiploids; females hatch from fertilized eggs and are diploids (paired chromosomes), males are haploids (single set of chromosomes) hatching from unfertilized eggs. Ambrosia beetles bore into wood. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: October 29, 2003 | by chelsie

They are small, very small, a full-sized worker is only one to one and a half millimeters. The head is dark, but the abdomen and legs are pale. They appear translucent and move quickly. They inhabit the most unlikely places--the bottom of a flower pot, a gap in the wall molding in the bathroom, behind the splashboard by the kitchen sink, even between pages of books on a shelf. They are ghost ants (Tapinoma melanocephalum (Fabricius)) and one is more likely to feel the ant crawling on the skin than to see it. Ghost fits these ants well. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: October 22, 2003 | by chelsie

Cycads are unique seed-bearing plants; in the genus Cycas, the seeds are borne along the edges of special leaves on the female plants. Seed ferns were the first plants to evolve the capability of reproducing by seeds. Ancestors of Cycas were somewhere close to second. The seed ferns have long been extinct; Cycas are the descendents of the longest continuous seed plant lineage on Earth. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: October 15, 2003 | by chelsie

Allograpta obliqua, "Other-marked, oblique", is a tiny hover or flower fly. A full sized adult is only 6 to 7 millimeters (one-fourth inch) in length. It is common; its native range is across the southern third of Canada all the way down into northern Argentina. Yet, it is so small that it does not have a common name, but is lumped together with the five to six thousand other species of hover flies or syrphids. When the creature is noticed, it is usually hovering almost stationary in the air. The immediate human response is to swat, slap, or squash this colorful bee mimic. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: October 8, 2003 | by chelsie

Rose bays or oleanders (Nerium oleander Linnaeus) are members of the Apocynaceae, the dogbane family. These decorative shrubs were introduced to the New World by Spanish settlers sometime during in the seventeenth century. The foliage is eaten by the oleander caterpillar (Syntomeida epilais Walker), a member of the Ctenuchinae, or wasp moths. [Click here to read more...]