Bug o’the Week – Bugs in the News IV

Salutations, BugFans,

Ever since the BugLady started her “Bugs in the News” sub-series, alert BugFans have been sending links to articles they’ve come across.  Thanks, BugFans!  Alas, to view a few of these, you have to wade through some ad content.

In Nature, the color blue can be a bit problematic – it tends to be produced by “nanophysics” rather than by pigments.  See https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2014/11/12/347736896/how-animals-hacked-the-rainbow-and-got-stumped-on-blue for an explanation of that.

Then, try this article about a dragonfly with blue wings: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/blue-wings-dragonfly-may-be-surprisingly-alive.

And this one about a blue and white moth that isn’t extinct after all: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/found-bee-mimicking-moth-heterosphecia-tawonoides?utm_content=buffer925f7&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer.

And something for dinosaur fans: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/12/tick-dinosaur-feather-found-in-amber-blood-parastites-science/?utm_source=NatGeocom&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=wildscience_20171120&utm_campaign=Content&utm_rd=2030610309.

And a Road Trip!  https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/up-close-only-millipede-lab-united-states-entomology-appalachians

And another example of the impossibly intricate lives of ants: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/02/matabele-ants-rescue-heal-injured-soldiers/, and a little more about that: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02/14/585773906/watch-ants-act-as-medics-treat-wounds-of-injured-nest-mates (the BugLady has no idea what’s going on in the ant photos she attached – ants were crawling on a recently-fallen tree that they apparently occupied part of)

And Bombardier Beetles, owners of the ultimate predator repellant, amaze us again (there’s an ad first, and a bit of clicking required).  The BugLady is no herpetologist, but let’s call a toad, a toad https://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/180206-bombardier-beetles-boiling-anal-chemicals-frogs-vomit-vin-spd?utm_source=NatGeocom&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=WatchThis_20180216&utm_campaign=Ngdotcom&utm_rd=2030610309.

And a mini-spider: https://www.nytimes.com/video/science/100000005768876/pelican-spiders-ancient-assassins-that-eat-their-own-kind.html?smid=fb-share.

And, conspiracy theorists – when you hear that buzz, you never know: https://www.popsci.com/article/technology/rise-insect-drones or https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171214141923.htm

And, if you’re interested in other things with wings, try this (after yet another ad), mostly in the daylight: http://rowe.audubon.org/birds/crane-cam (you may have to hit Reload).

All together now – Ain’t Nature Grand!

Kate Redmond, The BugLady