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Ugh–super busy today, so how about checking out another person with amazing artwork on Flickr?
This piece is based on the phrase “Big fleas have little fleas/ Upon their backs to bite ‘em,/ And little fleas have lesser fleas,/ And so ad infinitum. “
You can find more of her work at her blog.
Also, someone sent this to me…and I forgot who. But consider yourself thanked!
A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire.
Amy Butler Greenfield. HarperCollins, 2005.
Bug Rating:
I was really excited to find this book in my library, since I’ve written quite a bit about cochineal and it’s modern use as a food coloring. The insect itself has a fascinating and complex history, and that’s exactly what this book covers.
(A brief review: cochineal is a red dye produced from an insect about the size of a lentil (Dactylopius coccus), that spends her life sucking the juice of prickly pear. When squished, a bright intense red results.)
In addition to Elizabethan cloak and dagger intrigue, we also get empire, genocide, and alchemy in the search for riches in the New World. This is a book for artists, history buffs, and bug lovers alike.
Red dye was very difficult to come by in Europe before the 1500′s. Red dyes were made from Madder (a plant root), which wasn’t really very red, or from Oak-Kermes scale insects. Kermes scales did make a nice rich red, but were a pain to harvest, as was St. John’s Blood, another scale insect. This made red dyes rare, expensive, and a sign of royalty and wealth.
When Spain invaded what is now Mexico and other areas of South America in the 1500s, they were dazzled by the local fiery red fabrics. It was the little cochineal insect, that had been carefully bred for centuries by indigenous people of Central and South America, that was responsible.
Unfortunately, Spaniards killed and looted first, and asked questions later–so for some time the mystery of cochineal production was almost lost. Eventually they sorted it out, and created a craze in Europe with the rich intense red dyes. Spain guarded the secret of the dye very jealously–and all sorts of trans-global espionage resulted with the Dutch, French, and English trying to figure out first just what the heck cochineal was (animal? vegetable? mineral?), and how to produce it.
One of the details I loved about this book is finding out so many things that I recognize are indirectly tied in some way to cochineal and its European invasion. I love random factoids.
I could go on listing cool little tidbits, but I don’t want to make this too long. It’s a long, complex, and fascinating story, and my only quibble is that it left me wanting to know more. That’s probably a good thing.
I really wish the author would return to this subject and pick the story up at the end, where the cheap availability of red dyed clothing led to the decline of red as a preferred color. Once everyone could afford bright colors, of course it became vulgar. The discussion in the last chapter of red as the color of “other”–non-white, or a class symbol–was really fascinating, and I think there’s a whole other book there.
It won’t keep you up late, but it’s a fascinating read, and I can guarantee you will learn something you didn’t know.
Item #1: Detroit has a 22% unemployment rate. (click the link for a nice NPR audio story).
Damn. Just…Damn. Michigan as a whole has a 12% unemployment rate, and it goes up even higher if you count people who have stopped looking for work.
Item #2: Texas is up to more creationist shenanigans. Sigh.
Item #3: Michelle Bachmann. Oh, no more big scary socialism–now we’ve gone back to calling people communists:
“We are headed down the lane of economic Marxism,” said Bachmann.” (YAD wins on the coverage with best contextual use of “teabagging” in a political commentary.)
Item #4: Alan Keyes is runner up to Michelle, for…well, this, among other things:
“Obama has moved with impetuous determination to prove his claim to the mantle of High Priest of the Worldwide Abortion cult.”
WTFs that are amusing: A new kind of West Side Story Rumble and Dr. Boli explains the shocking truth behind training bees to visit flowers.
Ok, back to bugs tomorrow. Just wanted to point out the Detroit story, which is very well done, and thought I’d throw in a little extra WTF for good measure.
No. Really. From the Washington Post:
“The Hair Whisperer is a nice name for an unappetizing – but booming – business. Ms. Goldreyer, who lives in Brentwood, Calif., is a lice-removal expert. Parents hire her (and now her staff of a dozen) to make house calls, meticulously check through children’s hair and, if lice are found, treat them with nontoxic products.”
There are additional companies called the Texas Lice Squad and the Hair Fairies. The Lice Squad charges $230 per treatment, BTW.
You also can find ads for additional lice whisperers at Craig’s list. Apparently lice are a recession-proof, growth industry. And, for those who have the cash, it’s much simpler to have someone else do the work for you!
Interestingly, a new paper came out this week that evaluates the effectiveness of screening for lice:
“Visual inspection underestimated the true prevalence of active infestation by a factor of 3.5,” the authors write. Wet combing had a significantly higher sensitivity for detecting active infestations, correctly identifying them in 90.5 percent of the children (vs. 28.6 percent for visual inspections).”
Here’s the actual peer-reviewed paper: Accuracy of Diagnosis of Pediculosis Capitis: Visual Inspection vs Wet Combing. Claudia Jahnke, et al. Arch Dermatol. 2009;145(3):309-313.
It was a nicely done partly blind study with 5 elementary schools. It also suggests that the “salon” approach to lice combing may be on the right track!
One thing does trouble me, though–not a single one of the 3 websites I’ve listed here has a kid of color on the site. Do they know how to deal with “special” hair? Or is that just a reflection of a model that means that only rich (white) kids get the best treatment?
Yay! Now in addition to spring peepers and chorus frogs, we have wood frogs.
Wood frogs always crack me up, since they sound sort of like they are cussing (Click to listen).
A nifty fact about wood frogs: they can tolerate being frozen:
“As the temperature drops below freezing each winter, the wood frog drifts into a deep hibernation, its breathing and heartbeat grind to a halt, and as much as 65% of the water in its body gradually crystallizes into ice.”
If you click around on that site, you can find additional nifty info, like MRI images of a frog actually in the process of freezing solid.
I guess we know what the males are cussing about now!
[Photo from gwarcita]
If you haven’t noticed it on Flickr yet, 
GunnerGirl has been doing a beautiful “beetle a day” series of sketches.
You can see her entire series here, and it’s amazing. I don’t know how she gets these colors just right.
So, go browse and amuse yourself, and hopefully I’ll be back tomorrow.
So, the Amityville Horror was a bad book, a crappy movie, and all around bullshit.
But…some days at the Bug House, I can totally relate to the scene with the flies (video here; start at 3.00).
When we go out to get our mail right now, there are hundreds of cluster flies all over the front steps and yard. They create a low droning hum and swarm all around as you walk. 
And it is very creepy.
Supposedly, the Amityville house was plagued by swarms of flies despite the winter weather (December/January). What that tells me is that they had Cluster Flies. These flies get their name from their habit of clustering in attics or near windows. (Sound familiar, Amity fans?)
The Amityville house had been previously unoccupied for over a year. When the Lutz family moved in and turned the heat on, conditions were perfect to trigger a massive cluster fly emergence.
Cluster flies find shelter from the winter by crawling under your siding or in foundation cracks. When you turn on the heat that warms the flies up, and they find a way inside via electrical outlets, baseboards, or door.
No satanic mystery for the sudden fly emergence at all. In fact, the flies might be the only real part of the Amityville story.
Oh, and if you want to asplode your head, read this Yahoo Answers page discussing “are flies linked to paranormal activity?” URG.
So, back to the Bug House and our massive clusterfuck fly problem.
OMGWTFGHOSTS? Um, no. Worms, actually.
Although they are blowfly relatives, cluster flies are not carrion flies, but a type of fly parasitic on earthworms. They are harmless, and do not carry any human diseases. They are, however, annoying as hell, and poop all over everything as well.
While I normally just vacuum them up, this year I might have to do something. I don’t want to scare potential home buyers away with a giant roaring wall of (harmless) flies. I really don’t want to spray for something so cosmetic, though. Sigh.
(thanks to bugguide.net for the image!)
is there really anything else that must be said? 
Waggle of the antennae to Giroofasaurus-vexed for finding this! Apparently it’s a photoshop job, and not a real backpack. But if I’m wrong about that, please let me know!
EDITED TO ADD:
Hey, apparently this is possibly related to Dr. Who. However, it is my professional entomological opinion that this is not the Time Beetle, but a different species. Neener.
Check out this nifty film of painted lady emergence from pupae:
It’s particularly interesting to see these color changes as the butterflies develop–and then they suddenly turn a milky color. What’s happening?
In preparation for shedding a skin, an insect secretes moulting fluid. This liquid separates the old skin from the new one underneath it–and eventually partially dissolves the cuticle. This changes the color and opacity of the skin.
Lots of other nifty time-lapses at that channel–These swallowtails are fascinating to watch as they wriggle out of their larval skins like an old sock, and a silkmoth spins a cocoon.
For amazing shiny beauty, you must watch this lifecycle of purple hairstreaks.
Oh, were you trying to get work done? Sorry about that.
Here’s the update on the bread–with photos!
The JTB bread turned out pretty good, although it (as usual) tends to rise in the middle to form a dome-shaped loaf, no matter what type of pan it goes into.
I also made Banana Chocolate Chirpy Bread–basically a banana bread mix with cricket flour and chocolate chips in it. That was also a pretty big hit.
Both of these are stealth entomophagy–while the odd head capsule may escape conversion into flour, or leg poke out of a slice, for the most part, you can’t see the insects. It’s where most people start.
What was really surprising is how many people liked the foods I brought that didn’t try to hide the bugs.
The pesto cricket canapés went over very well! I froze a lot of pesto last summer, and had about half a jar left over from earlier this week. I threw some crickets in, put it on bagel bites, and they were eagerly gobbled up.
I also fried up waxworms in garlic butter, and those were very popular as well. (Served on a Triscut for a nice crunch).
Waxworms are kind of like insect tofu–they take on whatever flavor you cook them with. And pretty much anything fried in garlic butter is yummy 
So, the usual results–I always say I’ll never do bug food again, since it is a huge hassle to cook for 50+ people, but I have so much fun I get suckered into doing it again. We also had wonderful conversations about what is “normal” and food-animal conversion efficiency, so the basic message definitely got through!
Eating insects is ecologically efficient, and culturally the norm in most of the world.
Read more about Entomophagy (Insects as food)
