Circus of the Spineless # 66

Would you look at that title? "The Spineless". A whole world of animals, great and small, named for the one characteristic they don't possess. As if we, in our backboned state, were the norm. We're not, not by a long shot; about 99% of the life on this earth is "invertebrate" - another example of our snooty condescension.

And the term, "spineless" has such derogatory connotations! It calls to mind a lack of courage, a wimpiness, or worse. A glorious squid has to share the term with the most despised of our politicians; the adventurous ballooning spiderling with a Milquetoast. Is this justice? Is it right? No!

I hereby propose that we find a more appropriate term for the most intriguing, varied, resourceful, and durable life around us. One simple word to encompass the entire, exuberant mosaic.

Consider these examples: what characteristic do they have in common?

Some are colourful:

• The big-eyed, green-legged Hentz' red-bellied tiger beetle. From Doug Taron at Gossamer Tapestry.
• The Argiope garden spider. dressed in red and yellow, with her zippered web. From Squirrel at Squirrel's View.
• Blue, blue, blue Damselflies: bluets and yellow greents. (I think that spelling was deliberate.) Adrian Thysse, at The Bug Whisperer.
• The Emerald cockroach wasp, also known as the Jewel wasp. (Beautiful, but not for the squeamish.) Real Monstrosities.
• Nor is this:  Rover Ants and Carrion Flowers. Roberta Gibson, All About Ants.
• Since we're looking at beautiful critters, we may as well put an entire blog on our list: Notes from Dreamworlds; magnificent macro photos. This, I think, is my favourite: Shells of microscopic crustaceans. By Daniel Stoupin.

Mayfly nymph Photo by Daniel Stoupin

Some have surprising abilities:

• Missing legs not a problem for spiders. (Kevin Zelnio, at Scientific American.) They're as good at growing new ones as my crab.
• How chitons are tougher than stone: they coat their teeth with specially "tweaked" metal. David Winter at The Atavism.
• Caddisfly larva build houses of gravel. Katie, Nature ID
• Funnel-web spiders make "trampoline" webs: Splendor in the grass. Diane Tucker,  Hillstead's Nature Blog.
• Some crabs blow bubbles; urchins walk without legs or feet: Spineless of the West Coast Trail. Tim, at Think Big ... No, Even Bigger.
• Watch a Swallowtail caterpillar go from poop to pupation. Jodi, at the Contented Naturalist.
• Squid pen draws current biotech progress. Danna Staaf gets punny about electronic squid.

And some are a bit confused:

• Aussi beetles and beer bottles, It's love at first sight! (David Winter, again) and
• Squid seeking squid any sex or species. (Danna Staaf at Squid a Day.) The link in the post to the original study leads to a paywall. Go to National Geographic for the full story.
• These Sooty Dancers aren't confused, but they are confusing. Chaotic cluster. Jim Johnson at Northwest Dragonflier.
• On sorting out Dragonflies: Striped saddlebag and the value of vouchers. Julie & Darrin, Urban Dragon Hunters.

More squid goodness from Danna Staaf;

• Marketing the mystery of the giant squid

Well? Have you thought of the One Word yet? Me neither. Maybe we'll have to stick with "Spineless" for now. Reluctantly.

Before you go, there's one more thing you must see: I'm as green as the Emerald Wasp with envy!
Dragonfly Woman went to Bugshot-2011, a workshop with Alex Wild and other photographers. And, as if that weren't enough, TGIQ went, too, and came home with this amazing photo!

UPDATE: I totally forgot to mention next month's CotS. It will be hosted by Jason Robertshaw, at Cephalopodcast. Send your submissions to him, at cephalopodcast at gmail . com by the end of October.

SECOND UPDATE: A change of instructions for the next Circus; Kevin says to send submissions to him, for now. The address is kzelnio at gmail dot com.

A bird in the hand ...

... would be better off in the bush.

I was sitting here at my desk, thinking about the Circus of the Spineless (of which I'll remind you again later*), when a sparrow hermit thrush flew full-tilt, head-on into my window, and fell unconscious on the cement.

I dashed out to rescue him; he was lying on his side, not moving, but when I picked him up, he was still breathing. His eyes were closed, his beak open. I brought him inside to the warmth, and wrapped him in the first thing that came to hand, paper towels.

He moved slightly, and I peeked. His head was bent back, towards the right side, but the right eye was open. When I put him down, he struggled to stand upright, but kept his head twisted. He didn't seem to notice me, a few inches away.

A soundless distress call

In case of accident ... well, for humans, they say to guard against shock; keep them warm. So I got a big plastic bowl and made a nest out of a towel in it, then gently put the thrush inside and covered him up. And sat there with him on my lap while I played a few rounds of Solitaire. Something mindless, to keep me from disturbing him from sheer impatience.

After about ten minutes, I put a hand on the top of the towel. Immediately, the thrush started to thrash about and call frantically, so I took the bowl to the open door, and lifted the corner of the towel. He jumped out and stood, teetering on the sill.

The left eye is still closed, the beak open, but he's silent again. 

Five more minutes, and he opened the other eye, hopped to the ground, then flew a few feet to a clump of potted plants ...

Feathery bird on rusty bird.

... where he sat. He watched me, but didn't mind me moving about, taking photos. After a while, worried about him getting cold, I touched his back, and he roused himself and flew into the shrubbery. 15 minutes later, he was gone. Good! I hope he got over the headache soon and completely.

Still on the rusty bird, against a flower pot patterned by snails eating algae.

Every now and then one of the chickadees brushes my window; not too hard, and they recover almost instantly. This is the first bird that has really knocked himself out for several years. I wish there were none. But how do you keep them from doing this? I've tried a few suggestions, like painting lines on the window, screening (They bump the screen and the glass, too, just not as hard.), or cross-hatching the danger zones with sticky tape. Nothing really works.

Any ideas? What do you do?

*About  Circus of the Spineless: tonight, midnight, Pacific Coast time, is the deadline for submissions to the October edition. You may e-mail your invertebrate posts to me, wanderinweeta AT gmail DOT com, or send me the link on Twitter @wanderinweeta.

The best laid schemes ...

...gang aft agley. I'm still working on the anemone post. And tomorrow is a busy day; I've got a report to turn in, even if I have to work all night. The anemone (and an amazing crab) story will have to wait until Wednesday.

Meanwhile, here's the anemone, as s/he looks today; a bit smaller after a rough summer, but still healthy and hungry.

Metridium

And, while I remember; I will be hosting the next Circus of the Spineless here, next week. You may e-mail me your invertebrate posts to wanderinweeta AT gmail DOT com, before the second of October.

On my calendar

Where did the summer go? Yesterday, driving home, I saw a sign reminding us that school starts September 6, barely a week and a half away. And suddenly, the calendar is full of things to do, places to go. The blogging calendar is, too.

So: here's what's coming up next, this month (what's left of it) or in the first weeks of September:

• Skywatch will be back online at 2:30 this afternoon. It had been on hiatus since the sad death of its owner, Klaus Peter. Thank you, Sandy, Sylvia and Wren for picking up the thread!

Sailor's delight

• August 27th, the day after tomorrow, a few Pacific Northwest bloggers are participating in a scavenger hunt. On their blogs, so you don't have to travel. Pat Lichen is hosting it on her blog, here.

Here's the plan: this Saturday, Aug 27 at 9:00 AM, I'll post a series of questions along with a list of PNW bloggers. Your challenge will be to visit the blogs and, using the posts found there, answer each of the scavenger hunt questions correctly. Then you'll send your responses to me at patriciaklichen@gmail.com--the winner of a random drawing of correct actions will receive (what else?) a free, autographed copy of my novel Kidnapping the Lorax.

• As planned, the International Rock Flipping Day will be held here on September 11. I'll add more details for the new flippers in a future post. Meanwhile, start picking out your rock! Here's last year's fun, for inspiration: Mongoose Poop?

• The September Circus of the Spineless will be hosted by Danna, at the Cephalopodiatrist. Send your links to Kevin Zelnio this week!

What very important blog date have I forgotten? I know there's something; there always is.

A Skywatch post.

A quick look at the sky

We're very busy today. All we'll have time for is a quick look out the window:

Sky and new leaves.

Three of my favourite carnivals have been posted this week:

• Carnival of the Blue - All things wet and wonderful
• Circus of the Spineless - Wild and wriggly
• And the last, the final, the swan song of I and the Bird, the granddaddy of Nature Carnivals. I'm sad to see it go, but look forward to what the creators come up with next.  Here's #149. And #1, for the record. And, while I'm at it, #76, the first one I hosted. And Clare's Panegyric. Thanks, Mike for all you've done for the birds and the bird bloggers!

A Skywatch post.

Happier than Kings; Circus of the Spineless #57

"The world is so full of a number of things,

I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings."

I just skimmed through R. L. Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verses". His number of things is limited to a mere 3% of the life around him; not once does he mention anything without a spine.

How deprived he was! And how much happier we must be, we who know and love the creepy-crawlies, the squishy-slimies, the fliers and jumpers and swimmers; the other 97%! The imagination staggers at the inventiveness of Ol' Ma Nature; whatever strange body plan or life cycle or survival mechanism you can think of, she's already been there, and done you one better. There's no room for boredom in the kingdom of the spineless.

Let's start this edition of the Circus with the basics:  life began in the sea. So Lucy, at Loose and Leafy, in Floating in History, ponders on us, the 'shrooms, algae, and our closest living invertebrate relative, the sea squirt.

Probably Phallusia mammillata Ascidiella aspersa

Joan, at Anybody Seen my Focus? tracks Mussels on the Move. And times one, too; a snail would be stiff competition. This was something new for me. Freshwater mussels don't look like the saltwater ones I am familiar with.

Rebecca In the Woods posts Moon Snail Mayhem. "So much drama," she says.

Ohhh! A polychaete! It Came from the Reef Tank: Bristleworm, by Michael, blogging at Southern Fried Science. With a video of this very pretty worm. (I may be a wee bit biased.)

 And Olivia, at Beasts in a Populous City, (Washington, DC) reminds us of beasts "weirder and wilder than anything imagined in science fiction." Creepy Crawlies.

Stick insect

Moving on, to dry land. Sort of. Did you know that there are moths that live underwater? Dave, of Dave Hubble's Ecology Spot, describes Britain's Aquatic Moths.

"In at least one species, the adult female moth is completely aquatic and never emerges from the water."

Ok, this one really is on dry land. The Geek in Question (at Fall to Climb)  is so brave: watch the "Biggest Spider in Ever" walk up a trembling arm.

"I did what any self-respecting entomologist would do: I wrung my hands and hopped from one foot to the other, doing the Holy-Heebie-Jeebies-Icky-Icky-Spider Dance." 

Bravery is voluntarily transferring that spider to one's arm after the dance is over.

I discovered another goodie on TGIQ's blog: a video of an enslaved caterpillar doing the bidding of his masters; Caterpillar Kung-fu. Don't miss the comments; there's a link to a follow-up video, a horror sci-fi-like one. (We all love those, don't we?) Nature beats art, any day.

From Chris, the Dragonfly Woman, Webspinners. I never knew such insects existed. Crushable wings? What next?

"They can fold, bend, curve, and otherwise move their wings in ways that are impossible in most other insects."

These wings are soft, too. For a minute or two. At Medlar Comfits, amazing Cicada closeups; be sure to follow Anna's link to her photo on National Geographic.

A Day in the Life of a Red Ant Guard; a poem by Anna describes an encounter with the tunnel defenders.

More wings. Roberta, on the Growing with Science Blog; Giant Swallowtail. Wonderful macros!

Ted, at Beetles in the Bush gives us a detailed account of the prairie tiger beetle, Cicindela obsoleta vulpurina. He has been conducting a "... love affair with this species," and it shows in his beautiful photos.

From India, at Trees, Plants & More, Arati shows us some Fire Ants.  Interesting tip; How to fold up a big leaf, many times your length.

Jill, at Count Your Chicken! We're Taking Over! has another spider, a real cutie: No Mercy. A jumper, with marvelous electric blue-green fangs.

At Carp without Cars, John is Obsessing about Coyote Brush. This particular brush is host to several species of parasitic wasps. And a bubbling fly. Follow his link to BugGuide and scroll 'way, 'way down to an explanation. Bubble, bubble.

Matthew, blogging at Backyard and Beyond, explored his backyard to find "All Creatures Great and Small."  Well, "mostly small", he says. "And mostly slimy."

The ever-productive Jason of Cephalopodcast, has a new feature:

... it will feature a weekly roundup of all the cephalopod-related news that's made its way across my aggregator in the previous seven days. I will be posting these on Friday to make the end of the work week as tentacular as possible. 

The first one is here, and future updates will show up here.

Olivia presented us with a hermit crab, but here are a couple more, for good measure.

Big Red and small cousin. Grainy hand hermits.

And just this evening I discovered another few insects that I simply must pass on. The Surreal Treehoppers, on Why Evolution is True.

"If Dali invented insects, they’d look like these."

The last one, for added weirdness, is a scrambled wasp mimic.

Not even Dali can beat Ma Nature.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The January CotS (#58) will be hosted by Cephalove. Check the Circus of the Spineless site for addresses and the submission deadline.

Circus of the Spineless coming up soon!

Just a reminder: today is the deadline for submitting your post for the next Circus of the Spineless.  Send them to me, at wanderinweeta AT gmail DOT com, before midnight, my time (PST).

Thanks!

A 30-hour day would be handy about now.

I've been working too long, too hard, too late. Now there's no time to post.

But there's plenty of great reading in the latest Carnival of the Blue, over at Observations of a Nerd, and even more goodies in the 50th Circus of the Spineless, at Arthropoda.

I'll be back in the morning, with some stuck-up spiders.

And just because; a curl of dead kelp, coils of worm poop and water refraction. Boundary Bay, low tide.

Trains, paints, and carnivals

Filed under "Silly Signs":

Active? Active? Those tracks just lie there, day after day.

The trains overhead, Laurie and I, and the graffiti artists; now we are active!

And now activate your clicking finger, and head on over to Southern Fried Science for the latest Carnival of the Blue. (Now with new logo!) While you're there, don't miss the important article on global draining, nor the oh-so-vicious mantis shrimp.

Afterwards, keep on going to Matthew Sarver's Cabinet of Curiosity, for the 48th edition of Circus of the Spineless. A great collection of "Curiosities", old and new. (A copepod with blue eggs?)

Red-eye special

No, not that kind of red-eye. These are supposed to be red.

Bug season is upon us. Today's catch around the house:

1. One Indian meal moth larva. Found in the bird seed. Fed to the Xysticus spider from the sprig of fir. Yum!
2. One carpet beetle. First of the year, by the open window. Video taken, to be processed later.
3. One springtail, a long, thin one this time. Measured and photographed. To be sent to BugGuide for ID.
4. One unidentified egg packet. (At least, that's what I think it is.) Set aside for monitoring.
5. Umpteen Mexican chile beetles, many dead adults, one very much alive adult, many live larvae. To be photographed tomorrow.

It's early in the year for this, I think, but it is unseasonably warm. Look for a bunch of buggy posts in the near future.

And I'm behind on posting the January crop. Which included this luscious yellow wasp:

Torymid wasp, probably Megastigmus, female.

I found her mate on a kitchen wall a month ago; she turned up in the bird seed a couple of days later. She is barely 3 mm. long, not counting that long ovipositor at the end.

There was some discussion on BugGuide as to the species, but if she is a Megastigmus, although her relatives are parasitic, and she's classified under "Parasitic Apocrita", she lays her eggs inside seeds instead of inside other insects. My bird seed, to be precise.

The name refers to the spots on the wings:

Stigmata?

There's not much more to say about her, but I liked these photos:

Top of the head, and red, red eyes

As curious about me as I am about her.

And now, I've detained you long enough; if you haven't been there already, go on over to Beetles in the Bush for the 47th edition of Circus of the Spineless. A stunningly beautiful nudibranch, ironclad snails, samurai crabs, and that's just for starters!

Confession (Circus of the Spineless # 43)

I may as well face the truth. Just speak up and admit it; I'm addicted. Addicted to the squirmy, crawly, squishy, tentacled, shelled, chitined, variously-limbed, multi-hued majority of animals on this space pebble of ours. The spineless, in other words.

Lion's Mane jellyfish, in all its glorious, squishy colour.

Let me amend that; we're addicted. I have plenty of company, and a merry company it is.

And we must have our daily fix. We will go to any lengths to get it, too. Witness Doug, skulking around Magic Gas Stations in the dark. "Just getting gas," he says. We know better.

Some of us find it easy, even socially acceptable. Dave looks for wasps in his mother-in-law's garden. John photographs wasp mimics in his. The Ontario Wanderer takes advantage of the cool weather that slows down a bumblebee.

Lion's Mane, washing ashore. White Rock beach.

But that was yesterday's fix. Today, we need something new, something a bit harder to find. You may see a man tiptoeing slowly through the eelgrass bed, bent almost double; it's probably Dave again. Hear his triumphant cry at last, "Proliferating anemone!"

When our supply fails, we take measures into our own hands. I collect seaweeds, with their cargo of live critters, and settle them into my home aquarium, where I can indulge at my leisure. Elizabeth grows her own, Raising Monarchs in her kitchen.

For some, the addiction drives us to extremes. Ted and friends, intent on finding all 24 species of Missourian tiger beetles, sit with sheets and blacklights on a river bank at night, undeterred by swarms of aquatic insects flying down their shirts and getting in their hair. The pizza and Merlot helped, probably.

I would have been happy to join that crew, but here's the limit of my addiction; I don't think I'd lie on my belly in the muck, like Bobbie, to photograph a polychaete. Maybe not. Unless ... Her photos are amazing! I've changed my mind; mud flats, here I come!

Shapes and colours in a Lion's Mane jellyfish

Zen, more sedately, almost contemplatively, finds his spineless wonders at arms' length, in research journals. Do male moths prefer male flowers? If a crab waves at you, what does it mean? (Depends where he comes from, it seems.) Whatever it means, Zen thinks it looks cute.

I’d never heard of this species before this paper (not surprising, because they are an Asian species), but now I’d like to see them.

Careful, Zen; next thing you know, you'll be down in the mud with the rest of us.

This is no laughing matter. Do your friends and family shudder when you start to describe your latest discovery? Do their eyes glaze over? Does your favourite in-law take you aside during a family party to show you ... a spider in the bushes? Do you keep apple pieces around to lure fruit flies? Do you spend entire evenings Googling corals? This is serious ...

(Sorry; I got distracted. A green plant bug just showed up on my desk. He's gone now. So, where was I?)

The important question, I guess, is whether we can break this addiction. (Or do we even want to?) Let's look at some historical examples ...

Did you know good Doctor Freud started his career studying crayfish? And then, astoundingly, abandoned them for medical practice. However,

... Freud found that research didn’t pay enough for him to get married...

Since when was money a deciding factor? He must not have been a True Addict.

Try another one: Charles Darwin and his barnacles. He got involved with them in his 20s, went on to other things, rediscovered them while on the Beagle, put them aside until 1846, then spent 8 years in his study with them, watching, observing day and night, until his eyes burned with the poor light. The four books he wrote on them totalled a thousand pages.

Barnacle, combing the water for goodies.

That's obsession on a grand scale! I don't think we have to worry about a bit of lying around in the mud or a few bug bites.

I'm glad that's settled, because I found a few recent photos that you'll want to see:

• From the Georgia Depressionist, currently in Taiwan, a common flangetail and a red-bellied skimmer.
• A wonderful snail, eating an appple. Flickr photo by Cy Savino.
• In Macroinstantes, a blog from Spain, an interesting fly. Great wings!
• And, because it just wouldn't do to have the CotS without at least one spider, here's Cascade Exposures.

Note: some of these fellow addicts sent me their links. For the rest, I followed Matthew's example; he tracked down our posts himself to put together The Moth and Me #5. Thanks, Matt.

The next Circus of the Spineless will be hosted by the team at Quiche Moraine. Get your submissions to them before the end of September.

.

It's warm, it's dry, it's protected: it's perfect!

A local store has taken steps to keep birds away ...

... without much success.

The next edition of Circus of the Spineless will be up here tomorrow night. And let's extend the deadline for submissions; how about sometime around 9 PM, my time (Pacific) tomorrow. Just e-mail me with a link at wanderinweeta AT gmail DOT com. Join the fun!

.

Weekend sampler

Every day, no matter how hectic, has its little moment of delight. These are some from this week, in no particular order.

He was inside, and I carried him out. He clutched his dinner tightly all the way.

The legs are bristly, but the abdomen is soft and furry, almost pettable.

Checkered periwinkle on rockweed.

Wasp nest, with young. At Alaksen National Wildlife Research Centre.

Digger wasp. The roadside at Alasken was riddled with little holes, the nests of these green-eyed wasps.

They dig down and are lost to sight in a few seconds.

Yes, it was an Orange-striped green anemone. It's grown up a bit, in just a few days.

I see a pug-nosed dog on this stone. What do you see?

And this one's for Hugh's collection. The family pet, abandoned in the park. Strathcona.

Painted ship upon a painted ocean. Semiahmoo Bay, from White Rock beach.

A Skywatch post. Since I'm naming memes, it's also a Friday Ark post.

And, don't forget; the next Circus of the Spineless is coming up this weekend, here. Send your submissions to me by Sunday, please. (wanderinweeta AT gmail DOT com)

.

A tasty stew

I promised you stone soup. Blog-style stone soup.

Years back, my parents travelled the US and Canada in an UltraVan. Periodically, they met with other UltraVan owners at rallying points. (The rallies are still ongoing.) One of the traditions was that on the final evening, each Van owner contributed his/her/their canned goods to the UltraVan Stew. Soup, meat, veg, chili, beans, spices: it all went in one pot. Stone Soup, in other words. Mom said it was always good. (I might not be so positive, but at least it was nutritious.)

So, for today, I'll contribute my stone and a veg,

Rose weevil, last summer.

... and then stir in these goodies from the web:

First: the carnivals, posted, and to come.

The Other 95%: Circus of the Spineless #35: Regeneration, Renewal, Reinvigoration It's back! At long last, we have a host, Kevin Zelnio! And the first installment of the reborn CotS is a winner. Thanks, Kevin.

Festival of the Trees is up at Treeblog. A poetic post, with a bark rubbing, to boot. As well as all the great links.

I and the Bird will be up in a couple of days at Vickie Henderson Art. (You still have a few hours to get a post in to her; today's the final day for submissions.)

I have posts in those three, but not in the next ones. Maybe another time.

Ecstathy: Carnival Of the Elitist Bastards IX: Keepin' yer wits about ye Pirate edition. This one's just plain fun. As well as being dead serious.

Carnival of the Blue #21 « The Oyster’s Garter In verse. Or doggerel. (Sorry, Miriam.) Good ocean-related links. I liked the cuttlefish story and poem.

Great Backyard Bird Count — Great Backyard Bird Count And this is coming up in less than two weeks; February 13 -16. Are you in? I am.

Then there's Blogroll Amnesty Day; the idea is to link to 5 smaller blogs. I don't know about size, so here are 5 that I've found recently, and added to my GoogleReader:

Jehuite This one is in Spanish. The wild vegetation of Mexico. Beautiful photography, some "exotic" plants, some old familiar ones.

The ScienceBlogs Book Club : Bonk, by Mary Roach: Friday Weird Science has found its Patron Saint A two-fer. The Book Club blog, and the link to this book. I have read Stiff, by Mary Roach, and loved it, so this is on my list of must-buys. A warning, though; it is not to the taste of many people. If dead bodies make you squeamish, give it a pass.

The Book of Barely Imagined Beings. Science, with great photos, and interesting posts. Like "Earthworms save planet".

MMmmm…That’s Good Grub* « Drawing The Motmot An artists climbs to the top of the Amazon rainforest to paint, in this post.

Tyto Tony. "Life in a tropical Queensland wetlands". Beautiful bird photography.

And 6: (I can't count.) Wild Light. Photography using only natural light. Astoundingly gorgeous!

And even more goodies for the soup:

A natural history of Runswick Bay: Lugworms. For Wren.

Sunrise, sunset, daylight in a graph. I posted this a year ago, and it keeps turning up in my Sitemeter. I am surprised every time.

And because it was Groundhog's Day yesterday, and I missed it, here's Hugh's story: Momma Vole.

And a last bit of greenery (and reddery):

The weevil again, delicately tiptoeing through a thornfield.

.

Bzzzzzzz!

Sunday morning, I posted this photo:


And commented:

I'll have to do a bit of Googling to identify the facial structures: is that four eyes, or two? And if two, which two? (The forward ones, I think.)

So I've done my homework, and here's what I've found out:

Bumblebees have 5 eyes. Or light-sensors, anyhow. They have 2 large compound eyes (which could be considered to be hundreds of eyes, I guess) and 3 ocelli, or primitive eyes that detect changes in light intensity.

Here's the photo again, cropped and labelled: (Click on it for a full-size view.)


The top two eye-like knobs on the thorax that confused me are the connecting points for the wings, which are almost invisible in this photo. The knobs that look like two smaller eyes are really the tops of the large, water-drop-shaped compound eyes. The antenna is attached part way down the length, in the space between the eyes, and crosses in front of the eye, which makes it hard to distinguish the shape of the eye in this photo.

The ocelli are the little bumps in the centre of the forehead. It looks to me, from the photo, that there are more than 3, but maybe this bumblebee just has a warty forehead.

I found this site, Bumblebee.org, packed full of useful information. Going down their menu, I found the mouth parts page, and identified the tongue on another of my photos. You can see it here, delving into the centre of the flower:


Bumblebee.org has a handy page on North American species of bumblebee, which I will be referring to often this summer, I think.

And while we're looking at bees, the latest Circus of the Spineless is up, and includes two great bee posts: Bees Knees, and Cellophane Bees. Good photos; go on over and look!
.

Making one thing clear...

I think sea slugs are cool.

So are sea urchins.

And snails (land and sea), sand dollars, oysters and starfish, octopuses, clams. And sea cucumbers.

Sea snails, Crescent Beach

Although I haven't seen a sea cucumber since I was a kid. They used to hang out under our dock, and once we fished one out and watched the water pour out of it until it hung limp and slimy from my hands. I threw it back in, then. Weird, and wonderful.

I need to make this clarification, because I have been sadly misunderstood.

This morning, Jim Lemire posted the latest edition of Circus of the Spineless, including a link to my recent post, "Do beetles get hangovers?" It's a great edition, with plenty of goodies for all invertebrate lovers. (Should I say, rather, "lovers of invertebrates"?) But he took as a theme the current feud raging among the ScienceBloggers, over the question, "Which are better, echinoderms or molluscs?"

Craig, on Deep Sea News, lists the reasons for his choice (molluscs), beginning with this, the most important;

...the deuterstomes are basically a superphylum that encompasses the echinderms, urochordata, chordata, and hemichordata. What do these groups share in common? First, they are extremely uncool and to cheer for them makes you uncool.

Now Jim is pro-echinoderm. And anti-mollusc, in consequence. And he focussed the Circus of the Spineless accordingly.

Now, here comes where I got involved. The call went out for submissions to CotS; I sent mine in. And it got caught in Jim's spam filter. He sent out a second call, notifying us of the quirks of the filter, and orienting us as to his (a preference for echinoderms, a reluctance to accept mollusc posts), as well.

I sent in my submission again, but this time, thinking that maybe the spam filter has absorbed some of Jim's ideas, added a thankful, "Not a mollusc, fortunately."

And Jim, blinded, perhaps, by his rabid dislike of the "enemy", has jumped to the conclusion that I share it. He is mistaken. I am sitting solidly on the fence.

That said, I think the Cnidaria are cooler still. So there!

Orange-striped sea anemone, Diadumene lineata. Phylum Cnidaria.

.

Circus of the Spineless #28

This month's CotS is up, at Christopher Taylor's blog, Catalogue of Organisms. Something to read as we unwind from the mad rush of the last week or so.

And the most beautiful, astounding, amazing butterfly of them all. Would you believe transparent? Go see!

Weekly beastie fix

Plate 66, Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur
Wikipedia commons

Looks like this week's linkfest will be all creepy-crawlies. And I am glad; for the last week, I've had no tiny visitors. It's been cold enough to send even the spiders into hiding. There is not a web in sight out my back door.

It's the birds' turn. The juncos are back, in force. A tiny brown wren came right up to my door, looking for crumbs. A pair of flickers skirts the edges of the row of evergreens. And the chickadees are as bold and busy as they have ever been.

Still, ... the tiny ones. I miss them.

So, here are the creatures I've picked up on the web this week. Enjoy!

From DailyKos, an essay about a marine worm. And what a worm! Named Aphrodite; for reasons that will be obvious when you click on the link. By the way, did you know there is a species of worm called Bobbit because of the female's habit of feeding the male's penis to her young? (HT to Mark.)

From Deep Sea News: a marine snail covered with scales. Iron sulfide (fool's gold) scales. Talk about armour! "The coolest invertebrate ever", says a commenter.

One more underwater find: the oldest living animal on record. A quahog clam. Unfortunately deceased shortly after the find.

"Researchers from the University of Bangor recently discovered the oldest known animal on record, a 405 year-old clam, while dredging at the bottom of the North Atlantic above Iceland. Then they killed it."
Zoologix

Benny writes tongue-in-cheek. More accurate info at Milk River Blog. But Benny has the better photo.

And on to land ...

"This is so cool. A one-millimeter long spider (Cenotextricella simoni) encased in amber gets "digitally dissected" using Very High Resolution X-Ray Computed Tomography."
From John Lynch at Stranger Fruit. Excellent photos here.

And a good write-up on the same spider, at Richard Dawkins. No photo; good thing John had them!

That was then. And now, we have a Hallowe'en Battle, spider vs. centipede. From Niches.

And "Follow the Leader": spiderlings on a tight-rope. From jciv's Flickr album.

And, in case you haven't had enough, here's Circus of the Spineless # 26. Lots of photos, more great articles!

And I'm going back to browse that Flickr album. See you tomorrow!

Three Carnivals

Past, present, future;

"I and the Bird, #54" was posted 3 days ago, at The Egret's Nest. If you haven't seen it yet, do it now. A class assignment, on which we all earned an "A".

Yesterday, the Gypsy posted the second July "Good Planets". Wonderful photos, as usual. I had to save Divajood's Alaskan forest to my hard drive. Sheer joy!

And coming up, the 23rd edition of "Circus of the Spineless", at Words and Pictures. The deadline for submissions is tomorrow, the 30th; send yours to roger.butterfield (at) gmail.com .

Happy reading!

Weekly Five

Scienc-ey links:

Here's a tasty one: Chocolate lowers blood pressure. Great excuse!

Circus of the Spineless # 22. A wealth of bug-and-beastie links. At Burning Silo.

And after the link I posted recently about every bit of plastic ever made still hanging around, this is a tentative promise of good news. Unmaking plastics. Giant microwave turns plastic back to oil.

And turning old tires into oil and pure usable carbon in a microwave. A short video.

A time-waster. Just drag the dots and see what happens. It's a wonder I was able to finish this post!