Historic Tweets

Alas, life remains crazed, so how about I send you elsewhere for amusement today?
Historical Tweets!

This is their Darwin tweet.

Several other people are in the historic twittering business; this one entertained me quite a bit.

Get involved in Year of Science 09

From AIBS, promoting some Year of Science Stuff for students:

Name a species: During the first 10 days of June, students will have the opportunity to name a new species of jellyfish! This is a great way for students to learn more about how species are named, become familiar with a jellyfish, and participate in science.

Combine art and science: Tell an entire science story in art and text on a single 8½ x 11 sheet of paper folded to make a mini-magaZine and win one of 36 prizes.

If you haven’t visited the YoS website, you are missing a lot of great resources for teachers and students!

Also, predictably, Stephen Colbert wants the Jellyfish named after him.

YouTube Entomology Contest!

The Entomological Society of America has announced a video contest!

Members may submit entries of no more than two minutes in four different categories:

• Discovery (research-based)
• Instruction (teaching-based)
• Outreach (extension-based)
• Open category (anything goes, for the uber-creative entomologist)

All entries will be displayed on the ESA YouTube Channel, which will be accessible from the ESA website, and the winning entries will be shown at the Opening Session of the ESA Annual Meeting on Sunday, December 13, 2009, in Indianapolis.

I am hoping that they don’t actually limit it to active ESA members.

I did a bit of searching, and can’t seem to find an ESA YouTube account or Channel. I did accidentally find this video of an insect that smears itself with plant resin, which was pretty nifty.  Anyone know where the ESA channel is?

Circus of the Spineless #39

I’m not sure how I managed to not host CoS before today, but I didn’t! CoS is a migratory blog carnival that specializes in all things spineless, because those are the IMPORTANT animals. Neener to all you vertebrates.

Bivalvia (Mollusca)

Nature Geek Northwest gives us a charming story of finding Geoducks and razor clams with her kids.  I, of course, will bring us down to Beavis and Butthead-level by pointing out that if you’ve never seen a geoduck, you really need to watch this video of Mike Roe of Dirty Jobs learning about how to harvest them.

Insecta

Alex at Myrmecos provides a Guide to Insect Field Guides! Very helpful and timely, as “What’s that bug?” season is upon us.  Annotated Budak also has some lovely photos of assorted insects he encountered on a walk near Singapore.

Coleoptera

DC Birding Blog has shots of a lovely blister beetle he discovered on the beach.  (Unlike me, he takes the high road and does not mention the historic link between blister beetles and spanish fly).  Beetles in the Bush discusses some new research using herbicides to save a dune tiger beetle.  In other words, by using herbicide to push back invasive plants that are changing the beetles’ habitat.  And, as usual, photos of really shiny beetles!  BiB also discusses ARKive and the inclusion of an endangered pink tiger beetle.  Annotated Budak has an post with loads of lovely weevil photos.

Dermaptera

Oyster’s Garter has a new home at Slate’s girl blog, XX.  (While I have some issues with doublex, I love Miriam’s writing, and I hope this means she’s getting some $$ for her work!)  She discusses some new research that finds that whiny offspring are starved by earwig moms.

Hymenoptera

Birder’s Lounge discovers a little Braconid wasp that is parasitizing…something!….near her bird feeder. With Nifty video!  Anna’s Bee World covers leafcutting bees with lovely photos.

Diptera

PhotoSynthesis covers flies that mug ants.  Your crumbs or your life!

Odonata

Better late than never! Urban Dragon Hunters went to Nicaragua in March, and has many lovely shots of the dragons and damsels to be found there.

Lepidoptera

Doug of Gossamer Tapestry finds not one, but TWO endangered species on his trip to the dunes.

Homoptera/Auchenorrhyncha
Wandering Weeta finds some Aphid Mummies! (Also, no one please gripe at me over the use of Homoptera–that whole Hemipteran clade is a mess, and it seems the orders change monthly.)

Dictyoptera

On the heels of an NPR interview in which an entomologist claimed there were roaches in your coffee and chocolate….I answer the question “OMGBUGZINMAIFOODS?“

Arachnida

The Ranger’s Blog covers the media hysteria about the Giant Spiders That Attacked Australia (not). Tgaw has an amazing story of baby ticks hatching.

Crustacea

Marmokrebs discusses introduced crayfish species in two very different areas of the world–and how tasty they are.

Cnidaria

NeuroDojo discusses whether or not Jellyfish have brains.

Thus endeth the June issue of the Circus of the Spineless.
The next issue will be hosted on the first Monday in July by Cheshire. Go Bug Blogs!