Arboretum Thursday
Posted by admin / Under Butterfly Gardening
I only had a few minutes to get out today, made a short ride through the county arboretum.
Published on Friday 10th of September 2010 01:02:45 AM
Butterfly's Wing Ears May Detect Birds
Posted by admin / Under Butterfly Gardening
A butterfly species equipped with tiny ears on its wings can distinguish between high and low pitch sounds, possibly as a way to listen in on nearby birds, new research suggests. Scientists thought butterflies were deaf until 1912 when the first butterfly ears were identified. Only in the past decade or so have researchers examined the anatomy and physiology of butterfly ears, which they are finding to be quite diverse and present in several butterfly species. The latest discovery was made with the blue morpho butterfly (Morpho peleides), which dazzles with its bright-blue wing coloration when it flits about in...
Published on Friday 10th of September 2010 01:02:45 AM
Monarch Butterfly Antenna: A Hi-tech Tiny Toolkit
Posted by admin / Under Butterfly Gardening
Monarch butterflies have fascinated biologists for a long time. A 3,000-mile road trip in even the most comfortable car would prove daunting to many humans, but these beautiful insects can migrate that same distance every year from Canada to a specific grove of fir trees in Mexico each fall. The next generation of monarchs can then travel back to Canada in the spring. Scientists are investigating the tools that these tiny flying creatures use to achieve this feat. One leading monarch researcher has discovered an important reason why the butterflies’ antennae are vital for successful navigation...
Published on Friday 10th of September 2010 01:02:45 AM
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Posted by admin / Under Butterfly Gardening
The Butterfly Nebula from Upgraded Hubble Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team Explanation: The bright clusters and nebulae of planet Earth's night sky are often named for flowers or insects, and NGC 6302 is no exception. With an estimated surface temperature of about 250,000 degrees C, the central star of this particular planetary nebula is exceptionally hot though -- shining brightly in ultraviolet light but hidden from direct view by a dense torus of dust. Above is a dramatically detailed close-up of the dying star's nebula recorded by the newly upgraded Hubble Space Telescope. Cutting across...
Published on Friday 10th of September 2010 01:02:45 AM
Butterfly brilliance ("advanced diffraction gratings show objective marks of intelligent design")
Posted by admin / Under Butterfly Gardening
Butterfly brilliance Dual diffraction gratings produce two colour signals by Jonathan SarfatiPublished: 1 January 2009(GMT+10) Photo Wikipedia Blue morpho Photonic structures in butterflies Some butterflies, such as the blue morpho (Morpho menelaus) of South America and the male mountain blue don (Papilio ulysses) of northern Australia are known for their brilliant iridescent blues. But their spectacular colours are not caused by pigments but by their scales forming a diffraction grating.1 These are evenly-spaced ridges or grooves that break up white light into all its component colours, but at a given angle, destructive interference cancels out all out except for the...
Published on Friday 10th of September 2010 01:02:45 AM
Flitting with disaster (Dave Barry)
Posted by admin / Under Butterfly Gardening
Flitting with disaster BY DAVE BARRY (This classic Dave Barry column was originally published Oct. 14, 2001.) A very important issue that we all need to be concerned about is global warming, and we will get to that shortly, but first we need to discuss what happened the other night in my kitchen. It began when I was in the bedroom, flossing my teeth (I keep my teeth in the bedroom). Suddenly my wife burst in and said: ''There's a bat in the kitchen!'' A snappy comeback line would have been: ''No, thanks! I already ate!'' But snappy comebacks are...
Published on Friday 10th of September 2010 01:02:45 AM
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