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Haha hularac!!

Just got home, so it will be late tonight or tomorrow morning for the next picks.

I'm a very lucky person in that fleas and mosquitoes don't like me/my blood very much. It's only been this way since I had my son at 22, before that I was a typical victim. I've always eaten more than my share of garlic, even as a kid, so I don't think that's a factor. I cringe whenever I see bites my son and my husband get!

Flea allergies are actually incredibly common in both people AND pets. I worked in pet retail and for veterinarians for several years, and most pet allergies go undiagnosed as they don't tend to be severe enough for most owners to take their pets in. Symptoms are hot spots, hair loss, and constant discomfort. Cats often 'lose their pants' (lose hair on their back legs and rump), which can be confused with other ailments like hormone imbalances.

Anyway, thought I'd drop that tidbit, and hopefully tonight I'll get more picks up (I hope you have better luck this next round of picks, rcperryls!)

one more for 3/10

Today's picks are:

4. Odonata
17. Thysanoptera

Odonata, dragonflies and damselflies

There are almost 6,000 known species of these carnivorous insects. They are typically carnivorous during their nymph stage, where they live in aquatic environments eating anything they can catch for up to a matter of years. As adults, they don't live as long, and catch their food on the wing. Dragonflies in particular have enormous eyes, and great vision combined with fast, agile flight makes them excellent hunters.

Dragonflies and damselflies are different in several ways, but two stand out and are easy diagnostic characteristics: the wings of a dragonfly are fixed outward, like the wings of a plane and their eyes touch at some point on their head. Damselflies can functionally fold their wings back, but not flat, along their 'back', and their eyes don't touch (in fact, they often stick out on the sides of their heads, giving them an appearance similar to a hammerhead shark.

A cute damselfly:


Giant touching eyes...a dragonfly:


A damselfly with wings folded:


An incredible example of macrophotography! This is a fairly new technique (new in the sense of more accessible to the common man--the macrophotography equipment we have in the lab on campus has a price tag of well over $120,000, purchased around 10 years ago) that has become popular in the last few years with stunning digital technology:


Thysanoptera, the thrips.

Thrips are tiny insects with fringed wings (their Latin name means 'fringe-winged'). They're tiny, but can be a big pest, as they feed on a number of sources by piercing and sucking out juices. They can be plant pests, and they can help control pests...many are parasitic to wasps and other insects. Their tiny size (many less than 1mm in length) is advantageous for traveling long distances by wind. They can have exponential population explosions, forming massive clouds.

A thrip:


A thrip on someone's finger, for relative size:

Is it bad that I want to do a cross stitch of the dragonfly with dew drops?

Ketta wrote:Is it bad that I want to do a cross stitch of the dragonfly with dew drops?

not at all! Im considering charting it! its a beautiful picture

4/10 btw.

edit:
here is a mockup, 147 colors, 300 x421 stitches.

That came out fantastic...I think I'll dust off PCStitch and get cracking!

After Christmas though, I have to finish another project first... o.O

I was thinking I'd work out the background and stitch the dragonfly on black.

Wow 147 colors??
i like the little blur onr myself!!!

4/10 as well.

Wow isn't he a gorgeous rainbow - him and he would be fabulous stitched up but oh the confetti!!!

He and miss Damsel fly have give me another so now 5/10

Yay had both of those so now on 4/10

I too prefer the little blue damsel fly....he's just so cute and looks like he's posing for his picture....awwww

Finally I am in the game! 2/10 Both the beautiful dragonflies (often called mosquito hawks around here) and the teeny thrips. Never heard of those. The magnified pictures are gorgeous. I think the dragonfly eye is stunning with all its colors, but the one that would get my vote is the cute dameselfly. She really looks adorable (a bug???) peeking over that leaf.

Carole

Carole, I wish my original post on Blattodea had gone through... I attempted to make cockroaches a little less persecuted and a little more appealing (those that aren't pests, that is). However, I think the dragon/damselflies were a much greater success anyway, just about everyone has used a descriptive word along the lines of 'cuteness'! I do agree, the posing damselfly peeking over the leaf is darn cute.

I've always known 'mosquito hawks' as craneflies, those insects with extraordinarily long legs that end up near porch lights. I'll make sure to put up a shot of them if the order they're in gets drawn. Funny how common names shift depending on region or culture--but I guess this is why we have the Latin naming system!

Do mosquito hawks or "skeeter eaters" as my grandmother called them really kill mosquitos?

That dragonfly picture is stunning. It certainly would make an incredible cross stitch.

I have an astounding 2/10 now, Carole, if you take over my numbers you're going to be doubly depressed???mind you with people on 5 we might be finished by Monday!

Niki xxx

I'm up to a whopping 2/10 today! The pictures/info are amazing.

Am I the only one who get confused by the term macrophotography? Seems like it should be microphotography since it's pictures of small things. (I get why it's called macrophotography, but I still think it's not intuitive.)

I'm stuck on campus helping with an 'emergency bake sale rescue' (the bird club I'm in is raising money for a couple of great educational trips, and they didn't make near enough baked goods). I will post a set of 3 numbers tomorrow. I apologize for the missed day!

@maemae yes, some are predatory and do indeed eat smaller insects like mosquitoes. They are in the family with true flies (like your common house flies) and have excellent vision and fast reflex responses.

@verajane I was too, at first! Macrophotography simply means taking something small and magnifying it in terms of detail and size. Before technology got to where it is now, magnifying a picture of an insect made it look bigger but detail was lost. Now, they can be magnified WITH detail, so they can be seen as large without losing that detail. So, if you were to see a picture of a dragonfly taken with macrophotographic tech and enlarged to the size of a human, then placed next to a picture of a human (so they're the same size), you would only know one is smaller in reality because you know dragonflies can't get that big. Does that make sense?

The equipment in the OSU museum actually takes many photographs of an insect and layers them using computer software. Then that software stacks all those layers and edits out anything blurry-each layer is focused a little bit differently, and the program takes only those hyper-focused bits and puts them together. The final image is of an insect that has all of its parts in focus, (otherwise, simply taking an extreme close up photo only focuses on one plane).

At best, I'm an novice at it...definitely in the early learning stages!

Fascinating stuff Ketta, thank you

Niki xxx

OK! Today's picks are:

1. Archaeognatha
14. Dermaptera
28. Lepidoptera

Archaeognatha, the jumping bristletails

This order of insects is considered the most basal; they are wingless and most closely resemble the common ancestor of all insects. They are among the least-studied of insect orders, with only about 350 described species. Their Latin name means 'ancient jaw', implying a truly ancestral trait that has evolved in other orders to be almost unrecognizable. They get their common name from the three long filaments that extend from their abdomen.

A bristletail:


Dermaptera, EARWIGS!

Like Archaeognatha, the order Dermaptera contains (relatively) few species: only about 2000. Typically nocturnal, they hide in moist crevices when not active. The two cerci ('pincers') that extend from their abdomen do function like a pair of claws, so it's easy to see where they got their common name. My cousin used to try and stick them in my ear (in retaliation, I once dared him to pee on an electric fence. Being a boy, he couldn't turn down a dare from a girl, so I'll let you imagine the rest).

Earwigs are the only insects that really creep me out (see above), but exhibit some unusual behavior for insects: maternal care. Earwig moms will tend their clutches of eggs diligently, moving them when necessary. They're typically scavengers, though some are predatory, and as anyone knows who tries to handle them, they can nip with front (and back) ends. They're basically harmless though...just creepy!

An earwig:


An earwig mom:


Lepidoptera, butterflies and moths.

I think just about everyone chose this order. This is most likely the best-known and most widely spread group of insects and contains about 175,000 known species. Who doesn't love butterflies? Even caterpillars (well, most of them....) are considered cute to many people. The question is: would caterpillars be cute and lovable if they didn't turn into such beautiful moths and butterflies?

There isn't much I can add about them, other than the basic way to tell them apart. Butterflies have clubbed antennae and are often brightly colored, while moths have feathered antennae and tend to be more dull. Why? Well, butterflies are almost exclusively diurnal and use visual cues for communication while moths use scent in the form of pheromones for communication, since they're nocturnal for the most part, and need to be dull and cryptically colored for hiding during the day.

A butterfly (notice the clubbed antennae):


A moth in lovely camouflage colors:


And here's one of my favorite caterpillars, guaranteed to make you go EEEW! It's often called the bird poop caterpillar....I wonder why?


I *love* pondering the evolutionary path behind creatures like the above caterpillar...it's absolutely amazing just how closely it resembles bird poop!

You really love your insects, and it shows in what you write about them. Thanks! --Carol in Honolulu

don't like earwigs -they nip/bite at times.

None today but thats fine, its interesting reading about your favourite insects Ketta.

for the butterflies (and moths - some of which are also pretty) which bring me to 3/10.

Carole