Oh Bugger :: What's Buggin' Out On Thursdays?

I'm a self-proclaimed naturalist researching the "bugs" in my life.  I use the term "bug" lightly and in very general terms so I include insects, spiders, and other related creatures.  I try to share a new bug every Thursday (but do not always get a chance).

My camera is a Canon Powershot G7.  As an amateur photographer simply pursuing what interests me, I've found that I truly enjoy taking photos of bugs and doing my best to identify them and learn more about their habitat and biology.

My Philosophy: To take photos of Texas wildlife and local insects in their environment without disturbing them or causing them harm.  My goal is to capture their likeness in a photograph, identify the specimen by research using credible internet resources, and share what I've learned with others.

Have you heard?  Buggin' Out On Thursdays has it's own index list including article titles, specimens, and dates published so you can find what interests you easily.

I often contribute my photos to the field guide at BugGuide.net and can be found there as biologie.

I Saw Sawfly Larvae "Saw" :: Buggin' Out On Thursdays

© Hungry by biologie-me.blogspot.com

Alice would have a thing or two to say about these hungry munchers.  It  is a  Caterpillar Wonderland and the wild green vine is the complimentary buffet.  They may look like caterpillars but these are actually sawfly larvae.  

The sawfly is a mystery to most people.  The insect is part of the family of Hymenoptera and some species are considered "pests" because the larvae eat farmer's crops and damage foliage, eating the leaves outright (like mine) or eating the leaves from the inside-out.  

The adult sawfly can easily be mistaken for a wasp although they do not have stingers and do no harm to humans.  The female adult sawfly has a little "saw" called an ovipositor on her rear-end that she uses to cut open plant tissue and lay eggs inside.

I often use the leaves of my vine (which grows wild in my backyard near the fence-line during the spring and all throughout summer) to photograph my jewelry for sale in my Etsy shop because the leaves are a beautiful green and compliment a lot of my pieces:

Etsy Biologie

Caterpillars and other insects love the vine and can devour large portions of it in a matter of hours.  This doesn't phase me a bit because the vine grows back as thick and pretty as ever within a few days to a week!  

Dr. Dave Smith, a sawfly expert, at BugGuide.net identified these "bugs" for me and also told me this vine is part of the Cissus family.  This is a host vine for my sawflies, whose scientific name is Ceratulus spectabilis.  Further research shows the plant is a native of Central Texas and is commonly known as Sorrel Vine (Cissus incisa).  It's a great vine to grow in my area because it has a high heat tolerance and can be used in place of ornamental ivy.  I love the idea of growing native plant species in my backyard as opposed to using imported exotics.

Apparently, sawfly larvae choose to ignore the rule about not crapping where you eat:

 POO! © biologie-me.blogspot.com

What kind of bugs have you seen lately?

Spring Wildflowers Bringing Hope

My mom has Mantle Cell Lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system. We learned about the diagnosis this past weekend. All the days are running together and it has been (and still is) extremely hard news to swallow for me and my family. While the world kept turning and the wildflowers kept blooming and the sun kept shining, I found myself looking out in a haze of gray, as if seeing everything through a dark veil across my eyes.

My mom is a very strong, optimistic lady with incredible faith. She's doing okay, as a matter of fact she's doing amazing under the circumstances. She's not as much afraid for herself as she is for what this is doing to her family. Because of her, I'm starting to see the light again. I think we are all slowly coming out of our initial shock. Her doctors are starting her on an aggressive therapy to suppress her immune system so she can receive an allogeneic stem cell transplant. Our hope is that everything will go smoothly without complication so we can get her back to "normal" within the next 6 to 8 months.

Therefore, in the name of Hope and Love, I share with you these photos of the recent wildflowers I've found growing in my backyard:

The blue flower is Prairie Spiderwort and I was very surprised to see it growing along my back fence! The pretty orange-red with yellow borders is Indian Blanket, one of my favorite Texas wildflowers. Lastly is a little red flower with feathery leaves that I have yet to identify. If you know what is it, please let me know because I love to identify wildflowers, especially the ones growing spontaneously in my backyard!

Here's a list by date of the Spring 2010 wildflowers I've documented in my backyard:

Spring 2010 Backyard Wildflowers

• March 2nd: Yellow Primrose with a photo on my Twitpic Page.
• March 9th: Pretty Fairy Lilies and Dandelions.
• March 14th: Bluebonnets! The State Flower of Texas.

Think you can read me like a book?

Maybe! But you can definitely read me like a blog post at the Raige Creations blog where I'm honored to say I am a Featured Creator!

Read more: Biologie In Art - Featured Creator

Rebecca @ Raige recently awarded me with the Sunshine Award. I'm feeling the love. Everyone needs sunshine and all the blogs I follow deserve this award so I nominate them all! To see a list of the blogs I follow please see my Profile.

Bluebonnets Tell Bees Which Flower To Pollinate :: Nature In Harmony!

Last month I mentioned bluebonnets are the state flower of Texas:

The very first bluebonnet I photographed in my backyard this year was very young and none of the flowers on the spike had been pollinated yet. You can see my blog post about the "baby" bluebonnet, here.

How do I know if the blossom has been pollinated?

When the bees pollinate the bloom, the white section in the center of the little "bonnet shaped" flower turns a pinkish-red. My blogger friend, Hali, mentioned she'd like to see the color change and I promised a photograph so today it's time to deliver!

Here we go:

Why the color change?

Bees don't interpret colors the same way humans see colors. They see the world in colors of blues, greens, and ultra-violet light. They can also see oranges and yellows. They can't see the color red.

Since bees can't detect the color red the flowers of the Bluebonnet have adapted to save energy and time for both the bees and the flower. The flowers want to be pollinated so they can produce a seed and continue the cycle of life. They bloom and present a pleasing flower of blue with a white (or yellow) center to attract pollinators. The bees can see the bloom no matter what the color, however, that center of white or yellow is the key attractant. As far as the bluebonnets are concerned, they want the bees to ignore a flower that has already been fertilized and move up to a flower on the spike with a white or yellow center (colors bees are attracted to and can "see").

In a nutshell, the reason the center of the bloom changes color is to encourage the pollinators to move to a flower on the bluebonnet spike that still needs pollination.

Nature in harmony!

The way bees and flowers work together is called symbiosis. Symbiosis is a relationship between two organisms of different kinds which benefits both organisms. Yay!

Go forth and bloom! :)

Buggin' Out On Thursdays :: A Little Side Tour

It's Buggin' Out On Thursdays!

Buggin' Out is a weekly blog post about the creepy crawlies in my life. I like bugs and love to take macro photos of the ones I find in my backyard (and occasionally a few home invaders like Peaches The Crab Spider). I try my best to identify and research the insects I photograph and share all the Bug Wonderfulness with you. It's a virtual bug collection! This house is a no squish zone and most pests are "released back into the wild", i.e., moved outdoors using the glass jar, paper magazine technique of which I am an expert at these days!

Today, I'm going off the grid a little bit. The theme is still bugs, of course, but these are made of metal. My mom and dad gave me a little basket of goodies for Valentine's Day which included a cute bee and butterfly tea light holder set plus a heavy iron FLY! I named him Frederick and he's currently my most favorite paperweight of all time. I thought it was cute that my mom picked these out for me in lieu of my new hobby and this weekly blog series.

Frederick The Iron Fly

What kind of bugs have you seen lately?

Buggin' Out On Thursdays :: Crabby Spider Promises She's Not Shelob's Sister

Peaches The Ground Crab Spider

Xysticus species

"Don't squish me! I look wicked like Tolkien's Shelob but I'm not interested in biting you or Frodo!"

I was sweeping the kitchen floor the other day when I looked down at my little pile of dirt and spied a very creepy looking spider. A little yelp of surprise escaped from my lips and I went into fight or flight mode for a second but the spider just sat there quietly. From my vantage point I thought it might be a Mutant Giant Tick like one you'd see in an old Sci-Fi Flick! Yikes. Then I thought maybe she was Shelob's baby sister. Again, yikes.

Once I figured out the "thing" wasn't going to come skittering after me like a ravenous monster it didn't take long before I had slipped a sheet of paper under her and placed a glass jar carefully over her so I could get a closer look. The spider remained very still. Not long after that and I had removed the jar and started taking macros so I could run to BugGuide.net and see what everyone thought about my new "bug".

Mandy at BugGuide was very helpful - she's Spiderwoman! She mentioned the star of today's blog post is a spider whose species has not yet been identified in the guide. My spider and the rest of her species are a uniform peachy red (in low light she may even look brownish until you get her out in the sun). I learned the only way to truly identify a spider at the species level is to have an entomologist study the adult spiders "private parts". The appropriate term for this on a female spider is the epigynum (to learn more check out this short article at Museum Victoria). I sure wish I had taken some underbelly shots of my buddy, Peaches, so I could help identify her species for the guide. Maybe next time!

Here are four fast facts about ground crab spiders:

• They are not poisonous to humans
• They aren't normally found in the home and hunt outdoors
• Rather than spin a web, they lay in ambush for prey to pass by
• Crab spiders can walk forwards, backwards, or sideways - just like a crab!

It's Buggin' Out On Thursdays!

What kind of bugs have you seen lately?

Buggin' Out On Thursdays :: Egypt Isn't The Only Place For Green Metallic Scarabs!

It's Buggin' Out On Thursdays!

Metallic Green by Biologie

A beautiful metallic green beetle known as the Fig-eater Beetle or June Beetle (Cotinis mutabilis) (Cotinis nitida) is one of the scarab beetles of Texas. Only three species of this type of beetle are found in Texas and this guy was crawling on my flagstone patio in a great hurry to get somewhere. Under those two plates of "metal" are the wings of the scarab. This beetle reminds me of a little inch long mini-tank. The above is the only photo I was able to take of him so I'm also sharing a really awesome shot of one from ThreadedThoughts on Flickr:

June Bug by ThreadedThoughts

These beetles are known by fruit farmers as pests because of their love for thin-skinned fruits like figs, peaches, apricots, nectarines, plums, and grapes. They don't have powerful jaws so they can't bite into any thick-skinned fruits (including your fingers). You can pick them up and hold them if you are so inclined. They are harmless to humans but due to their plump bodies they tend to fly in a haphazard manner so it's easy to have one bean you in the head if you aren't paying attention!

What kind of bugs have you seen lately?

Buggin' Out On Thursdays :: A Green Lynx Spider Pounces Into The Virtual Bug Collection

It's Buggin' Out On Thursdays and I love this pretty spider! Yes, I think he's pretty. Greens, yellows, black polka dots, and crazy wicked looking hairy bristles on the legs. Awesome.

Green lynx spiders (Peucetia viridans) are a very welcome addition to my gardens. One little green spider up close in the macro lens brings a whole new world to life! I never knew this guy had transparent yellow legs with black spikes! I found my little buddy living in the foliage of my squash plants waiting for prey. I get these spiders in my gardens every year.

Like most anybody, green lynx spiders will bite you if provoked but are generally harmless to humans. Interestingly, in addition to injecting venom into their prey with their fangs they are capable of spraying venom from them as well. They eat insects that destroy crops like moths who feed on cotton. Unfortunately they don't discriminate if a bee or other beneficial pollinator happens to come around while they are hunting.

These spiders hunt during the day and roam low foliage, herbs and shrubberies. They can "pounce" on their prey when they come across something worth eating. They don't have a web but they can spin silk and use it as leverage or as a safety line when moving from one plant to another.

The species name, viridans, is Latin for "becoming green". The spider inspired me to make these earrings entitled "Green Lynx. Love Her. A pair of Peucetia viridans earrings" and they are part of my Mother Earth Collection @ Etsy.

They'd be wonderful for St. Patty's Day, yes? Unless of course you like getting pinched!

Buy the earrings here!

Mosquito Game :: Be A Vector And Bite The Humans!

Become Speedy Ann, an Anapheles mosquito whose flight you control past obstacles, hungry birds, and insecticides so you can bite humans, give them Malaria, and use their blood to produce new eggs.

The first time I played the Mosquito Game I had a hard time figuring out the controls and immediately got eaten by a bird. Starting again, I found a human, hovered over him (a blue or orange dot) and started trying to settle down to take my blood meal (have to press and hold the space bar to "eat") when he noticed me and smashed me dead. The game had me laughing. Try and get the High Score by being the fastest mosquito to drink enough blood to produce eggs!

Play the game at NoblePrize.org: Mosquito Game

Fast Facts:

• Malaria is caused by a parasite, Plasmodium species.

• Usually, people get malaria by being bitten by an infective female Anapheles mosquito. Only Anopheles mosquitoes can transmit malaria and they must have been infected through a previous blood meal taken on an infected person.

• Once a mosquito ingests malaria parasites from an infected human, the parasites must undergo development within the mosquito for about 10-21 days before they are infectious to humans.

• The mosquito Anapheles gambei is the main vector of malaria.

• Each year 350-500 million cases of malaria occur worldwide, and over one million people die, most of them young children in Africa south of the Sahara.

• From the CDC website:

"Some Anopheles species are poor vectors of malaria, as the parasites do not develop well (or at all) within them. It is hoped that some day, genetically modified mosquitoes that are refractory to malaria can replace wild mosquitoes, thereby limiting or eliminating malaria transmission."

Buggin' Out on Thursdays :: The Giant Leopard Moth Does Not Say Meow

I found this moth on the trail of McKinney Roughs Nature Park (outside of Austin, Texas). It's a Giant Leopard Moth (Hypercompe scribonia), also known as an Eyed Tiger Moth. I'm not sure if he was hurt or just tuckered out but I didn't want to bother him aside from taking a quick photograph. Well, it's more like a portrait.

When I was little we used to spot a LOT of little hairy caterpillars in the herb garden or trying to cross the street (which always worried me). My family called them "woolly" caterpillars. I considered them the teddy bear of the caterpillars. Therefore, I liked them. Granted, there are a lot of fuzzy bear worms out there but if you ever see a woolly caterpillar it might just be a baby Giant Leopard Moth. Don't try to pick them up and snuggle them though because, while they look fuzzy and sweet, the bristles on the caterpillars can irritate the skin and cause a rash!

The abdomen of a giant leopard moth is orange and blue. I think of it as God's way of showing us that as soon as we think we are seeing it all "in black and white" there is often something lurking beneath. In this case, something good, and pretty, and surprisingly delightful.

To see the orange and blue enlightenment of a Giant Leopard Moth's six pack abs: click here to check out BugGuide.net!

What kind of bugs have you seen lately?

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)

No Taxon (Moths)

Superfamily Noctuoidea

Family Arctiidae (Tiger Moths)

Subfamily Arctiinae (Tiger Moths)

Tribe Arctiini

Genus Hypercompe

Species scribonia (Giant Leopard Moth - Hodges#8146)

Buggin' Out on Thursdays :: Western Spotted Orbweaver Spider joins the Virtual Bug Collection

Don't be scurred. I'm beneficial!

On a breezy Fall day I grit my teeth and try not to freak out while I bend, stretch, and strain to take photographs of the black spotted yellow spider bouncing on it's web in the gusts of wind.

Large spiders are pretty high on my freak-out factor but I suppose my love of life, nature and - well, bugs - transcend any major squeamishness as long as I'm just photographing. Finding a spider crawling on me is an entirely different matter and ends up in the dance otherwise known as "arachnid-induced flailing with various shouts and high pitched yelps of surprise" until it is flung off (hopefully unharmed)! That particular dance is exactly what I would have done if this spider jumped off it's web onto my camera. Luckily, these types of spiders are shy and their bite may be painful but it's non-toxic to humans. I understand that they will bite you if harassed (and in that case I don't blame them one bit)!

I found this spider making her web low to the ground in the afternoon by my honeysuckle vine. I went out to check on her a few days later and she was hiding up in the leaves of the honeysuckle. She was still attentive and attached to a new web with a little line of silk, waiting for prey. I guess she thought more bugs would get caught in her net if she hid on the side of the web rather than right smack in the middle.

With the help of the ID Request feature on BugGuide.net I found out my spider is a Western Spotted Orb-weaver, Neoscona oaxacensis, and is indeed female. Apparently males don't have such bulbous bootys. A famous female weaver of the orb is Charlotte from the book Charlotte's Web by American author E. B. White. My mom used to read this to me and it is a beloved book from my childhood. Doing a little research I found out that Charlotte is a barn orb-weaver spider known as Araneus cavaticus.

Gorgeous big round spiderwebs spun in what is commonly thought of as the classic spiderweb shape are made by orb-weavers. A fitting name! If only I had taken a picture of the pretty round spiderweb in the morning, dripping with dew.

Interestingly, some orb-weavers do not build webs at all but instead dangle a sticky globule on a strand of silk from their front legs. The glob is covered in a scent to attract male moths which come looking for a female and instead find themselves bitten and subsequently eaten. Yikes!

What kind of bugs have you seen lately?

From Coffee Beans To Carbon: How Big (or small) Is It?

Mini Science for the scientifically challenged and science aficionado alike!

The University of Utah has a zoomy window to demonstrate the different sizes of a few everyday items like a coffee bean and a grain of salt all the way down to the picometers of a carbon atom. In case you were wondering, they even have a reference table explaining that a picometer is a trillionth of a meter. In other words, really, really, ten-to-the-negative-12th mini small.

This. Is. Awesome.

It definitely helps put things in perspective and is a great learning tool to introduce the little things in life.

See it here.

:: Dreamflower Purple. A Delicate Bracelet ::

Dreamflower Purple

A delicate treasure trove of amethyst, shell, glass, silvers and Swarovski crystals. This one of a kind bracelet is designed and handmade by yours truly! The asymmetrical design breaks away from the norm in a subtle and glorious way. It's sure to please and makes a sweet stocking stuffer.

I fell in love with the look and feel of the little flower beads on this bracelet. It took me a month to find the right design and complimentary colors to go with the flowers until I came across the pretty purple glass beads and Swarovski crystal spacers.

Lovely!

Get It Here: etsy

Ooo, one more thing, don't forget my holiday special as mentioned here - free shipping and free gift-wrapping now through January 4th; anytime...anywhere!

Hurray for Crochet

...and Embroidery too!

I graduated from college with a bachelors of science degree in clinical laboratory science. Many people are curious to know exactly what the job entails. Here are just a few of the responsibilities:

• Identifying abnormal blood cells
• Identifying toxic agents, such as anthrax
• Detecting a cancerous tumor with DNA techniques
• Performing cultures and identifying bacteria and viruses
• Assuring safe transfusion of blood products
• Correlating test results with patient condition
• Selecting and evaluating laboratory equipment and new test methodologies
• Monitoring the quality of testing
• Supervising support staff
• Managing laboratory operations

In a nutshell, Clinical Laboratory Scientists juggle a lot of body fluids, bacteria, DNA, microscopes, paperwork, phone calls, data-entry, machines, hospital staff, and more!

If the mitochondria is the power-house of the cell then the CLS is the power-house of the hospital.

So the body fluid part, what is that all about? Well, it sounds unpleasant and really is occasionally stinky but also very important to analyze for our health. It includes urine, feces, amniotic fluid, cerebrospinal fluid, synovial fluid, serous fluids, and seminal fluids.

Yep, sounds pretty crazy but, not to worry, the tests are done in a sterile, professional environment requiring an extremely small amount of fluid.

SO...when I saw Tillie Ellie's Giveaway for a crocheted sperm cell (defined as the haploid cell that is the male gamete) and matching embroidery, it didn't phase me at all. As a matter of fact, I wanted to win! I signed up right away. I thought to myself, "Heck! Maybe if I win it will be a sign that we will conceive a baby!"

While I know it isn't up to me, or "luck", I was hoping and praying to be the grand prize winner. As soon as the giveaway ended I received notice from Tillie that I won!

By the way, you will all be the first to know (after my family) if we happen to conceive a bambino sometime soon.

In the meantime, here's my little Tillie-made, crocheted haploid cell (sperm) nestled in the pages of my "Fundamentals of Urine and Body Fluid Analysis" text book [author: Nancy A. Brunzel], cute as a tadpole with a little smile on his face.

Tillie also offers great crochet patterns as well as "mature" embroidery and adorable Jelly Babies. My favorite is the Cherry Jelly Baby, you can see it here.