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By Ben, on September 2nd, 2010
I was browsing my favorite used bookstore in Boca the other day (I say “my favorite,” but actually, I think it’s the only used bookstore in Boca. Nevertheless.) when I ran across four volumes in the Florida’s Fabulous… series. I pounced on them the way a tiger beetle pounces on other beetles, or a robber fly pounces on a bee, even though paying full price for these large format mass market volumes wouldn’t break the bank.
Mark Deyrup, the author of Florida’s Fabulous Insects, is another of those entomological writers who proves how one can relate charming stories in an engaging [...]
By Ben, on March 16th, 2010
The other day I was talking about spines on palm trees and got to thinking about defensive strategies of plants in general. It seems like there’s a general arms race going on between primary producers (organisms that convert sunlight into energy that sustains them) and primary consumers (organisms that capture that energy by feeding on the primary producers). Since most primary producers are plants and algae, by definition most primary consumers are herbivores. So in order for a plant to pass on its genes to its descendants, it must ensure that it survives long enough to reproduce.
One way to do [...]
By Ben, on December 25th, 2009
As usual, this Christmas enabled me to stock my bookshelves again, this time with a couple of excellent gifts from my lovely wife: Bugs in the System (NY: Basic Books, 1995) by May Berenbaum, and The Earwig’s Tail (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2009), by the same author. I have only just begun to read, but have already found a gem in each.
By order of seniority, I’ll quote from the older volume first. The topic is etymology:
The body division is the trait to which insects owe their name: Insecta derives from the Latin for “cut into,” as in “cut into pieces,” a [...]
By Ben, on December 13th, 2009
Our neighbors across the street threw a Christmas party last night, and as luck would have it, it was one of the rainiest afternoon/evenings in recent memory. The streets were flooded, and I really regret not having been able to mow the lawn before the rain started…
But, luck tends to even out. This morning dawned bright and beautiful, and since Eric wouldn’t let me sleep, I decided to take him outside to enjoy the morning as only he knows how: splashing through puddles! (Last night as we went home from the party he spent about 5 minutes stomping through the [...]
By Ben, on September 14th, 2009
Various flying machines witnessed from our Boca yard:
[Show as slideshow]
Not pictured, because my nose was too runny to operate a camera, is the Eastern Kingbird I saw on my forced morning stroll with Eric last week. (He doesn’t care if Daddy’s nose is a leaky hose. If Daddy’s home, Eric goes strolling!) Migration is happening at last!
Also not pictured is the Magnificent Frigatebird that I saw last spring; my best yardbird ever!
By Ben, on August 17th, 2009
Ficus benjamina, one of my least favorite plants in all of Florida for its aggressive growth habit and its ability to siphon up all the water you care to lavish on your yard anywhere (we had a huge hedge of it out front before we redid the whole yard, replacing it with Chrysobolanus icaco, or cocoplum), does have at least one interesting property: it is a laticiferous plant.* That is, it produces latex (the non-vulcanized rubber kind, not the typesetting software–that’s usually spelled LaTeX) in quantity. (Ask anyone with sensitive skin how much fun it is to trim a ficus [...]
By Ben, on August 11th, 2009
This evening, in a not-unsuccessful attempt to improve the mood of our little ‘un, I headed to the front lawn to “enjoy” the scorching heat of 6:30 p.m. in the southy-south. Eric had a grand old time running around on the grass, picking cocoplums off the branches, and generally getting sweaty and pink. After a while I got tired of chasing him around trying to get him in the shade of the parasol, so I gave up and grabbed my camera.
I was finally able to capture a pair of little flying creatures that have been bugging me for a while [...]
By Ben, on July 1st, 2009
You certainly wouldn’t want to tread on an ant that looks like this [UPDATE: the previous link has disappeared, so I've linked to a new one, much less impressive, but still crazy scary. It's just a head shot, instead of the previous full body profile view.]. Sent to Gigapan by the inimitable Brian Fisher, of the California Academy of Sciences, one of the sites that you really must see when you visit San Francisco. (Next time I visit San Francisco, I’ll try to take my own advice!) There really is something amazing about seeing such a tiny creature in such [...]
By Ben, on November 23rd, 2008
They have them there for you already!
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Anisomorpha buprestoides
Anisomorpha buprestoides
By Ben, on November 15th, 2008
You don’t have to travel far to see some amazing things. Take this morning, for instance. Marcella and I had planned carefully to be able to be at Yamato Scrub early in the morning, so we could give Eric a nice stroll, check up on the Least Grebes, and see what else might be seen at our local natural area. Things don’t always work out as planned, however…
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