It’s St. Urho’s Day!

Mid March! A time when the US turns its attention to an important event–a type of March Madness, if you will. People stock up on food, buy special t-shirts, and drink alcoholic libations in mass quantities.  It’s….

St. Urho’s Day: March 16th.

St. Urho (pronounced “oorho”) is a completely made-up saint. Essentially, Finnish Minnesotans were sick of green beer and Irish hoopla in March, and decided they needed their own holiday on March 16th:

“The legend says St. Urho chased the grasshoppers out of ancient Finland, thus saving the grape crop and the jobs of Finnish vineyard workers. He did this by uttering the phrase: “Heinäsirkka, heinäsirkka, mene täältä hiiteen” (roughly translated: “Grasshopper, grasshopper, go to Hell!”). His feast is celebrated by wearing the colors Royal Purple and Nile Green. St. Urho is nearly always represented with grapes and grasshoppers as part of the picture…..

Today, the St. Urho tradition is carried on in many Finnish communities, sometimes as an excuse to add an extra day of rowdy celebration to the St. Patrick’s Day festivities. In many Finnish-American communities, however, St. Urho’s Day is the celebration, and St. Pat’s feast day is merely an afterthought, a day to sleep off the hangover.”

Urho’s victory over grasshoppers is celebrated by this statue in Menahga, MN. A very amazing chainsaw sculpture!

Support  this champion of biological control by drinking some purple wine or purple beer (Ew!) March 16th, in honor of St. Urho’s entomological feat.

Related post:

• Beekeeping Patron Saints
• Patron Saint of Spiders

Eating Fulgorids in Madagascar

A fun video about eating insects in Madagascar!

(I have to say, I’m with him on the eel. I’ve never liked them the few times I’ve had them.  They taste like they look–slimy.)

Here’s more info on what they were eating from the book Human Use of Insects as a Food Resource:

Fulgoridae (planthoppers)
Pyrops madagascariensis (= tenebrosa Fabr.)

Pyrops tenebrosa Fabr., known as sakondry, is presently eaten, fried, in the northern part of the island (DeCary 1937).  Gade (1985) reports that the sakandry (P. madagascariensis) is a “preferred comestible.”  It feeds on lima bean and related plants, and, dried, is much appreciated, especially in the Majunga region.

These insects are relatives of the lanternfly (which aren’t true flies, nor do they light up, just to add to the confusion).  Fulgorids are almost as cute as Membracids, and are one of my favorite insect groups. I had no idea they were tasty, too!

Thanks so much to K. Edwards for finding that reference for me!

Your Planet is Experiencing Technical Difficulties. Please Stand By.

I have been laying low lately, since it seems like the handbasket has arrived and we’re all being whisked off to…well.  You Know.

Japan has been devastated by an earthquake, Tsunami, Nuclear Disaster 1-2 (3?) punch.

A shitstorm of victim blaming has erupted around the gang rape of an 11-year old in Texas.

Unions are busted, and Michigan experiences a silent power grab by the Governor, who will soon be able to dismiss elected officials at will.

It’s all just too depressing, and the best I can do is offer some cuteness.

How do you cheer yourself up?

EDITED TO ADD: Some good news–Maru and his people are ok.

Circus of the Spineless #60!

It’s the first Monday of March! Spring is in the air!
In fact, 2 weeks from now is the official end of winter and beginning of Spring.  (For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, anyway.)

And….well. We all know what spring is about.

SEX.

Sex is a common obsession with biologists. In fact, there is a Flickr Group called Insect Porn.

There is nothing wrong with that, of course. Whatever 2 (or more) consenting adult insects choose to do together is completely healthy and natural. So, on to this month’s emissions. Uh, submissions.

Sleeping with the Fishes covers Deep Sex! I mean, Deep Sea Sex. By krill.  Shameless little buggers!  (Here’s the video. You know you want to watch it.)

Kevin covers barnacle sex and Mr. Darwin.  Including a link to Isabella Rosselini’s educational film on barnacle reproduction.

Wandering Weta blogs about Behind the Red Door.   All about tubeworms.  Which are not like trouser snakes. Really.

Sadly, it appears that the Johnson’s Tiger Beetle isn’t getting any in Missouri. Which may be why the population appears to be extirpated, according to Beetles in the Bush.  (I would like to point out that I have shown great restraint in not making even worse sexual innuendo out of “Johnson” and “Bush.”)

Since we’re talking about tiger beetles, I want to bring this project to your attention–it’s a Kickstarter project about one of the rarest insects in the US–the Salt Creek Tiger Beetle.  (Kickstarter is a way for filmmakers and artists to raise cash online.)  He only needs about $1500 more to fund his project, so consider tossing him some cash. He promises not to spend it on hookers and blow like some Hollywood types.

Deep Sea News covers the Release of the Daphnia Genome. These adorable little crustaceans often don’t bother with sexual reproduction. You could say the Sisters are Doin’ it for Themselves.

And, of course, there is always the inevitable result of sex–offspring.  Dragonfly Woman has some awesome photos of giant water bug eggs! Some of these are the result of electron microscopy–extreme closeup!

Photos!

Ok, there is a limit to my ribaldry.   Or, at least a limit on a school night!

10,000 Birds has a series of great photos of Dragonflies, as does Wild Sri Lanka‘s post on  dragonflies.

Slugyard has a nice photo of a Dance Fly, and Real Monstrosities covers Hydras!

This post was not submitted, but I include it because it has photos of Membracids! Squee!! Adorable.

Composing this month’s CoS was exhausting.  So, how about some Napping Ants?! But…they’re supposed to be workaholics! Wild about Ants explains.

Next month’s Circus will be hosted at NeuroDojo. You can find his email here.  It remains to be seen if I will ever be allowed to host a Circus of the Spineless again, after working blue on this one.

Spiders give Mazda the Sac

Sometimes, life is better than I can imagine.  Insecty news has been dominated by this story the last couple of days:

Mazda recalls 65,000 cars for spider problem
A spokesman from Mazda said that yellow sac spiders (Cheiracanthium)  built small webs in the crucial vent lines. If those vent lines were to get fully blocked by webbing, the car’s fuel tank could conceivably build up enough pressure to crack and leak fuel….
Mazda identified the culprit as the yellow sac spider, or Cheiracanthium inclusum. The pale, mildly venomous creatures lay their eggs in silk-wrapped bunches — usually in vegetation.   But why they’re choosing Mazdas instead of, say, Porsche Spyders, is a mystery. As is the fact that only the 4-cylinder Mazda6 cars are playing host.

There are a lot of really interesting clues in these stories about just WHY a specific type of spider would take up residence in a fuel vent line. I found the official recall notice, but it was rather spare of specifics.   But don’t despair! Click and Clack at Car Talk have the scoop:

Beverly Braga, Product Communications Specialist for Mazda, assured me that yes, there have been 26 confirmed cases in which the webs of yellow sac spider have caused problems by blocking the evaporative canister vent line of certain 2.5-liter four cylinder vehicles.  Allen Dean, a research assistant at the Texas A&M University Department of Entomology, says it’s curious that this particular spider would be the culprit because they aren’t known for their large webs, unlike orb or tunnel web species. Ms. Braga confirms that no one seems to know why yellow sac spiders are attracted to the car or how they find their way into the fuel system. No fires, accidents, or injuries have been connected to this problem, but company engineers thought 20+ cases was too many to be a coincidence so Mazda is taking a proactive approach.

To say a bit more about the spiders involved–Sac spiders normally occur in your garden, and are relatively harmless, although they do have an irritating bite.  The term “sac spider” does NOT mean they spin webs in scrotums, which was the alarmed conclusion of one person I talked to.

Although, spider webbing probably would be pretty supportive and wick well….UnderArmor would have nothing on web underwear!

Wait. I digress.
Anyway.

Sac Spiders spin tubular webs, an example of which you can see in this image.  It’s kind of a sleeping bag affair, in which the spiders hide in the daytime.  These spiders are photographed on a blade of grass, so that should give you a sense of scale–they are tiny fellows, usually not bigger than 6mm.

The spiders come out and forage at night, so you can kind of see why a vehicle up off the ground would make a nice daytime retreat for an active hunting spider.

I like to imagine them snug in the fuel vent line, saying in a tiny, tiny voice: “Zoom Zoom this, sucka!”