GET TO KNOW A BLOG: The Echinoblog

Well, the other day, I was going to do a post about one of my favorite marine invertebrates, the Sea Pig (Scotoplanes globosa), but ChrisM so thoroughly and perfectly covered it on his blog, The Echinoblog, which covers Echinoderms, that it renders any further blogging on my part to be utterly meaningless... on this subject.

CHECK OUT THE ARTICLE HERE!

Dawn of the Raccoons!

RACCOON FACTS:

1. Raccoons are mammals in the family Procyonidae, along with Ringtails, Coatis, and Kinkajous.
2. The word Raccoon comes from an Algonquin (Native American) word, arahkun, which means "One who scratches with their hands".
3. Raccoons will eat all of your sandwiches.

All up in your grill with JUMPING SPIDERS

I have no memory of where I found these incredible close up pics of Jumping Spider faces (family Salticidae), but they're amazing and I wanted to share them with you. Let me know, if you know who the photographer is.

From WIKIPEDIA:

The jumping spider family (Salticidae) contains more than 500 described genera and about 5,000 described species,^[2] making it the largest family of spiders with about 13% of all species.^[3] Jumping spiders have good vision and use it for hunting and navigating. They are capable of jumping from place to place, secured by a silk tether. Both their book lungs and the tracheal system are well-developed, as they depend on both systems (bimodal breathing).
(Click here to read more...)

"Hair Pencils"? What?

CORRECTION!!!

So, in my ongoing attempts at blogging a growing interest in Lepidoptery... I GOT SOMETHING WRONG! The worst part is, I actually had learned years ago what the spots on the hindwings of a male Monarch Butterfly are called (Androconial Spots or Androconial Patches), and just plain forgot when I was writing about Monarchs earlier this year. I called them "Hair Pencils", which is a completely different structure, but in my defense, is also a structure used by male Lepidopterans to release scent chemicals, pheremones. Grrrrrrr.


Hair Pencil (image from TYWKIWDBI )

I could write a post about Hair Pencils, but MINNESOTAN over at TYWKIWDBI did a marvelous post on them back in October. CHECK IT OUT HERE


The black Androconial Spots are quite apparent on the hindwings of this male Queen Butterfly (Danaus gilippus).

Dude, its the whole UNIVERSE. You are blowing my mind!

from the American Museum of Natural History's Hayden Planetarium:

"The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world's most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History. The new film, created by the Museum, is part of an exhibition, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan through May 2010."

I am a bad blogger!

I haven't been blogging here as much as I should have been lately. You know how life goes. New relationship, blah blah blah lost in love, relationship ends too depressed to blog, blah. Anyways, also if you think I got something wrong:

1. Don't be a snarky ass, I'm a freaking herpetologist, we can't all know everything
2. No, thats it rlly.
3. Here's a picture of an owl enjoying some Brandy and a cigar.