This blog has moved.

Please update your bookmarks and feeds. This blog has moved to http://myrmecos.net/ . The new RSS feed is: http://myrmecos.net/feed/ If that URL looks familiar, it may be because myrmecos.net has always been my home on the web. I posted my first insect galleries there back in 2003, and the address remained my main site until [...]

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Friday Beetle Blogging: The Hollyhock Weevil

Rhopalapion longirostre – the Hollyhock Weevil Urbana, Illinois The hollyhock weevil is, I believe, the very first beetle in the family Brentidae we’ve featured as part of our Friday series. Rhopalapion longirostre is an introduced European insect that feeds on hollyhocks, a common summer-flowering ornamental that, like its beetle pest, is also introduced. Some neighbors [...]

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The Friday Beetle will be late…

…our beekeeping class is harvesting their hard-earned honey crop this morning and I won’t have time to beetle blog until this afternoon.

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Bed bugs reach an all-time high

According to Google Trends, that is: Insofar as internet search interest in particular insects reflects infestation levels, it seems summer 2010 is a banner year for our little cimicid friends. Peaks occur every summer as rising temperatures increase both the reproductive rate of the bugs and their motility. Incidentally, it’s a shame Gawker can’t seem [...]

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Answer to the Monday Night Mystery

What was that ornately sculptured mystery object? It was the egg of the Question Mark butterfly, Polygonia interrogationis. I admit, I had an advantage over you folks. I identified the species watching the adult butterfly before she laid that egg on an elm leaf. Although several of you put in solid guesses, I am awarding [...]

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Monday Night Mystery

Have the aliens landed? Or is tonight’s challenge something more…terrestrial? Ten Myrmecos Points (TM) for the first commentator who can give me the correct genus and species, with supporting explanation. The cumulative points winner for the month of July will win their choice of 1) an 8×10-sized print from my photo galleries, or 2) a [...]

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Sunday Night Movie: Song of the Jumping Spider

From the PBS series Nature: (as an aside, the narrator sounds suspiciously like the same guy who voiced this arachnid documentary classic)

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I study the wrong thing…

…according to Google Trends:

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Over at Beetles in the Bush…

…I’m guest-blogging a collecting trip in tropical Australia from a few years back.

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Friday Beetle Blogging: the Fiery Searcher

Calosoma scrutator, the fiery searcher Savoy, Illinois It’s a good thing Myrmecos isn’t a scratch-and-sniff blog. This beetle is a real stinker. Calosoma scrutator, the fiery searcher, measures about 3cm long and is among our largest native ground beetles. The spectacular metallic coloration serves to warn predators- and, apparently, photographers- of the noxious chemicals it [...]

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