Monthly Archives: February 2013

Greeting the Day

Posted on February 14, 2013 by jjneal

Monarch butterflies emerge from their chrysalis during a short time window starting just before dawn and with a peak emergence shortly after daylight. Long before noon, each day’s cohort of adults will have emerged. The next monarchs will not emerge … Continue reading →

Posted in behavior, by jjneal, Environment | 2 Comments

Living With Butterfly Pollinators

Posted on February 13, 2013 by jjneal

The mutual benefits of insect pollinators to flowering plants has led to a wide diversity of insect pollinators and flowering plants for over 100 million years. Flowers are rewarded with more efficient use of their pollen, an expensive material to … Continue reading →

Posted in behavior, by jjneal, Environment | 1 Comment

Butterfly Wing Colors

Posted on February 12, 2013 by jjneal

In a previous post I discussed color patterns in butterfly wings. Each scale is a single color. In some butterflies, colors are produced by pigments. The Tiger Swallowtail below has yellow, black and blue scales on its wing. In these … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments

Living With Spiders

Posted on February 11, 2013 by jjneal

In case you haven’t seen it, check out this amazing spider video from Brazil which has gone viral on the web. These spiders are social, and together create a large interwoven web. In this case, the entire web became unmoored, … Continue reading →

Posted in behavior, by jjneal, Environment, News | 27 Comments

Butterfly Wing Patterns

Posted on February 11, 2013 by jjneal

One of the joys of summer is watching butterflies with their beautiful and intricate wing patterns fluttering through the air. Butterflies are noted for their constancy of color pattern within a species, although males and females are sometimes dimorphic (have … Continue reading →

Posted in Biomaterials, by jjneal, Environment | 12 Comments

Mardi Gras Mosquito

Posted on February 9, 2013 by jjneal

Mardi Gras is in full swing in New Orleans this weekend with parades, floats, revelry and dancing in the streets. The 2103 “Rex” parade theme is “All Creatures Great and Small”. One of the small creatures is an insect, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, by jjneal, Health, Pest Management, Policy | 22 Comments

Friday Cat-erpillar Blogging: More Jokes

Posted on February 8, 2013 by jjneal

By Popular Demand Q. Why was the clothes moth caterpillar unpopular? A. It picked holes in everything. Q. What’s green and dangerous? A. A Caterpillar with a bad temper. Q. Why was the caterpillar crying? A. It wanted its Moth-er. … Continue reading →

Posted in by jjneal, Caterpillar Blogging, jokes, Literature | 7 Comments