Filed under: Events
For those in Northern California, here are two events at Turtle Bay Exploration Park near Redding. One features butterflies:
Summer takes flight with two enchanting seasonal exhibits. View colorful exotic birds in a walk-in aviary in our new Birds! exhibition. Get closer by feeding them!
Returning for a ninth season is one of Turtle Bay’s most popular exhibitions, Butterflies! Visitors view hundreds of butterflies in a tranquil, enclosed garden.
Through October 1, 2007
Filed under: Events
Step into a Spider’s world!
Welcome the return of The Spider Pavilion, the only public spider-viewing center of its kind in the country. With the help of Museum gallery interpreters you can get up close to Orb Weaver spiders as they busily create intricate webs, interact with one another and feed on their prey, just as they do in the wild.
One of the residents on view is the Golden Silk, which builds webs up to three feet across and looks a little like spun gold! Also featured is the Banded Garden spider, producing large crisscross webs that resemble those of the most famous garden spider of all – Charlotte of E. B. White’s “Charlotte’s Web.”
In a separate viewing area are some of the more dangerous members of the arachnid family. Observe large scorpions, tarantulas and other rare spiders safely through terrarium glass.
Filed under: Bugs in the News
“The state is seeking approval to release a tiny African insect on all islands that is believed to be the best hope in controlling its invasive cousin — the destructive Erythrina gall wasp. Since it was first detected in Manoa two years ago, the wasp has killed thousands of trees from urban Honolulu to remote regions of the Neighbor Islands.”
See the full story at: http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Sep/16/ln/hawaii709160348.html
Filed under: Bugs in the News
The grainy structure stuck to the bee, which is trapped in amber that’s 15 to 20 million years old, holds orchid pollen. This is a direct fossil observation of a plant-pollinator interaction.
Read more here:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/08/070829-orchid-fossil.html
Check out some bee facts here:
http://www.totallybuggin.com/site/1586384/page/836011
Filed under: Bugs in the News
From the CDC: BBQs, gardening, swimming pools and hikes…and mosquitoes.
Enjoy the outdoors, but remember to protect yourself from mosquitoes and use insect repellent. West Nile virus transmission is underway in many parts of the US.
This virus can cause serious, life-altering and even fatal disease, so it’s worth it to take a couple minutes to prevent mosquito bites.
CDC West Nile Virus Home Page: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/index.htm
Check out some mosquito facts here: http://www.totallybuggin.com/site/1586384/page/838258
Filed under: Bugs in the News
(CNN) — A virus found in healthy Australian honey bees may be playing a role in the collapse of honey bee colonies across the United States, researchers reported Thursday. Honey bees walk on a moveable comb hive at the Bee Research Laboratory, in Beltsville, Maryland.
Colony collapse disorder has killed millions of bees — up to 90 percent of colonies in some U.S. beekeeping operations — imperiling the crops largely dependent upon bees for pollination, such as oranges, blueberries, apples and almonds. Get the full story here:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/09/06/bee.disorder/index.html?eref=rss_tech
Check out Honey Bee facts here:
http://www.totallybuggin.com/site/1586384/page/836011
Filed under: Bugs in the News
Entomologists are debating the origin and rarity of a sprawling spider web that blankets several trees, shrubs and the ground along a 200-yard stretch of trail in a North Texas park.
Officials at Lake Tawakoni State Park say the massive mosquito trap is a big attraction for some visitors, while others won’t go anywhere near it.
“At first, it was so white it looked like fairyland,” said Donna Garde, superintendent of the park about 45 miles east of Dallas. “Now it’s filled with so many mosquitoes that it’s turned a little brown. There are times you can literally hear the screech of millions of mosquitoes caught in those webs.” Watch the video:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/30/spider.web.ap/#cnnSTCVideo
Check out some spider facts here: http://www.totallybuggin.com/site/1586384/page/843135
Filed under: Fun Facts
Over 2725 butterfly species live in or pass through North America (although around 2000 of these are from Mexico.
But how about just in San Diego county? The size of the list may surprise you! How many of these species have you seen?
http://www.sdnhm.org/research/entomology/sdbutterflies.html
From http://www.naba.org/qanda.html :
How many kinds of butterflies are there?
There are approximately 20,000 species of butterflies in the world. About 725 species have occurred in North American north of Mexico, with about 575 of these occurring regularly in the lower 48 states of the United States, and with about 275 species occurring regularly in Canada. Roughly 2000 species are found in Mexico.
