by Kate Redmond
Closed for June II Bugs! Love ‘em or – well — love ‘em
Howdy, BugFans,
Here’s a pot pourri of articles about insects for your enjoyment.
Bug Love: the BugLady is aware that some BugFans read Bug o’the Week selectively, skipping episodes like the one about the Cockroach (you know who you are). Why? Because, among other reasons, certain bugs give us the heebie-jeebies. https://www.npr.org/2017/03/26/520250032/to-put-you-at-ease-with-creepy-crawlies-entomologists-face-your-fears?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20191031&utm_campaign=best-of-npr&utm_id=2548916&orgid=675
Crowded skies: we know that birds and bats and some charismatic insect megafauna like Monarch butterflies and Common Green Darner dragonflies migrate. So do some of the little guys, and in Biblical numbers. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/12/22/506581610/bugs-abound-if-you-think-the-skies-are-crowded-you-have-no-idea
How long have people been enthralled by insects? Probably since they started slapping them and scratching the bites and discovering that they occupied the same caves. For fellow History Geeks, a timeline of entomology – (be sure to click on the picture by van Kessel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_entomology_%E2%80%93_prior_to_1800.
This week, June 19th to 25th is National Pollinator Week. Bumble bees are the main pollinators of red clover (an important livestock food) because the nectar prize is deep in the floral tubes, and some species of long-tongued bumble bees have tongues long enough to reach it. Here’s a guide to native pollinators: https://www.pollinator.org/pollinator.org/assets/generalFiles/3002022284_Bee-Identification-Guide.pdf.
Kate Redmond, The BugLady
Bug of the Week archives:
http://uwm.edu/field-station/category/bug-of-the-week/