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The Befuddled Loris
Art, Conservation, and the Bewildering Beauty of Nature
A Moth by Any Other Name
Posted on August 2, 2021 by thebefuddledloris
Entomologists have a lot of explaining to do, and not just about their life choices! With a million plus (and counting), species of insects, arachnids and their relatives known to science, all going about their relatively inconspicuous lives, it's not surprising we often get a lot of questions about them.
Some of the common questions thankfully have easy answers. Like, are tarantulas poisonous? Do mosquito-eaters really eat mosquitos? Do daddy-long leg spiders really have the most toxic venom in the world? And the all-important, what the heck is this bug?
Entomologists love to answer these questions because it makes us feel super smart and full of nerdy glee. However, there is a deceptively simple question we get all the time that might surprise you has no easy answer…
What's the difference between a butterfly and a moth?
Most of the time entomologists will give a very simplified answer to this question. We often say that butterflies are diurnal, while moths are nocturnal, butterflies have clubbed antennae, while moths have feathery or threadlike antennae, butterflies are brightly colored, while moths are dull and cryptic. This answer works for a lot of species, but in reality, there are a LOT of exceptions to these generalities!
Take a look at these two Lepidopterans. Can you tell which is the butterfly and which is the moth?
One of these Lepidopterans is a butterfly in the Family Pieridae and one is a moth in the family Uraniidae. Can you tell which is which?
the Madagascar sunset moth, Chrysiridia rhipheus (left), is considered by many to be the most beautiful Lepidopteran in the world, and it is a moth! It flies during the day, which explains those bright colors warning predators that it is toxic if consumed. Although its wings have an uncanny resemblance to swallowtail butterflies, the antennae are not clubbed, indicating that it is a moth. In THIS case.
Remember I said there were a ton of loopholes?? Take a look at the giant butterfly-moths (family Castniidae). These moths are large, colorful, fly during the day, AND they have clubbed antennae.
A giant butterfly-moth (Xanthocastnia evalthe evalthoides)
Honestly it's enough to make you want to pull your setae out!
Speaking of setae, hairiness also isn't a reliable character. A lot of moths are very fuzzy, it's true. But check out this ridiculously fuzzy butterfly:
The fluffiest butterfly in existence? Anteros roratus.
So what is going on here?! Well, if you are ready for the long-winded, but hopefully interesting answer, get ready. The truth is that evolutionarily speaking, butterflies ARE moths! Say what now?
All moths and butterflies belong to the order Lepidoptera, which is one of the largest and most diverse insect orders on the planet. To understand their evolution, we must travel back to the late carboniferous, about 299 million years ago. Here, among the luxuriant ferns, primitive amphibians, giant dragonflies, and bright green mosses, we would find the most recent common ancestor of all the Lepidoptera: a small, nocturnal moth bumbling about feeding on moss with chewing mouthparts. The quintessentially lepidopteran nectar-slurping proboscis evolved later, first as an innovation to feed on sap and water, and eventually nectar.
Plants initially started producing nectar in the cretaceous (about 150 million years ago), not for moths, but for bees! But because moths had already developed straw-like mouthparts, many Lepidoptera lineages proliferated with the rise of the flowering plants, trading in their nocturnal hours for day shifts, to capitalize on day-blooming flowers. Butterflies, the Superfamily Papilionoidea, are one of the lineages whose members overwhelmingly cast off their evening wear for fancy daytime apparel.
Swallowtail butterfly. Photo: Flora Marlatt
Butterflies like swallowtails and monarchs are so large and charismatic, that they really do steal the show! But they are a standout minority. Out of roughly 160,000 species of Lepidoptera known to science, only 19,000 of those belong to the butterfly superfamily.
Take a look at the Lepidoptera family tree and you will see how extensive it is. Butterflies are not at the apex of the tree, but rather sit in the middle with lots of other Lepidoptera superfamilies evolving in parallel with them.
There are a lot of other Lepidoptera lineages and species that also evolved to be diurnal, like the stunning day-flying tiger moths.
Anaxita decorata, the decorated beauty. A moth in the family Erebidae
Automolis harteri. A moth in the Family Erebidae
And butterflies are also not the only Lepidopteran pollinators! There are tons of flowers that bloom at night, like jasmine, honeysuckle, and yucca, which are overwhelmingly pollinated by moths. In fact, scientists are only just uncovering the extensive pollinating work that moths do.
Nocturnal butterflies, like the American night butterflies, are quite rare, but they do exist. And some butterflies, like skippers, those stout little cuties with the big clubbed antennae, are frequently found pollinating at dawn and dusk.
Skipper butterflies
So, we know that butterflies evolved from moths, but butterflies are in their own superfamily after all. What separates them from all other moth groups?
Well, until the 1990's, entomologists thought they had an answer to this. They believed that there were three morphological features of butterflies that distinguished them from all other members of the Lepidoptera.
One is the easy-to-spot clubbed antennae. Second is the tendency for butterfly forewings and hindwings to overlap and beat together in flight. Most moths, in contrast, have a velcro-like structure on their wings that keeps them stuck together. And thirdly, most butterflies have a set of sensory scales on the heads that most moths lack.
While none of these characteristics define a butterfly on its own, it was believed that if a Leipidopteran had ALL THREE in combination, then it was most certainly a butterfly!
And then……the American night butterflies (family Hedylidae), a group previously thought to be moths, were added to the butterfly superfamily, and all this went out the window. These plain Lepidopterans have a combination of a velcro hindwing coupling, threadlike antennae, and most species are nocturnal, all moth-like characteristics!
I guess I'm a butterfly now
So, where does that leave us? Certainly, generalizations about butterfly characteristics hold true in enough cases that we can identify many of them in the field or laboratory. But, as of now, the only way we can definitively distinguish between butterflies and all other Lepidoptera are a few unique DNA sequences. Sigh, time to pull out those lab goggles.
But Lepidoptera specialists like David Bettman at the California Academy of Sciences are confident that one day unique physical characteristics will be found that distinguish the butterflies from all other Lepidoptera without the use of DNA. But these characteristics are likely to be subtle and only present in the larval or pupal stage, and will still likely require a microscope and some expertise to see!
And so a seemingly simple question takes us down quite the rabbit hole of taxonomic quandaries! Boundaries between groups of species, or even between individual species, aren't always clear cut. But reconstructing how these amazing insects came to be is still ongoing and we are getting closer to understanding their evolutionary story, how butterflies got so dang fabulous, and maybe even more importantly, that moths have been fabulous all along.
Madagascar sunset moth (underside)
In-depth discussion of the latest research on Lepidoptera evolution can be found here.
Many-legged Muses
Posted on July 22, 2021 by thebefuddledloris
If you had asked me if I liked bugs when I was a kid, I would have looked at you suspiciously. I mean, a potato bug (Jerusalem cricket), once scared me half to death, but of course I scooped up the occasional ladybug, and monarch and swallowtail butterflies would always catch my eye. But for the most part my heart belonged to the furry and feathered creatures of the world.
I had a particular fondness for house cats (especially my orange tabby, Leo), and big charismatic macrofauna like lions, tigers, pop icons, cheetahs, and colorful birds.
Exhibit A:
Mixed media, age 5-7? Probably my finest work.
Exhibit B:
Prismacolor Markers, sometime in junior high I think…
Closeup:
Detail, cockatoo looking in mirror
As you can see I didn't always have the steadiest hand, but I did always love egregiously bright color and little details. So insects were actually a natural progression. It just took me awhile to discover them!
That's the thing about a lot of insects – they can be easy to miss. I realized this after college when I got a job at the San Francisco insect zoo. I started to realize that not only were the vast majority of insects harmless, they were also more interesting and beautiful that I ever realized.
When I got a job as a curatorial assistant in the Entomology department at the California Academy of Sciences I would spend a lot of time looking at insect specimens under a microscope trying to sort them into orders and families. I saw a lot of what entomologists call LBB's, or "Little Brown Bugs" because they are so ubiquitous. But under a microscope they are anything but ordinary. Some had cryptic coloration with intricate patterning, some had fascinating or humorous characteristics (there are species of tiny moths that have what look like bangs), and some were bright and colorful close up.
Take a look at this weevil from Madagascar. It was small and looked brown from a distance. Under the microscope it revealed a veritable disco ball of shimmering light, like someone smacked it with a fistful of glitter.
Tiny weevil disco of one
And this beetle specimen in the family Eucnemidae (false click beetles). It was pulled from an assortment of insects collected on an Academy expedition to the Philippines. Small and slightly nondescript from a distance, closeup it looks like it's covered in the softest most luxurious golden fuzz.
Urge to pet: 11
It was my excitement about all of these amazing species I was seeing that led me to dust off my art supplies and start drawing seriously again for the first time since high school. I couldn't believe that so much color and detail could be crammed onto such small little animals! And I wanted to share this inspiration with others through photography and art.
One of my all time faves are Fulgorid Planthoppers (family Fulgoridae). They are an odd group of insects that have big butterfly-like wings, but are actually more closely related to cicadas, leafhoppers, and aphids. I thought this specimen from Ecuador had the most beautifully patterned wings. It was small too, only about half an inch:
Top: photo of Calyptoproctus stigma. Bottom: colored pencil illustration
And here is another, larger (about 4 inches!), species of Fulgorid plant hopper from Central America:
Top: photo of Diareusa imitatrix. Bottom: colored pencil illustration.
My two favorite mediums have always been prismacolor markers and colored pencils, and I found the pencils in particular were great for capturing little details of insect wings, and for layering lots of colors to achieve some of the complex shades found on insects specimens. Some colors are really hard to completely recreate. These longhorn beetles from Cameroon are the richest shades of mint green and goldeny buttery yellow:
Sterntotomis callais: photo and illustration
Sternotomis mirabilis targavei: photo and illustration
And there are many, many more! The Academy has about 17 million insect and arachnid specimens, representing about 250 thousand species, or about a quarter of all insect and arachnid species currently known to science. It's a fantastic resource not just for scientists, but for artists as well.
I've never lost my love of cats and birds big and small, and I still draw them constantly! But my perspective has been expanded to include microfauna, and has deepened my admiration for the diversity of life on this planet. There is something kind of neat about knowing there are all these fantastic creatures everywhere, even if we don't necessarily notice them or can't even see them without looking very very closely. Is there a metaphor for life in there somewhere?? Possibly!
So, whether you are a lifelong bug enthusiast, or are only just noticing that they are *almost* as cool as cats, I hope they inspire and make you happy too.
How to See Insects
Posted on May 6, 2019 by thebefuddledloris
Fascinating creatures, miniature works of art, critical links in the web of life — bugs are so much more than pests.
(Repost): Original Post: https://baynature.org/2019/05/01/how-to-see-insects/
by Rachel Diaz-Bastin
I remember the first time I saw a Madagascan sunset moth. I had just started a job in the entomology department at the California Academy of Sciences, and had decided to begin looking at some of the 7-million-plus carefully pinned insects housed there. I must have made a sound when I saw their iridescent wings come into view through the glass-topped drawer, some sort of quiet gasp muffled by the hum of the collection room cooling system. It did look like a sunset – the once-in-a-lifetime tropical island kind.
As I made my way through the rest of the butterfly and moth drawers the variety of species seemed endless. Many were from far-away places, but some were from North America, like butterflies in the family Pieridae in the richest shades of yellow, ochre, and red; and tiger moths with markings that resembled Joan Miro paintings.
The Madagascan sunset moth, Chrysiridia rhipheus, from Charles D. d'Orbigny's Dictionnaire universel d'histoire naturelle (1849) (Wikimedia Commons)
I got my degree in wildlife conservation biology, and focused on learning about the larger — and what I had assumed were most "charismatic" — animals on the planet. But now a whole new universe was coming into view, right under my nose and mind-bendingly vast. Science has described roughly a million insects, and we suspect there are untold millions more yet to be described, sprinkled throughout all habitats from tropical rainforests to Arctic ice.
Entomologist William Shepard, a museum associate at the Essig Museum of Entomology at UC Berkeley and the University of Missouri, has described dozens of new insect species from all over the world, but he has a particular affinity for riffle beetles in the family Elmidae. These small beetles are often found crawling on stones or sticks in the so-called "riffle" zones of streams, where fast-moving shallow water runs over rocks, but some have adapted to life in still water. There are 1400 species known world-wide, 100 species found in North America alone, and likely many more that have not yet been discovered. "As a child I always loved playing and fishing in streams," Shepard says. "Then in graduate school I discovered that there were beetles that loved the streams as much as I did." According to Shepard, most professional entomologists he knows simply never outgrew the "insect" phase of their childhood, during which the joy of discovering and learning about insects took hold and never let go.
The tortoise beetle Polychalca variolosa. (Photo by Rachel Diaz-Bastin)
But insects can be easy to overlook for many of us. Perhaps that's why it feels so eerie to hear that this enormous yet enigmatic world is in trouble. Worrying news of an impending insect apocalypse hit the headlines in late 2017, after a German study showed that the total mass of local flying insects had fallen by 80 percent in three decades. And then another paper, based on the review of dozens of studies, warned that over 40 percent of all insect species were in decline and that "insects as a whole will go down the path of extinction in a few decades".
Insect pollinators are an essential component of every environment, needed for the reproduction of at least 80 percent of our flowering plants. The resulting seeds and fruit provide food for countless animals including humans. Without pollinators, many fruits and vegetables would disappear and mainly wind-pollinated crops such as corn and wheat would remain. Bees, butterflies, and moths get a lot of the pollination buzz, but flies (even male mosquitos!), pollinate as well. The cacao plant has small complicated flowers that only one species of fly is able to navigate. Insects also perform essential sanitary services, helping to decompose dead plant and animal matter and recycle it into the soil.
But insects, I've come to realize, are also something more unquantifiable: they are works of art.
But insects, I've come to realize, are also something more unquantifiable: they are works of art. There are weevils that live in the Philippines that are covered in iridescent scales like butterfly wings. We lovingly call them Easter egg weevils due to the variety of patterns and colors that look as though they were painted on. One species in this genus has scales with a microscopic structure just like opal. Another weevil, the Brazilian diamond weevil, has scales set in pits along its body that have the same microscopic structure as diamonds.
A Mongolian tiger beetle, Cicindela coerulea nitida. (Photo by Rachel Diaz-Bastin)
Insects also inhabit sensory worlds that we are only just now beginning to understand. The scarab beetle Chrysina gloriosa's exoskeleton gives it the rare ability to create and reflect circularly polarized light. Only mantis shrimp are known to see circularly polarized light, but scientists have hypothesized that Chrysina gloriosa can see it too, in which case these beetles would look even brighter and luminescent to each other than they do to us, or to their predators.
Private communication channels are not unique to Chrysina gloriosa, either; even the common cabbage white butterfly, a garden pest which looks to us like a nondescript white moth, uses very specific ultraviolet signals in order to convey mating readiness to each other.
Treehoppers in the family Membracidae talk to each other by vibrating the plants they live on, a form of communication that some scientists have called a secret society of sound. The vibrations they produce are quite low in frequency, often below the threshold of human hearing. Scientists are only beginning to understand what they are saying.
The flower weevil Eurhinus festivus. (Photo by Rachel Diaz-Bastin)
It's hard to imagine losing such amazing creatures, especially when we are just beginning to scratch the surface of knowing them. The good news is that some insects like local pollinators can survive, even thrive, in small patches of habitat. Growing pesticide-free native nectar plants can improve the health, abundance, and diversity of local pollinators, even if it's only a small flower box in the city. Butterflies often need specific host plants to feed on during their caterpillar stage, for example the caterpillars of monarch butterflies feed exclusively on the leaves of various milkweeds. Replacing lawn with native nectar and host plants and even leaving some areas of the garden untidy with open sandy ground, brush piles, and old tree stumps can be wonderful habitat for a variety of native bees.
It's possible to make lifestyle changes that can help globally as well. Avoiding plastic cups, straws, and packaging, can help slow the stream of plastic pollution entering the environment. And cutting down on beef and palm oil consumption – two huge drivers of deforestation – can help insects and wildlife more broadly.
There is not one clear-cut solution, in part because there is still much to be learned about basic insect ecology and population numbers. But citizen scientists are helping to fill in these knowledge gaps. Indeed, it is due to the observations of citizen scientists that we have been able to track the decline of the Western monarch and know we must act now to implement urgent conservation measures. But there are so many more insect species hidden from the headlines. That's why it's important not just to recognize the ecological importance of insects, but also their intrinsic worthiness as charismatic inhabitants of our planet, like whales, tigers and pandas. Losing even a fraction of them would mean losing countless wonderful species, including many we haven't discovered yet.
A pipevine swallowtail butterfly in the East Bay hills. (Photo by Franco Folini, Flickr CC)
Shepard's research has illuminated this phenomenon in a striking way. The velvety black and blue pipevine swallowtail is a beautiful California native butterfly whose caterpillars feed on the green foliage of the California pipevine plant. Planting this native plant is a great way to help this butterfly flourish, but it does so much more. In research to be published later this year, Shepard and his colleagues document a veritable Serengeti in miniature inhabiting the U-shaped flowers of the California pipevine plant, with over 2,000 species of arthropods (insects and arachnids), including vast groupings of pollinators, predators, scavengers, and insects that are just looking for a place to hide. And they are still identifying more species.
Whether you've had a lifelong love affair with insects or became fascinated with them later in life, there is always the feeling that there is so much more to know. Insects make up 80 percent of all known species on the planet, and there are estimated to be 200 million individual insects for each human! There aren't nearly enough entomologists to study them all. Even after 10 years working in an entomology collection, I'm still seeing species that I've never seen before. Sometimes while sorting specimens, I'll put a very small insect under the microscope and what had looked like a brown speck to the naked eye reveals itself to have the most interesting mottled cryptic patterning, or a dusting of what looks like glitter, or impossibly shiny golden fuzz. I love knowing that there are these amazing creatures hidden all around us, even if we don't always notice them, or haven't noticed them yet. Even if we have only scratched the surface of their world.
"There will never be an end to knowing about insects," Shepard says.
Rachel Diaz-Bastin
Rachel Diaz-Bastin is a scientific illustrator and curatorial assistant at the California Academy of Sciences and former Bay Nature editorial intern.
A ladybug for most seasons
Posted on March 4, 2019 by thebefuddledloris
It was a typical misty morning in Golden Gate Park when entomologist Kristen Vollrath spotted a fluffy white insect ambling about on a concrete barrier behind the California Academy of Sciences. She scooped up the unidentified insect and brought it down to the entomology department where it was given the nickname "popcorn" due to its puffed appearance.
"popcorn" the unidentified insect. Photo by Kristen Vollrath
At first we thought popcorn might be a mealybug, a plant pest belonging to the family Pseudoccocidae. But popcorn was no mealybug! By the end of the week, the fluffy little nubbin transformed into it's adult form and revealed its true identity: a ladybird beetle related to the red and black-spotted "ladybugs" we commonly see in the garden.
But how were we fooled so easily? It turns out that Popcorn was a special species of ladybird beetle (Cryptolaemus montrouzieri), whose larvae masquerade as the mealybugs they prey on, a form of "aggressive mimicry" that allows them to get close to their prey before gobbling them up. Commonly known as mealybug destroyers, these humble yet murderous little beetles were brought to California from their native home in Australia for a very specific and heroic purpose: to save the citrus!
"You're welcome". Mealybug destroyer (Cryptolaemus montrouzieri) adult
If you were a citrus grower in 1860's California, you would have had a lot of bugs to contend with. And I do mean bugs! True bugs to be exact, the order of insects that have what entomologists call "piercing or sucking" mouthparts. Don't laugh! These specialized mouthparts allow true bugs to pierce plant tissues with their tiny beak-like rostrum and suck up the juices. Aphids are a well-known true bug that, along with many other plant-feeding true bugs, can cause all sorts of garden mayhem, including foliage wilt, leaf drop, and the stunted growth or even death of the plant.
Aphid feeding on a plant. See the pointy mouthparts?
In the late 1860's the California citrus industry was facing an economic crisis brought about, not by aphids, but by an invasive species of true bug from Australia, the cottony cushion scale (Icerya purchasi). Insecticides had little effect on these puffballs, and growers, at their wits end, resorted to pulling up infested trees and burning them.
"But I'm just a lil' poof"
Luckily there were a couple entomologists around to save the day! Albert Koebele, under the appointment of noted federal entomologist Charles Valentine Riley, had recently been transferred from his position in Washington D.C. to Alameda, California where he was studying insecticide effectiveness as well as local insect pests. He soon set his sights on fighting the cottony cushion scale scourge.
Albert Koebele
Charles Valentine Riley
Curiously, citrus trees in Australia were largely unaffected by the cottony cushion scale even though the insect was native to the region. Riley noted this and reasoned that there must be natural predators of the cottony cushion scale in Australia that kept their numbers at a reasonable level.
And so in 1888 Riley sent Koebele on a mission to Australia to investigate potential cottony cushion scale predators that could be brought back to California. In addition to a species of parasitic fly, Koebele returned with a species of ladybird beetle called the vedalia beetle (Rodolia cardinalis).
"My appetite will save the day!" Vedalia beetle (Rodolia cardinalis)
Koebele initially released the vedalia beetles on a tented orange tree infested with cottony cushion scale insects. In a few months the beetles had multiplied prolifically and devoured their prey. When the tent was opened the beetles spread to nearby trees and soon the entire orchard was free of the cottony cushion scale! As word of the amazing results spread, citrus growers from throughout the state came to gather the vedalia beetles and release them into their orchards. They spread rapidly and by 1890 California was almost entirely free of the cottony cushion scale and all of it's gosh-darned cottony-ness.
Happy orange tree
This idea – using nature to fight nature – is known as biological control or biocontrol, and this instance is regarded as the first successful implementation of it in the world. It can be very tricky, and, as usual, The Simpsons provides the best illustration of poorly thought out biocontrol.
In this case, however, Koebele used his entomologist know-how to implement a truly elegant solution and was seen as a local hero for growers in the state.
But his work was not over.
Several years after the cottony cushion scale had established itself in California, the citrus mealybug (Planococcus citri), another species of true bug with a deceptively cute name, was accidentally introduced from Asia around the world where it made itself quite the agricultural pest.
Mealybugs (family Pseudoccocidae), sometimes known as scale insects, are wingless as juveniles, have soft exoskeletons, and are coated in a waxy layer of protection that gives them their popcorn or puffed rice-like appearance. Males eventually change as they age, growing wings and losing their ability to feed and looking somewhat like gnats, whereas adult females retain their juvenile appearance and attach themselves to the plant where they secrete a powdery wax layer used for protection while they suck the plant juices. The female deposits masses of eggs on plants. The masses, known as ovisacs, are covered in fluffy, cottony layers of wax filaments. Juveniles feed on plant sap, which further damages them.
Citrus Mealybug (larva or adult female)
Although citrus mealybugs attack a wide range of crops as well as wild and ornamental plants, the damage they do to citrus, like causing oranges to become lumpy and discolored and possibly fall off the tree, was a nightmare for growers in California. In 1891, they pressured Riley to send Koebele back to Australia to gather more predators that could combat the growing number of mealybugs. He ended up bringing back another species of ladybird beetle, except this one was a truly cunning beast. It came to be known as THE MEALYBUG DESTROYER…aka our little popcorn!
mealybug destroyer munchies
The mealybug destroyer (Cryptolaemus montrouzieri), like the name implies, have a voracious appetite for mealybugs. To aid them in this venture, they employ a treacherous trick, which scientist's refer to as "aggressive mimicry." As juveniles, mealybug destroyers look very similar to mealybugs, a real-life case of a "wolf in sheep's clothing" that allows them to get close to their prey while appearing harmless.
Mealybug destroyer Larva
Adult mealybug destroyers are predominantly brown and have no spots, unlike many of the often brightly-colored ladybird beetles (Family Coccinellidae). Female mealybug destroyers lay their eggs among the cottony egg-sack of adult female mealybugs. The larvae, whose waxy coating makes them superficially resemble mealybugs, feed on mealybug eggs and larvae. It takes almost another month for the beetles to go through their pupal stage and become adults, at which point they continue eating mealybugs as well as laying hundreds of eggs among mealybug larvae for the rest of their 2-month lifespan.
A (very accurate) depiction of a juvenile mealybug destroyer sneaking up on it's prey. Cartoon by Rachel Diaz-Bastin.
As hoped, the mealybug destroyers devastated the citrus mealybug populations in citrus groves. But sadly these little chaps from down under got too chilly anytime it dipped much below 50 degrees ferenheit and (just like Springfield's ill-fated gorillas), were unable to survive the winter in most areas. As a result, techniques for mass-rearing the beetle were developed for its release into groves where they could do their job during the warmer months.
In the Midwest, the mealybug destroyer is actually still used to protect ornamental plants from various species of mealybugs in greenhouses, where they stay nice and toasty year-round. They are also used for pest control in the warm wonderland at the San Francisco Conservatory of flowers in Golden Gate Park.
But, just like Kristen, you can sometimes find them out and about in coastal areas like San Francisco, where the fog provides a blanket that allows them to live much longer and fight their tiny battles in the wild, far away from their native homeland.
Thank you to Flickr creative commons folks for allowing the use of your wonderful images!:
Posted in Amazing Insect Facts | Tagged agriculture, beetle, biocontrol, california, citrus, coccinellidae, entomology, Insect, invasive, ladybug, mealybug, natural history, nature, science | Leave a reply
What all the Buzz is About
Posted on September 19, 2016 by thebefuddledloris
Blue-banded bees (Amegilla cingulata) on a mountain devil (Lambertia formosa). Illustration by Rachel Diaz-Bastin.
Honeybees get a lot of buzz, but what about nature's bigger buzzers? Those adorably-awkward bumbling bees that spend their days bumping into flowers. They are fuzzy, they are loud, and they are often joyfully colorful. The blue-banded bee from Australia is no exception. In fact, I dare you to find a more magical-looking bee!
Blue-banded bee (Amegilla cingulata). Photo by Srikaanth Sekar.
But there is more to the blue-banded bee than resplendent blue butts.
Blue-banded bees aren't technically bumblebees (bumblebees belong to the genus Bombus, while blue-banded bees belong to the genus Amegilla), but these furry flyers share some common traits. Notably, both blue-banded bees and bumblebees have the ability to shake pollen out of flowers using a technique called "buzz pollination".
Buzz pollination (also called sonication), is a feat of strength and endurance that honeybees just can't match, and it is critical to the 20,000 or so species of plants that depend on it for reproduction.
Flowers that have evolved buzz pollination are unique. They don't simply put their protein-rich pollen out like cookies on a table for any Tom, Dick, or hairy insect to eat. Making pollen takes time and energy! So these flowers keep it tucked inside tubular stamens that few but the biggest bees are able to access.
To accomplish this a bee will typically grab a stamen with its jaws and vibrate its flight muscles hundreds of times a second. It has to hold on tight though, otherwise the vibrations could send it flying off the flower! Bees experience some totally tubular forces 30 times greater than gravity as they buzz for pollen. That's near the limit of human endurance, and definitely more than Taylor Swift has ever accomplished, even in her most shakiest offiest of days.
Take a look at this video!
Some plants, like corn, ragweed, and oak trees, cast their pollen to the wind in order to reproduce. Others depend on pollinators like bats, birds, butterflies, and bees to act as their personal pollen distributors. Many flowers use nectar as a lure, and advertise widely to insects and birds to come and eat. But flowers that depend on buzz pollination are looking to attract very specific bees and insects, a relationship that was shaped over the course of evolution. Over time, as their pollen became more difficult to access, natural selection favored bigger bees that could shake their flowers harder.
Many of our important crops evolved in this way, such as cranberries, tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplants.
That's why big bees are so agriculturally important. Take Australia as an example. While surprisingly not the birthplace of Koala Yummies, Australia also sadly does not have any native bumblebees. For that reason greenhouse-grown tomatoes there are currently hand-pollinated using an "electric bee" (basically a tuning fork that releases pollen via vibrations in a similar way to bees).
In order to combat the extra time and money that hand-pollination requires, some folks in Australia have suggested importing European bumblebees to do the job. But what if these non-native bumblebees escaped their greenhouse enclosures into the surrounding environment?
As this Simpsons clip explains, that could spell ecological disaster.
Not to fear, though, because it turns out there is a better solution right in Australia's backyard: the native blue-banded bee! Hard to imagine that these Aussie stunners were ever overlooked in the first place, but recent research has shown that they are quite successful in pollinating greenhouse tomatoes, thank you very much. In fact, they may even be better at it than bumblebees!
Bumblebees use their flight muscles to shake pollen out of flower anthers, but it turns out that blue-banded bees use a technique that's infinitely more hardcore, but familiar to metal fans: headbanging. With a headbanging rate of 350 times per second – which could put even the most die-hard metal fans to shame – blue-banded bees can shake flowers at a greater frequency than bumblebees.
The blue-banded bees' vibration also makes pollination more efficient, enabling them to spend fewer time on each flower while collecting more pollen.
Did I mention they are cute too?
Female blue-banded bee. Photo by James Niland.
What a win-win! And a reminder of how important jumbo bees are, wherever they are found.
So the next time you hear a big ol' bee buzzing furiously on a flower, you will know that they aren't having a panic-attack, they are carrying on a long and glorious tradition of shaking out their pollen snacks, and in the process, ensuring the survival of thousands of plants, many of which we know and love.
Posted in Amazing Insect Facts, Amazing Insect Pictures, starry-eyed | Tagged amegilla, banded, bee, biodiversity, blue, botanical, bug, buzz, cingulata, coevolution, color, conservation, entomology, fuzzy, Hymenoptera, illustration, Insect, iridescent, nature, pollination, wildlife | Leave a reply
What's Bugs Got to do With It
Posted on April 13, 2016 by thebefuddledloris
Every now and then someone will ask what I do here in the Entomology Department at the California Academy of Sciences. Sometimes I say, "just lookin' at bugs" or I stare blankly at them, slowly back up, and then run away. But usually I relate it to working in a library, only instead of books the walls are stacked with row upon row, millions upon millions of preserved insects. Researchers from all over the world "check-out" or borrow certain groups of insects, specifically ones in their area of expertise, for identification and study.
But there are some peculiarities to working in an Entomology collection. Translation: things sometimes get a little weird.
On a typical day I might peer into my microscope and see something like this:
"Someone identify me!"
These googley-eyed chaps are an assortment of insects in the order Homoptera. The so-called "true-bugs", insects in this very large order suck up plant sap with a pointy beak-like mouth, and include such well known insects as cicadas and aphids, as well as the ones you see illustrated here, commonly known as leafhoppers and planthoppers.
See this little guy with the bristles on his hind leg?
That's a leafhopper in the family Cicadellidae. If you've ever walked through grass on a spring day, you've likely seen these guys in action, doing what the do best: hoppin'! They are by far the most common Homopteran family I see under my microscope. Not only that, some of them have amazingly beautiful colors.
Rhododendron Leafhopper (Graphocephala fennahi)
Red-banded Leafhopper (Graphocephala coccinea)
Leafhopper (Versigonalia ruficauda)
Several years ago, Entomologists at the Academy began a project to map arthropod diversity on the Island of Madagascar in order to identify conservation hotspots there. Sounds straightforward, but it's actually quite revolutionary! Until recently, insects were typically overlooked in conservation assessments, despite the fact that they make up the majority of life on the planet.
Biologists in Madagascar collect thousands of specimens that they then ship to us at the Academy. Big bags labeled "Coleoptera", "Lepidoptera", "Hymenoptera", etc. brimming with vials of specimens preserved in alcohol come pouring into our lab. That's where my job comes in, because I get to wrangle the miscellaneous Homopterans and sort them into smaller and more manageable groups that can then be shipped to taxonomists all over the world.
Here's a bright pink specimen that belongs in the family Flatidae. They often come in shades of bright pink or yellow and, like their name implies, they are pretty flat.
Colorful specimen in the Family Flatidae (Homoptera)
Once I pull out all the Flatidae specimens from the samples, I'll be sending them off on a tropical vacation to Hawaii, where a man who just-so-happens to be a Flatidae specialist lives and works. In time he will hopefully identify them to species!
Here's a nymph that is possibly in the Hemipteran family Pentatomidae. I've never come across anything like it in our Madagascar (or any), sample that I have looked at. It's possible it could be a new species, but we won't know until after we send it to a guy at the San Diego Natural History Museum.
With over 1 million described species and counting, we rely on these taxonomists to look over the insects that have been collected and identify them. Maybe they are new species! Or maybe species that we already knew about, but maybe from a new location we didn't previously know they existed.
Once all of this data is collected for insects (as well as for reptiles, amphibians, plants, and mammals), it can then be used to help conservationists propose locations for protected areas in Madagascar that will preserve the maximum number of species.
This kind of work is valuable, not just for Madagascar, but for the world. Although insects are easily overlooked, the overwhelming vastness of their numbers means that they fill countless niches in the environment and provide important ecological services. Some, like the role bees play in pollination, are well-known. Others, like the fact that we owe the existence of chocolate to a tiny little fly, may not be so well-known. But knowing it is vital, and we still have so much to learn about the biodiversity of the planet, from insects to lichens found up high in redwood trees.
That's why museums like the Academy of Sciences are so important – not only do they house the records of life on the planet, but they also provide indispensable resources for the taxonomists who are able to tease apart and illuminate the tiny worlds all around us.
Posted in Amazing Insect Facts, Amazing Insect Pictures, Conservation, Uncategorized | Tagged biodiversity, bug, cicadellidae, conservation, entomology, identification, Insect, leafhopper, madagascar, museum, nature, taxonomy, wildlife | Leave a reply
Wood Vibrations
Posted on October 20, 2015 by thebefuddledloris
Take a stroll through nature on a sunny day and you might hear a variety of birds calling, bees buzzing, goats yelling, and squirrels making squirrly noises. But what you probably won't hear is this little guy talking to his friends:
"I really do have friends". Tiny treehopper on a stem. (Photo found on Flickr Creative Commons)
Treehoppers (family Membracidae), are actually quite social. But instead of shouting, "Hey you!" or "Watch out for that spider!", treehoppers talk to each other by vibrating the plants they live on, an almost otherworldy form of communication that some scientists have called a secret society of sound.
While vibrations might seem like a strange way of communicating, in fact many reptiles, birds, and even a few mammals (elephants included!), have been found using the same technique. A particularly large percentage of insect species communicate via vibrations as well, but treehoppers, small and dorkily camouflaged like thorns, are a fascinating group.
"oh hai". Stylocentrus ancora sp. Family Membracidae. (Photo by Art, Flickr)
Finding them is hard enough, since they are most likely to be mistaken for thorns, if they are even seen at all. But getting a glimpse into their mysterious world is even more challenging.
Whatcha doin' over there? Treehopper on a stem. Family Membracidae. (Photo by Yogendra Joshi, Flickr)
When insects like cicadas communicate, it's hardly a secret. That's because they have specialized noise-generating organs on their bodies called tymbals that they use to produce exceptionally loud songs that permeate the forest. But inscects like treehoppers that rely on plant vibrations for communication generally do not have such noisy organs. Many of them simply grab onto a plant stem and shake (or tremulate if you're fancy!).
Treehopper tremulatin'. Family Membracidae. (Illustration by Rachel Diaz-Bastin)
The vibrations this produces are quite low in frequency, often below the threshold of human hearing.But fortunately, there are some wonderful people in the world, like Rex Cocroft, a researcher and professor at the University of Missouri, Columbia, who has found a way to tap into this vibrational soundscape. Using a hairclip, he is able to attach phonograph needles and laser vibrometers (which can measure vibrations based on reflected light…don't ask me how!), to a plant. Once recorded, the signals can be played back as airborne sounds. So now, at long last, we can actually listen to some treehopper conversations.
Listen listen listen!
Here's the translation for those that don't speak treehopper:
(Illustration by Rachel Diaz-Bastin)
But why vibrate when you can just make noise??! There are actually a number of advantages. Seismic waves don't weaken as rapidly as air-borne sound waves and can therefore travel further (believed to be up to 16 km in elephants!). That's handy for big animals that need to communicate over vast distances, but if you are very very small and find it difficult to produce loud airborn sounds, especially in a loud and squawky rainforest, it's also super handy because even you can produce low-frequency signals capable of traveling the length of a plant or plant stem.
Buffalo Treehopper: Stictocephala bisonia, Family Membracidae. (Photo by Brad Smith, Flickr)
But do treehoppers really have much to say? Studies reveal that, yes! They do! Treehoppers use vibrations for a variety of reasons, such as attracting mates, or to announce the discovery of a good feeding site to their hungry compatriots. Baby treehoppers (nymphs), often feed and congregate together for safety. If they sense an approcahing predator, they will signal vibrational alarms, to which adult treehoppers respond by rushing to their defense.
"Halp!" Umbonia crassicornis nymph. Family Membracidae. (Photo by Carlos De Soto Molinari, Flickr)
Vibrational signals might also have the benefit of reducing predation risk, because the messages being sent around are directed along specific plant stem pathways rather than being broadcast throughout the forest. But of course nature is never that simple, and many predators (particularly other insects and spiders), can also sense the treehopper's vibrations and may eavesdrop on them, most likely in hopes of making them their next meal, but possibly also to catch up on the latest treehopper gossip.
A beautiful treehopper: Platycotis vittata. Family Membracidae. (Photo by Matthew Cicanese, Flickr)
A treehopper's world is a hard place to imagine. Not only are they talking to each other most of the time via vibrational signals, they also live in a complex environment where natural vibrations from wind and rain and other animals are common, and perhaps quite noisy. The howling wind, the creaking of old branches, the thud of heavy raindrops against leaves, even the songs of birds and the pitter patter of insect feet on plant stems. Treehoppers can likely hear (or feel), all of it. But there is still much to learn, and study, about these ancient insects.
According to Rex Cochroft, in a wonderful piece on the subject on NPR, "because forest leaves tremble, even with the sound that we make even when we speak, treehoppers have always been listening to us. We have just begun listening to them."
Special thanks to all the amazing photographers from Flickr creative commons for allowing the use their wonderful images!
Posted in Amazing Insect Facts | Tagged communication, Insect, membracidae, thorn bug, treehopper, tremulate, tymbal, vibration | Leave a reply
Tigers in the Night
Posted on March 25, 2015 by thebefuddledloris
Like a psychedelic flutter of love, a unicorn picnic, or a traveling band of kitten actors, butterflies spread happiness wherever they go. But as far as insects in the order Lepidoptera go, butterflies are just the tip of a very big iceberg. And perhaps – dare I say it – what's hidden underneath is even more amazing.
Lepidoperans – also known as butterflies and moths – are an extremely large and diverse group of insects, with nearly 180,000 described species. "Lepis" means "scale" in latin, and "pteron" means "wing". At the microscopic level, it's easy to see how they got those fancy names:
Pearl-bordered fritillary butterfly (Boloria euphrosyne), wing close-up. (Photo by Gilles San Martin)
Those scaley-looking things on this butterfly wing are, in fact, scales! More accurately, they are modified hairs, but we call them scales anyway, and lepidopterans are covered in them. These tiny structures overlap slightly like shingles on a very colorful house, and are what give butterflies and moths their diversity of colors and patterns.
Sunset Moth (Chrysiridia rhipheus), wing scales. (Photo by Macroscopic Solutions)
Many of these colors and patterns are familiar – like the striking orange and black of a monarch, or the iridescent blue of a morpho butterfly lilting through the rainforest. They are familiar because, for the most part, butterflies are up and about when we are.
Although some moths are active during the daytime, the majority of moths are hidden from our normal waking life. But wait until the twillight, or until the stars come out. Check your porch light, or better yet, grab a white sheet, a lamp, and a beer, and you can see the myriad moths that make up the underside of the Lepidoptera iceberg.
Mangina argus, subfamily Arctiinae, Nepal. (Photo by Rachel Diaz-Bastin)
Mangina argus, from Southeast Asia, is a particularly lovely member of the nightime set. This species has two noteworthy distinctions: 1) It may possibly have the funniest genus name ever. And 2) It has striking pink and silver markings reminiscent of a butterfly. Except that it isn't. It's a moth.
Moths make up roughly 80% of all known Lepidoptera (that's almost 160,000 known species, compared to roughly 17,500 butterflies). Most of them are cryptic, but some of them are colorful. The beauty of moths lies in their incredible diversity. Don't try to pin them down! (Unless you are starting a moth collection of course…)
Utethesia bella, subfamily Arctiinae, Florida. (Photo by Rachel Diaz-Bastin)
There are more species of moth in the United States than birds in the entire world, and more moths in Texas alone than there are species of mammal in the entire world. Take that, pandas!
In terms of charisma, the pandas of the moth world might be those in the subfamily Arctiinae, commonly known as tiger moths. They are an incredibly diverse group, with 11,000 species found all over the world. Like the beautiful day-flying Bella moth pictured above, their playful, often beautifully geometric patterns seem like something out of a surrealist's dreamworld. Or a Joan Miro painting.
Chionaema sp., subfamily Arctiinae, Assam. (Photo by Rachel Diaz-Bastin)
Chionaema perornata, subfamily Arctiinae, Assam. (Photo by Rachel Diaz-Bastin)
For potential predators, however, tiger moths look less like a dreamy painting, and more like an unwise snack. Their bright, bold colors – otherwise known as aposematic coloration – advertise that their bodies are infused with poisonous chemicals, such as cardiac glycosides and pyrrolizidine alkaloids, aquired from plants in their environment.
Like other creatures with warning coloration, such as poison dart frogs, coral snakes, Niki Manaj, and flamboyant cuttlefish, tiger moths have a certain dangerous beauty.
Halysidota masoni, subfamily Arctiinae, Cuernavaca, Mexico. (Photo by Rachel Diaz-Bastin)
Automolis harteri, subfamily Arctiinae, Brazil. (Photo by Rachel Diaz-Bastin)
A particularly lovely species is Anaxita decorata. Commonly known as the decorated beauty, it graces Central American evenings like a flying sunset, with bold silver stripes in a wash of vermillion and gold.
Anaxita decorata, subfamily Arctiinae, Oaxaca, Mexico. (Photo by Rachel Diaz-Bastin)
The bright warning colors of tiger moths may serve as protection from daytime predators. But what happens when the lights go out? And bats get the munchies?
Automolis critheis, subfamily Arctiinae, Panama. (Photo by Rachel Diaz-Bastin)
Well, many species of tiger moth have found a way to warn predators at night too – not with sight – but with sound. These species can produce ultrasonic clicks that warn approaching bats that they are distasteful. One species (that is actually tasty), Bertholdia trigona, can produce clicks at such a high rate (up to 4,500 per second), that that it can even jam bat echolocation, resulting in up to tenfold decrease in bat capture efficiency.
Haploa clymene, subfamily Arctiinae, Virginia. (Photo by Rachel Diaz-Bastin)
Haploa contigua, subfamily Arctiinae, Wisconsin. (Photo by Rachel Diaz-Bastin)
Whether vibrant like tiger moths or so cryptic they blend into the trees, moths truly are among the most intriguing insects. If you want to explore the hidden netherworld of moths for yourself, you are in luck! They are super easy to observe. All you need to do is go outside at dusk or later and set out a white sheet and a light, then sit back and shout, "come to me my moth-y friends muahahahahaha!" Learning to identify them is fascinating, and with National Moth Week coming up in July (yes you read that right, National Moth Week!), anyone can join in the fun.
Halysidota intensa, subfamily Arctiinae, Peru. (Photo by Rachel Diaz-Bastin)
Posted in Amazing Insect Facts, Amazing Insect Pictures | Tagged aposematic, arctiidae, arctiinae, bug, butterfly, cryptic, entomology, identification, lepidoptera, moth, natural history, scales, tiger moth, wings | 7 Replies
A Very Spider-y New Year
Posted on December 30, 2014 by thebefuddledloris
Anansi, the original Spider-Man.
This holiday season, while you are sitting beside the fire with your loved ones, why not tell them the story of the original Spider-Man? It's true! Before we had Marvel and Tobey Maguire, the Ashanti people from modern-day Ghana had Anansi, a beloved, intelligent, and often devious little arachnid whose fame eventually spread all over West Africa and into the Americas. Sometimes depicted as a spider, or half man-half spider, Anansi was a mythological spirit who, despite his diminutive size, was believed to have created the sun, stars, and moon, and to have given night and rain to the people.
More often though, Anansi was seen as a trickster, who used his intelligence to accomplish some very impressive feats. In one popular tale, a seemingly bored Anansi went to his father, the sky-god Nyame, to ask for stories (since at that time there were none on earth). Since his father was a reasonable guy, he asked only for a random and dangerous assortment of creatures in return, including a Python named Onini, Osebo the Leopard, and some hornets.
Anansi being an astute arachnid, he was able to come up with all sorts of fake stories to trick the animals into being captured. Nyame was so impressed that he crowned Anansi god of stories. And so, despite his often selfish behavior, Anansi is celebrated for bringing stories to the world, and as a symbol of hope that even the little guy can overcome seemingly impossible odds…and of course, annoy a lot of animals much bigger than him in the process!
Anansi annoys a tiger and what appears to be a kangaroo?
Which makes sense, because, despite their relatively small size, spiders often do loom large in our collective imaginations, whether we fear, respect, or even love them.
But, as long as you don't try to jump out of a moving vehicle to get away from one, the overwhelming majority of spiders currently known to science (over 34,000 species), are actually harmless to humans. Unlike Anansi, real spiders don't talk their way into getting what they want, but they do have an infamous trick: venom. In most species this venom is only harmful to their food (insects and some mammals, birds and reptiles), and in the cases where the bites are harmful to humans, even black widow, Australian funnell web, and Brazilian wandering spider bites are treatable with antivenom and rarely result in deaths in healthy adults.
Not only that, there are some truly beautiful and amazing spiders in the world.
Orchard Orb Weaver (Leucauge venusta), just hangin' around lookin' fancy. Photo by: Kevin Council.
With flashes of gold and silvery white in a sea of blue-green, the sunny Orchard Orb Weaver (Leucauge venusta), is one such species. Even it's name, venusta, means beautiful in latin.
Orchard Orb Weaver (Laucauge venusta).
Members of this species can be found in open, light areas from Southern Canada, along the Eastern US, all the way to South America, hanging upside-down on one foot-wide orb webs built low to the ground on trees and shrubs.
Orchard Orb Weaver. (Leucauge venusta), close-up! Photo by: Chuck Wulmer
Across the world, but in the same genus, Leucauge decorata spins its orbs in the forests of Southeast Asia and Australia. It's a unique-looking species, with a long separation between the spinerets (the silk-producing organs), and the tip of its pointy abdomen, and painted in brilliant silver, green, and gold.
Leucauge decorata. Taken at Kaeng Krachan National Park, Thailand. Photo by: Rushen
Spiders in the pantropical genus Thwaitesia are also harmless to humans. Commonly called mirror spiders or sequined spiders, they spend their days glittering through the foliage in tropical forests around the world, where their epic shininess is most likely confusing to predators among the wet leaves, flowers, and sunshine of the rainforest.
Beautiful Macro shot of a mirror spider (Thwaitesia sp.). Photo by: Heng Wang Tan.
But to the human eye, they sure do look like tiny disco balls! The glittery spots, which look like pieces of mirror glued to the spider's back, are actually composed of reflective guanine, a compund well-known for its presence as one of the four main bases found in DNA and RNA. It has a slightly less classy association too – as one of the components in many seabird and bat droppings – a white, amorphous substance called guano.
Mirror spider (Thwaitesia sp.).
But spiders and scorpions produce a special, crystalline form of guanine, which just so happens to be a beautiful by-product of protein metabolism in their cells. Crystalline guanine, which is also found in the scales of many fishes, is used in various products like shampoos, eye shadow, nail polish, and even metallic paints. So if you were wondering how to get that pearly, mirror spider-like glow, look no further than your local drug store!
Mirror spider (Thwaitesia sp.), from Australia. Clearly wondering if anyone else could be this fabulous. Photo by: Robert Whyte.
Did you ever wish you knew when a spider was planning to attack you in a fit of rage? Well, the mirror spider has a solution for that too, because its iridescent spots can expand or contract depending on how agitated the spider is, a trick that is likely used as a form of communication between members of the same species, and also seen in certain tortoise beetles (click if you've ever wanted to see what a happy versus a furious tortoise beetle look like), as well as cephalopods, which can relax and contract their chromatophores in order to change color.
Mirror spider (Thwaitesia sp.), from Australia. Photo by: Robert Whyte.
And finally, we have an imaginary species of spider in the genus Griswoldia, which belongs to a family of harmless wandering spiders found primarily in Australia and South Africa. Real spiders in this genus are actually rather small and cryptic. This one was inspired by Anansi's wonderful color pallete and larger-than-life personality, which reminds us not to overlook the smaller and more maligned creatures on the planet, because if we give the little guys a chance (and forgive their shortcomings), we just might find them wandering into our hearts… and also possibly our shoes!
Griswoldia psychodelia (wishing this were a real thing). Illustration by: Rachel Diaz-Bastin.
A big thank-you to the following photographers for allowing me to use their beautiful images!:
Kevin Council: https://www.flickr.com/photos/45014657@N04/
Chuck Wulmer: https://www.flickr.com/photos/cwulmer/
Rushen: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rushen/
Hen Wang Tan: https://www.flickr.com/photos/spintheday/
Robert Whyte: https://www.flickr.com/photos/robertwhyte/
Inconceivable Weevils, Part II
Posted on June 5, 2014 by thebefuddledloris
In my free moments at the California Academy of Sciences, looking through drawers of natural history specimens and ogling all the amazing insects, there is one drawer….ONE DRAWER…that always makes my eyes shine like Indiana Jones in a secret treasure chamber…Behold the mighty, tiny, Pachyrhynchus weevils:
Pachyrhynchus postpubescens, Philippines
Pachyrhynchus tabafolius, Taiwan
Pachyrhynchus lorquini, Philippines
With rainbow-hued swirls, metallic stripes, and turquoise polkadots, it's easy to imagine someone painting these intricate and colorful weevils with a very small paintbrush. That's why here at the Academy we affectionately refer to the dozens of weevils in the Pachyrhynchus genus as "Easter egg weevils".
Each species of Easter egg weevil has their own unique pattern and color. Take a look – chances are you will get the urge to fill up a tiny basket with them!
Unlike easter eggs, Pachyrhynchus weevils are mobile, but they don't move around very fast! In Taiwan and the Philippines, they can be found bumbling around their rainforest habitat, munching on leaves, and generally looking fabulous.
Pachyrhynchus sp.
But behind those shining colors are some truly amazing optical tricks. Look closely at the colored patches, can you see the sequin-like scales?
Metapocyrtus sp.
Much like the scales on a butterfly's wings, the colorful bands and patches of iridescence on Pachyrhynchus and some other genera of weevils come from scales that are layered on the outside of their exoskeleton, like shingles on a house.
Pachyrhynchus orbifer, Philippines
Within each scale there are very small (nanometer-sized) structures that refract light of different wavelengths. Some colors, like red, have long wavelengths, while others, like blue, have short ones. The way the different wavelengths of light in the visible spectrum interact with the nano-sized structures inside the weevils scales determines which wavelengths are absorbed and which are reflected, and therefore determines which colors we see glittering off of them.
These are what scientists refer to as structural colors, and these Pachyrhynchus weevils have got em' for dayz!
Pachyrhynchus yamianus, Taiwan (Orchid Island)
Pachyrhynchus pulchellus, Philippines
Pachyrhynchus lorquinii
But scientists have discovered that some weevil scales not only look like gems, they act like them too.
Photonic crystals are an ordered arranegement of nanostructures that have the ability to direct photons of light in a selective and predictable pattern. Diamonds are a great example, opals come pretty close, BUT some living organisms possess nanostructures that are arranged like a photonic crystal as well.
Pachyrhynchus moniliferus chevrolati
Pachyrhynchus lorquinii, Philippines
When photonic crystals are organized in one dimension they create the metallic and polarized reflections of, for example, the skin of cephalopods and fishes, the elytra of jewel beetles, scarabs, and the breast feathers of birds of paradise. Two-dimensional photonic crystals create the coloration of peacock feathers (along with pigmentary colors).
THREE-dimensional photonic crystals are rare in nature. But the scales found on some insects have them, including…you guessed it…Pachyrhynchus weevils!
Pachyrhynchus argus, Philippines
Pachyrhynchus argus looks like it is covered in bejewelled cheerios, but it is on the microscopic level that this species really shines. It turns out that their scales contain structures that resemble the structure of opals. Synthetic opal is currently very hard to manufacture, but these guys make it to perfection.
In the IN-famous words of El Guapo, "That's a good trick!"
But the most coveted type of photonic crystal is one structured like a diamond. Because this type of crystal can reflect a wide band of colors, has high reflectivity, and is better able to control the flow of light through it, scientists hope to use it to develop more-efficient solar cells, telecommunications, optical computer chips, and basically all manner of tiny electronics.
Synthesizing a 3-D photonic crystal with this shape is currently extremely difficult.
Entimus imperialis, Brazil
Entimus imperialis, otherwise known as the Brazilian Diamond Weevil, is covered in rows of brilliant spots on black elytra. They certainly look like diamond-encrusted jewelry pins, and as it turns out, the scales inside each of the concave pits contain large areas of three-dimensional photonic crystals, shaped just like a diamond!
Real diamond is formed when carbon is subjected to extremely high heat and pressure miles below the earth's surface, so it's not exactly the same, of course. But the scales of Entimus imperials – an ordered, three-dimensional lattice of chitin in a diamond shape – could be the key to learning how to manufacture structures like this.
These amazing weevils are just a franction of the over one million species of insects and roughly 60,000 species of weevils described to science. With the estimated millions more insects to be discovered – shiny ones, cryptic ones, big ones, small ones – who knows what we have left to learn from their fascinating biology.
Amazing Insect Facts
Amazing Insect Pictures
Art Tips
Botanical Bewilderment
starry-eyed


text:
[![Version](https://img.shields.io/cocoapods/v/STZPopupView.svg?style=flat)](http://cocoadocs.org/docsets/STZPopupView) [![Carthage compatible](https://img.shields.io/badge/Carthage-compatible-4BC51D.svg?style=flat)](https://github.com/STAR-ZERO/STZPopupView)

Customizable simple popup view in iOS. Implemented as an extension of UIViewController.

![Screenshot](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/STAR-ZERO/STZPopupView/master/screenshot.gif)

## Usage

### import

```swift
import STZPopupView
```

### Show popup

in UIViewController

```swift
let popupView = UIView()
// ..setup popupView..

presentPopupView(popupView)
```

### Dismiss popup

in UIViewController

```swift
dismissPopupView()
```

### Customization

```swift
let popupConfig = STZPopupViewConfig()
popupConfig.dismissTouchBackground = false
popupConfig.cornerRadius = 10
// ...more customize

presentPopupView(popupView, config: popupConfig)
```

Customize option see [Source/STZPopupViewConfig.swift](https://github.com/STAR-ZERO/STZPopupView/blob/master/Source/STZPopupViewConfig.swift)

## Requirements

* iOS 8.0+
* Xcode 6.3.1+

## Installation

### CocoaPods

STZPopupView is available through [CocoaPods](http://cocoapods.org). To install
it, simply add the following line to your Podfile:

```ruby
source 'https://github.com/CocoaPods/Specs.git'
platform :ios, '8.0'
use_frameworks!

pod 'STZPopupView'
```

Note: need install cocoapods >= 0.36, and iOS deployment target >= 8.0

	[sudo] gem install cocoapods

### Carthage

STZPopupView can be install using the [Carthage](https://github.com/Carthage/Carthage). Add your Cartfile:

	github "STAR-ZERO/STZPopupView"

### Manually

Copy source file to project.

* Source/STZPopupViewConfig.swift
* Source/UIViewController+STZPopupView.swift

## Author

Kenji Abe, kenji@star-zero.com

## License

STZPopupView is available under the MIT license. See the LICENSE file for more info.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Copper-related degradation of SiO2 in metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors subjected to bias thermal stress: Leakage of the minority charge carriers in the inversion layer
A. Kohn*, E. Lipp, M. Eizenberg, Y. Shacham-Diamand
A mechanism of Cu-related degradation of the SiO2 in metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors subjected to bias thermal stress was described. It was predicted that commonly used BTS conditions could result in increased oxide conductivity, which was large enough to enable the leakage of minority carrier charge generated at the inversion layer. The influence of oxide conductivity on the measured current-voltage characteristic was also discussed. It was found that no-inversion layer (NIL) detection is an intermediate SiO2 degradation between the Cu+-related flat-band voltage shifts and decrease of breakdown voltage.
Published - 26 Jul 2004
Dive into the research topics of 'Copper-related degradation of SiO2 in metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors subjected to bias thermal stress: Leakage of the minority charge carriers in the inversion layer'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
minorities Physics & Astronomy 100%
thermal stresses Physics & Astronomy 93%
metal oxide semiconductors Physics & Astronomy 89%
charge carriers Physics & Astronomy 76%
capacitors Physics & Astronomy 76%
leakage Physics & Astronomy 72%
inversions Physics & Astronomy 71%
degradation Physics & Astronomy 66%
Kohn, A., Lipp, E., Eizenberg, M., & Shacham-Diamand, Y. (2004). Copper-related degradation of SiO2 in metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors subjected to bias thermal stress: Leakage of the minority charge carriers in the inversion layer. Applied Physics Letters, 85(4), 627-629. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1773925
Kohn, A. ; Lipp, E. ; Eizenberg, M. et al. / Copper-related degradation of SiO2 in metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors subjected to bias thermal stress : Leakage of the minority charge carriers in the inversion layer. In: Applied Physics Letters. 2004 ; Vol. 85, No. 4. pp. 627-629.
@article{9885fe12d67e4f06b1b647db36da8e7a,
title = "Copper-related degradation of SiO2 in metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors subjected to bias thermal stress: Leakage of the minority charge carriers in the inversion layer",
abstract = "A mechanism of Cu-related degradation of the SiO2 in metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors subjected to bias thermal stress was described. It was predicted that commonly used BTS conditions could result in increased oxide conductivity, which was large enough to enable the leakage of minority carrier charge generated at the inversion layer. The influence of oxide conductivity on the measured current-voltage characteristic was also discussed. It was found that no-inversion layer (NIL) detection is an intermediate SiO2 degradation between the Cu+-related flat-band voltage shifts and decrease of breakdown voltage.",
author = "A. Kohn and E. Lipp and M. Eizenberg and Y. Shacham-Diamand",
note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by the "MAGNET" program of the Chief Scientist Office at the Israeli Ministry of Industry and Trade, Consortium of Emerging Dielectric and Conductor Technologies for the Semiconductor Industry.",
Kohn, A, Lipp, E, Eizenberg, M & Shacham-Diamand, Y 2004, 'Copper-related degradation of SiO2 in metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors subjected to bias thermal stress: Leakage of the minority charge carriers in the inversion layer', Applied Physics Letters, vol. 85, no. 4, pp. 627-629. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1773925
Copper-related degradation of SiO2 in metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors subjected to bias thermal stress : Leakage of the minority charge carriers in the inversion layer. / Kohn, A.; Lipp, E.; Eizenberg, M. et al.
In: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 85, No. 4, 26.07.2004, p. 627-629.
T1 - Copper-related degradation of SiO2 in metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors subjected to bias thermal stress
T2 - Leakage of the minority charge carriers in the inversion layer
AU - Kohn, A.
AU - Lipp, E.
AU - Eizenberg, M.
AU - Shacham-Diamand, Y.
N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by the "MAGNET" program of the Chief Scientist Office at the Israeli Ministry of Industry and Trade, Consortium of Emerging Dielectric and Conductor Technologies for the Semiconductor Industry.
N2 - A mechanism of Cu-related degradation of the SiO2 in metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors subjected to bias thermal stress was described. It was predicted that commonly used BTS conditions could result in increased oxide conductivity, which was large enough to enable the leakage of minority carrier charge generated at the inversion layer. The influence of oxide conductivity on the measured current-voltage characteristic was also discussed. It was found that no-inversion layer (NIL) detection is an intermediate SiO2 degradation between the Cu+-related flat-band voltage shifts and decrease of breakdown voltage.
AB - A mechanism of Cu-related degradation of the SiO2 in metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors subjected to bias thermal stress was described. It was predicted that commonly used BTS conditions could result in increased oxide conductivity, which was large enough to enable the leakage of minority carrier charge generated at the inversion layer. The influence of oxide conductivity on the measured current-voltage characteristic was also discussed. It was found that no-inversion layer (NIL) detection is an intermediate SiO2 degradation between the Cu+-related flat-band voltage shifts and decrease of breakdown voltage.
Kohn A, Lipp E, Eizenberg M, Shacham-Diamand Y. Copper-related degradation of SiO2 in metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors subjected to bias thermal stress: Leakage of the minority charge carriers in the inversion layer. Applied Physics Letters. 2004 Jul 26;85(4):627-629. doi: 10.1063/1.1773925

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Generated from this question, I thought it might be helpful for others looking for something similar.
Note, if you plan on using that frequently, you might want to add that as an extension method.
Intentional Programming: Whats your intent?
Will my .NET 1.x run on .NET 4.0?


CNN commentator Ana Navarro rebuked President Donald Trump for his criticism of senator and 2020 presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar, branding the president a "poor baby" who was scared of getting his hair wet.
"I've always been taught that your true character shows in how you treat those with less power than you, especially behind closed doors", a former staffer told BuzzFeed News. "That's what I've done my whole life", Klobuchar said. "And no matter what, I'll lead from the heart".
Both backdrops underscored the candidates' respective messages, with Ms. Klobuchar presenting herself as a down-to-earth, left-of-center, Midwestern pragmatist, and Ms. Warren presenting herself as a liberal warrior laser-focused on reshaping a political and economic system that she says has been "rigged" by the wealthy and well-connected. That trip will be followed by stops in Wisconsin, where Clinton was criticized in 2016 for not spending enough time. He asked Klobuchar, "Have you?"
Not everyone at the event was supportive of a Klobuchar presidential run. "I'm going to be there a lot".
Democrats strategizing a potential 2020 presidential run have largely focused on the midwest, which helped elect President Donald Trump in 2016. "Science is on my side, @realDonaldTrump", she tweeted.
The Senator pledged to rejoin the 2015 Paris accord on climate change that Trump has chose to abandon.
Trump responded to Klobuchar's announcement with a tweet mocking her stance on global warming, a phenomenon he has disputed in the past.
The 52-year-old, a fierce Trump critic, is making gender and women's issues a hallmark of her campaign. "That's ordinary people doing extraordinary things", she said in her prepared remarks. "I don't come from money, but what I do have is this - I have grit". "That sense of community is fractured across our nation, worn down by the petty and vicious nature of our politics". We are all exhausted of the shutdowns and the putdowns, of the gridlock and the grandstanding. Amy Klobuchar's announcement that she's running for president of the United States did not come as a surprise.
Democratic-Farmer-Labor leaders from around the state, including U.S. Sen.
The woman stands from the Democrats.
Klobuchar is a three-term senator known for her generally centrist demeanor and ability to negotiate with opposition Republicans. Others said the reports were sexist. She speaks for us. The span was built after the previous bridge collapsed in 2007, killing 13 people. Klobuchar had worked with then Sen. That's community. That's a shared story.
But claims about her work ethic have cast a shadow over her goals. She recently pushed for Senate investigations into whether Facebook broke the law when it resisted oversight on how Russians used its platform to meddle in the 2016 presidential election. "Looking forward to debating you about climate change (and many other issues). Yes, I can push people, I know that".
Her high ratings at home may demonstrate electability in a general election, an asset among a Democratic base eager to defeat Trump. And that's what we need.
First elected to the Senate in 2006, Klobuchar galloped to a third term past year, thumping her Republican rival by 24 points. It also chronicled challenges including her father's struggle with alcoholism, a topic she touched on during Kavanaugh's Senate hearing, and her parents' divorce. She said all USA homes should be connected to the Internet by 2022, endorsed universal health care, and said all people should need a background check before buying a gun.


Great tool for the arsenal. Thanks Mark for the review. Had to share it the rebornpipes readers.
I use grout whitener to refresh the letter or logo on a vulcanite stem. My procedure is to get the oxidation off the stem and return it to jet black. The grooves of the stamping must be cleaned out under magnification using dental picks and probes. The job usually involves deepening the recesses with the same tools. Shake the pen for 2 minutes and apply a small amount over the area. After setting up for a minute I use a toothpick to roll across the area and soaking up the excess liquid, leaving the grooves filled. After hardening awhile, i can buff it with carnuba wax to protect and seal the work. I prefer the Miracle grout pen over the Rustoleum brand. I find the Rustoleum is too watery.
This entry was posted in Pipe Refurbishing Essays on January 31, 2018 by rebornpipes.
An interesting alternative, thanks for the heads up.
How about liquid paper pens ? Acrylic paint does not do the job for me .


This year's Indiana State Fair will showcase a circus complete with acrobats, clowns and trapeze artists.
Indiana State Fair goers this year will be asked to "Step Right Up! To the Greatest 17 Days of Summer." Fair organizers revealed the theme for this year's event Wednesday.
State Fair spokeswoman Sharon Smith says Indiana has a rich Circus heritage.
The fair will showcase a world-class circus complete with acrobats, clowns and trapeze artists.
The Big Top Circus has been programmed specifically for the Indiana State Fair and features world-class performers such as Bello Nock. Often known simply as "Bello," he is referred to as the "World's Greatest Comic Daredevil" and has been featured in the Guinness Book of World Records for a high wire walk over a cruise ship.
The Indiana State Fair opens Aug. 3 and runs until Aug 19.


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text:
Rugby in Bangladesh gaining Popularity
February 17, 2022 February 3, 2022 by CINEBUZZTIMES DESK
SHEIKH IRAJ
Many sports in Bangladesh do not get the recognition they deserve because of the massive popularity of cricket and football. The sport of rugby is relatively new in our country, and many don't even know about the existence of the Bangladesh Rugby Federation (Union).
That been said, rugby has been played in the subcontinent for over 150 years. In Sri Lanka, rugby is the second most popular sport, and numerous tournaments are hosted throughout the year. According to Wikipedia, in neighbouring India during the British period, the first recorded rugby match was played on Christmas Day 1872, at the Calcutta Football Club (CFC) in Calcutta (now Kolkata), between England a combined team of Scotland, Ireland and Wales. The match drew a huge crowd.
In Bangladesh, rugby first gained official recognition in 2006, although introducing this sport here was conceived in 1988. Mousum Ali, general secretary of the Bangladesh Rugby Federation (Union), who was associated with a handball, first saw a rugby ball in his uncle's house.
He started reading different magazines which featured the sport. Finally, with time and cooperation from like-minded sports lovers, in 2006, the official recognition came. Today it has been eight years, and in Bangladesh, rugby is slowly becoming popular.
On 11th of October 2006, the first rugby association in Bangladesh was formed. In December that year, the first Rugby training camp took place in Dhaka's Government Physical Education College. 104 boys and 24 girls participated in the camp.
Bangladesh rugby has seen its hard days, as in the beginning, it was tough to find a coach. The first coach was a Japanese rugger staying in Dhaka at the time. However, the scenario has changed today, and Bangladesh Rugby Federation has 25 coaches.
General secretary of Bangladesh Rugby Federation (Union) Mousum Ali claimed that trendy rugby sport in the world, second only to soccer. "Look at the number of countries that play the sport. So we don't want any big sponsorship. All we need is more fields and balls to organise more competitions.
We have come a long way since the humble beginning in 2006, but now it's time to expand this sport throughout the country. We have observed a growing interest among the youth in the sport. We will not brag about how much we have achieved in such a short time. Instead, we can say that we are now focusing on the future of this sport in our country.
In the beginning, there were many criticisms, and it was said not many people would attend rugby matches. Still, to their surprise, every organised event was full of enthusiastic fans. Therefore, I believe in 10 to 15 years, Bangladesh will be able to reach a respectable position in the rugby world."
The national championship and eight other tournaments are held in Bangladesh every year. Despite the Covid19 pandemic, Rugby Federation made sure their players could train and organise different games in different important national observances.
In the early days of rugby in Bangladesh, only boys participated in all the tournaments, and girls only participated in the training sessions. This year, a women's rugby tournament was organised on Victory Day for the first time. Four women's teams comprising of 50 players participated in the game. The teams were from Dhaka Commerce College, Kabi Nazrul College, Central Women's College and Flame Rugby Club.
Bangladesh became a member of The Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) in 2014. Today 15 schools and colleges participate in rugby tournaments organised by Bangladesh Rugby Federation (Union). Dhaka rugby is gaining popularity in districts like Chittagong, Narail, Bagerhat, Faridpur and Rangpur.
Joint secretary of Bangladesh Rugby Federation (Union) Sayeed Ahmed said: "Rugby for All" was our slogan in 2015. Right now, we are preparing to take part in international tournaments. We have sufficient funds; all we need is more fields and balls. Several clubs like Victoria Sporting Club, Azad Sporting Club, etc., are forming rugby teams. And we are hopeful that very shortly, clubs like Mohammedan Sporting Club, Abahani Limited and Sheikh Russel KC will form their rugby teams. I am a sports teacher in St. Gregory's High School, and I always try to motivate my students to play rugby."
Although it's an 80-minute sport, our players are not fit enough to play the entire duration right now. Keeping that in mind, two halves of 20 minutes each are usually the duration of the matches. But when participating abroad, our boys will take part in full 80-minute games.
The rugby ball is something that Bangladesh Rugby Federation (Union) desperately wants more, as they have plans to give the balls to the interested schools. The rugby ball can be made here, but the quality is not that good, and the price is too high.
For safety, some ruggers wear leather caps, and when our national team is formed, our players will wear them. In a rugby union match, usually, each team has 15 players on the field and seven substitutes. Players are divided into eight forwards (two more than in rugby league) and seven backs. 7-a- side and 10-a-side are the most preferred versions in our country.
Rugby is indeed is a sport of stamina and skills, and we can't expect to become highly efficient overnight. Rather like all other sports, it will take time to build up the player's strengths and proficiency. Nowadays, the players who play the sport in Bangladesh regularly work out and has a diet plan. Rugby is an intense contact sport, and physical injuries can occur frequently.
To ensure that players receive medical treatment on and off the ground, Monowara Hospital has come forward. It sponsors competitions organised by the Federation and provides free medical treatment to the players.
Achievements of Bangladesh Rugby Federation
Bangladesh Rugby has completed 248 activities within 365 days of 2021. Yes, you heard it right! Let's have a glimpse of it. 21 of 7s Tournament, 2 of 15s tournaments, 3 of Sand Rugby, Beach Rugby, 32 of Grassroots Level and Rugby Festival which is 5s & 7s out of 69. They also organised mask distribution programmes in 30 different Regions. They have 131 Grass-root Level Rugby Training, 4 of Match Official & Coach Refreshers Course. Totalling 248 activities have been the most' Dynamic Year' for Bangladesh Rugby in Its 17 years golden history.
Female participation has increased by 30%. BRFU successfully made a Medical Team, Media Team, improved Tournament. Bangladesh Rugby arranged some tournaments such as Bangladesh Games 2020, Sheikh Kamal Rugby 7s Tournament in 5 districts, 1st 15a side Women Rugby Tournament, Sheikh Rasel Pothokoli 5a side tournament participated by basic rights deprived children's, Brother Ronald Memorial Rugby 7s Tournament participated by rehab centre patients, Victory Day Rugby 7s festival etc.
The contribution behind all this success was from our General Secretary, Mr. Mousum Ali, Joint Secretary, Mr. Sayeed Ahmed and Bangladesh Rugby Development Team's tireless hard work and Federation's appreciative decision of using Young Talent, Bangladesh Rugby appointed New CEO Nazmus Sakib from 2021 who is a Level 2 World Rugby Coach and previously worked as a
Rugby Development Manager for a couple of years and the 23 years old Youngest CEO in Asia Rugby history.
Inclusion of Rugby in the Board of Education was another massive success for Bangladesh Rugby. It will enable them to include 2500 schools with rugby every year by arranging tournaments and T&E program by the Government. Moreover, to strengthen the Clubs, Bangladesh Rugby innovated the idea of the District Club. Also, Bangladesh Rugby completed 40 districts out of 64 in spreading out rugby, with Rugby Development Members becoming 100 from 25 at the end. And it's where they have got 60 volunteer coaches.
Azmira Akter, Match Official of Bangladesh Rugby, became Asia Rugby Top 15 Unstoppable and Nazmus Sakib got selected as one of the Members of Asia Rugby Development Committee, which was also an excellent achievement for Bangladesh Rugby. Kabita Roy, from Rangpur, became World Rugby Youth Unstoppable in 2021.
She's 17 years old and is a Rugby Player of the Bangladesh National Women's Team. World Rugby will feature her Rugby Journey on social media, and she'll attend Women Rugby World Cup 2022 in Newzeland as Bangladesh Rugby Ambassador.
This is excellent news for Bangladesh Rugby as only 2 Women from all across Asia were selected as World Rugby Youth Unstoppable. That's how Bangladesh Rugby has made 2021 a remarkable year to remember by making 55 thousand male players, 22 thousand and 345 female players, 3 World Rugby Level-2 Coaches, 1 World Rugby educator, 530 registered coaches, 262 registered match officials involving 1 million audiences with massive activities and participation so far.
Barriers to Quality Education in Bangladesh
Sajek travels in search of clouds


text:
Bailey Boswell murder trial starts Wednesday in Lexington | #tinder | #pof | romancescams | #scams
LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – Jury selection will start Wednesday for the trial of Bailey Boswell. The 26-year-old is facing first-degree murder charges in the death of Sydney Loofe.
The trial is taking place in Lexington, 170 miles away from the home in Wilber where prosecutors said Loofe was strangled and dismembered.
Boswell's attorney, requested the change of venue because he said the case was too high profile to get a fair trial in Wilber.
Boswell is accused of being involved in the 2017 murder of 24-year-old Sydney Loofe, along with co-conspirator Aubrey Trail, who was found guilty of first-degree murder in the case last year.
Loofe's story starts with a missing person report in November 2017.
Lincoln Police Chief Jeff Bliemeister said the circumstances around her disappearance were "concerning.'
Investigators learned Loofe's last night was spent on a date with Boswell, who she had met on Tinder. She wasn't seen or heard from again. Her phone last pinging a cell phone tower in Wilber, where Trail and Boswell lived in a basement apartment.
Trail and Boswell were identified as persons of interest early on, though it took several days for police to track them down in a hotel room in Branson, Missouri. While the pair were on the run, they posted videos on Facebook claiming they had nothing to do with Loofe's disappearance.
Boswell specifically said she met Loofe on Tinder and they went on two dates which consisted of driving around and smoking marijuana. She said she dropped Loofe at a friend's house after their second date and never heard from her again.
"I just want the family to know I'm sorry but I didn't have anything to do with this," Boswell said in the video. "I hope Sydney is found really soon, she's a sweet amazing girl."
Loofe's body was found three weeks after she was reported missing. It was cut into 14 pieces and put in plastic bags that were abandoned in a field in Clay County.
Trail went to trial for the murder in June of 2019. In his trial, witnesses and early statements made by Trail spoke of a "sex cult" ran by Trail and Boswell. He also talked about witch craft and said at one point he was a vampire who could fly.
At one point, Trail had a violent outburst in which he tried to harm himself. He yelled "Bailey is innocent, curse you all," and sliced his throat three times with an apparent razor blade.
Trail recovered from his injuries, but didn't return to the courtroom until he took the stand himself. This is when he claimed Loofe's death was an accident. He said he and Loofe were engaged in a sexual act and he was chocking her with an extension cord.
"I don't know if Sydney had a seizure or what but that's when she stopped breathing," Trail said in his testimony.
When asked why he didn't call for help, Trail said he didn't think anybody would believe him.
Trail was found guilty of killing Loofe after three hours of deliberation.
Sentencing hasn't happened yet, but he could face the death penalty. Boswell could also face the death penalty if found guilty.
10/11 NOW will have a reporter in Lexington for the duration of the trial, follow our coverage for daily updates.
Copyright 2020 KOLN. All rights reserved.


F.L. Wright often paraphrased Lu Tse " the reality of the house consists not of the roof an walls but of the spaces to be lived within". His interiors and his architecture where synonymous. In the best of his work the interiors flowed seamlessly with the landscape, becoming "organic architecture". He recommended that a house be of the hill not on the hill. Wright took Lu Tse one step further down the path to perfection. Within his greatest spaces one becomes part of the scenery a harmonious integration of man in his natural and made environment.


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text:
Q: Create facebook App with old facebook API I have some problem with the Facebook API 2.4.
By default FB creates new app with the 2.4 version.
Is there a way to create an app using the API 2.3?
I just need a time to fix my sw for new version.
Thank you

A: No, a new App will only be able to use the latest/current API version, you can´t switch to an older one. If you really need to use something that is deprecated, you will have to use an App created before v2.4 was introduced.

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