I Spy with my #insect eye...

I beleaf in miracles...

Images show animals' wonderful disguises

Fool-iage ... gecko could trick anyone into thinking it is not there

Ardea / Caters News Agency

Woolly mammoth may walk again

EXTINCT beast in line for comeback thanks to Jurassic Park-style cloning technology

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THIS gecko knows how to plant itself in the perfect hiding spot — by making itself look like a leaf.

The creature — a Leaf-tailed Gecko — is barely visible against the foliage.

It is one of a number of animals that are true masters of disguise, blending into their environment to fool predators or prey.

Some animals use a mixture of shape, colour, texture and behaviour to make them appear like their surroundings.

Ardea / Caters News Agency

The gecko in Andasibe-Mantadia National Park in Madagascar features in a collection of pictures that also include a Speckled Sanddab fish that makes itself look like pebbled ocean floor.

Other images show a Katydid that camouflages itself on moss in Costa Rica, a Bat-faced Toad among dead leaves in a park in Colombia, a Mossy Leaf-tailed Gecko on a tree, as well as a Lichen Spider that hides on bark in Thailand.

Green and unseen ... Katydid hides on moss

Caters News Agency

Hidden ... Bat-faced Toad is camouflaged on leaves

Ardea / Caters News Agency

Hard find ... gecko is nearly impossible to spot on tree

Ardea / Caters News Agency

Crawl over ... but spider is difficult to notice on bark

Ardea / Caters News Agency

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Biggest #Insect... #Scary!

Into the record bugs

Biggest ever ... Weta bug found in NZ

Mark Moffett / Minden / Solent

1. RIHANNA'S THE NEW BLONDIE
2. Into the record bugs
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4. The Only Way Is Exit
5. Emily Scott: I chest can’t wait to bed Mark Wright

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AN EXPLORER has found the biggest insect ever on record - so large it can scoff a carrot.

She's called a Weta Bug and has a huge wing span ofSEVEN inches and weighs as much as three mice.

Former park ranger Mark Moffett, 55, discovered the cricket-like creature up a tree on New Zealand's Little Barrier Island.

He spent two days searching for the creepy crawly which were thought to be extinct after Europeans brought rats to the island many years ago.

American Mark, 53, said: "Three of us walked the trails of this small island for two nights scanning the vegetation for a giant weta.

Huge ... insect weighs as much as three mice

Mark Moffett / Minden / Solent.

"We spent many hours with no luck finding any at all, before we saw her up in a tree.

"The giant weta is the largest insect in the world, and this is the biggest one ever found.

"She enjoyed the carrot so much she seemed to ignore the fact she was resting on our hands and carried on munching away.

"She would have finished the carrot very quickly, but this is an extremely endangered species and we didn't want to risk indigestion.

"After she had chewed a little I took this picture and we put her right back where we found her."

Mark, from Colorado, added: "We bug lovers hear a lot of people who think insects are inferior in some way because of their size, so it was great to see such a big insect.

"This became all the more amazing when we realised that this was the largest insect recorded."

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3972007/Worlds-biggest-ever-insect-found-called-the-Weta-Bug.html

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Freshwater #Insect Gallery

You can always rely on National Geographic to produce stunning photography. Here they turn their macroscopic lens on the borderland between air and water. Whether it is water striders that live on or near the water's surface, or dragonflies, damselflies, mayflies or mosquitoes that hatch in the water, this gallery of photographs is well worth dipping into

View Gallery at National Geographic

For all you insect pest problems, visit Capybara Pest Control

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Seasick Steve – Chiggers

Maximum blues, a musical interlude for your listening pleasure. I am a huge fan of Seasick Steve and couldn't resist linking to this performance from the Jools Holland Hootenanny of 2007/08. Here Steve sings of the perils of taking a walk in long grass and being attacked by these nasty little creatures. Chiggers are tiny, six-legged wingless organisms (larvae) that grow up to become a type of mite that are found in tall grass and weeds. Their bite causes severe itching. Steve offers some of his homegrown tips to avoid them: 'I wear my socks up to my knees'.

Watch Video at You Tube

Posted by Astrojenny

For all your insect pest problems visit our web store, www.capy.co.uk

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Bugnadoes!

Here is some amazing footage of a natural phenomenon affecting Missouri USA after recent flooding of the Missouri River. Swirling vortices of flying bugs appearing out of tree tops, ditches and cornfields at dusk. Clouds of other insects such as dragonflies, attracted by the swarms, are then entering into a feeding frenzy.

Watch Video at Gizmodo

Posted by Astrojenny

For all your insect pest problems visit our web store, www.capy.co.uk

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Hidden Life Of Insects

Beautiful macro photography of insects by photographer Suren Manvelyan. Suren is surely one of the most diversely talented men on the planet. A scientific researcher with a PhD in theoretical physics and the President Award of Republic of Armenia for his investigations in the field of quantum technologies, he teaches physics, mathematics and astronomy and plays 5 musical instruments. A true renaissance man! He photography is not too shabby either, as shown in these images of jewel-like beetles, delicate moths and butterflies, a fuzzy caterpillar, spiders and wasps.

View Gallery at Suryen Manvelyan Photography

Posted by Astrojenny

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TED Talk - Louie Schwartzberg: The Hidden Beauty Of Pollination

In this TED Talk, Filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg shares stunning high-speed images from his film "Wings of Life." Motivated by the worrying decline of the honeybee, due to Colony Collapse Disorder, his film takes us deep into the beautiful world of pollen and pollinators and the complex interaction between plants and insects. He reminds us that we depend on pollinators for a third of the fruit and vegetables we eat. We are part of nature, not separate from it.

Watch Talk & Video at TED.com

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Fossils Provide New Clues To Insect Evolution

A new insect order has been discovered by scientists at the Stuttgart Natural History Museum. Named Coxoplectoptera it is an extinct relation to the mayfly, but seems to have characteristics of various other insects. Wing veins like a mayfly but the wing shape & breast of a dragonfly & legs like a praying mantis while its larvae resemble freshwater shrimps. Their anatomy suggests that they were ambush predators living partly dug in to river beds.

Read More at Science Daily

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Hunting For The Devil's Coach Horse

The Open Air Laboratories Project (Opal) are asking the public to go on a bug hunt this autumn. They want to find out what the current state of invertebrates is in the UK. To this end they have published a free guide and an app to help people identify the beetles, slug and spiders they may find.

Read More at BBC News

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Maggot Medicine!

In a recent trial, patients with diabetes and limb infections were treated with 50 to 100 maggots patched to their wounds every two days for about 10 days. The maggots in 21 out of 37 cases managed to remove dead or infected tissue, thereby speeding up the healing process and preventing more drastic actions such as amputation in severe cases. Maggot therapy remains controversial as many studies have shown mixed results and it is unclear if they can damage healthy tissue if left too long in a wound.

Read More at Discovery News

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Sex On Six Legs

Over 80% of all animal species are insects, including some 350,000 species of beetles, a quarter of all creatures on earth! A new book by Marlene Zuk called Sex on Six legs: Lessons On Life, Love & Language From The Insect World has just been published by Harcourt. As well as giving some amazing insights into insect's behaviour & communication this book outlines some astonishing details about their reproduction techniques. For example some male insects entice the females by attaching a high protein snack to their sperm. As the female eats the meal the male's sperm is draining into her body. The book is filled with such tantalising tales & well worth checking out.

Read More at npr

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The Most Surreal Insects On Earth

Meet the Brazilian treehopper, Bocydium globulare. This replica made by Alfred Keller for the Berlin's Museum of Natural History may look like the product of some science fiction writer's imagination, but is based on a real insect, also known as "The Bell Bearer". As if this and the rest of the gallery of surreal insects aren't enough, I also include a bonus gallery of some of nature's most glamorous insects and arachnids.

View Surreal gallery at DRB

View Glamorous Gallery at DRB

Posted by Astrojenny

Hat tip to Anthony Cunningham

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The Age Of Chivalry Lives (In Crickets At Least)

After mating, most male insects will stay with the female. Scientists believed this was to stop other males from mating with her. Now Rolando Rodriguez-Munoz from the University of Exeter has been studying video of field crickets and discovered that the male keeps close to protect the female rather than to chase away other suitors. The male will even put himself at risk to protect her from danger, letting her forage close to the nest while he feeds further a field, and when danger threatens he lets her enter the safety of the nest first. This increases by four times, the risk of the male being eaten but while the female gains protection the male also benefits by increasing his opportunities to mate with the female and ensuring that his young survive.

Read More at Not Exactly Rocket Science

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Of Bees & Orchids

There are 25,000 species of orchids that have colonised six continents over the past 80 million years. The secret of the orchid's success lies in the weird and varied relationships each species has developed with the bees and other insects that it relies on for pollination. Most insects pollinate plants in return for a reward of nectar, not so with orchids. They cheat, trick and hoodwink insects into pollination.

Read More at The Guardian

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Here Be Dragonflies

Dragonflies are the most ancient groups of insects and also among the fastest flying insects, capable of amazing aerial acrobatics. They can fly upside down, straight up or straight down, or hover in mid air. So how do scientists go about studying a dragonfly's hunting or mating techniques? This fascinating video shows how one group of scientists are using high speed cameras to learn more.

Read More & Watch Video at Physorg.com

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Sex & Society In The Insect World

In her book "Sex on Six Legs: Lessons on Life, Love, and Language from the Insect World" Marlene Zuk takes us deep into the complex societies of a dazzling array of insects. In this short video she explains that most of an insect's life revolves around food and sex, and she argues that of these, sex is the more important, as finding food is only a means to survive long enough to mate.

Read More & Watch Video at BBC News

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