not just for decorator crabs

every since i was little i have loved decorator crabs.  from what i can recall, it started with a trip to the monterey bay aquarium.  they had a tank of decorator crabs.  these crabs were pretty crafty.  in their tank were puff balls and googly eyes.  because they didn't have coral, seaweed and other more traditional inter tidal flora and fauna, they decorated their carapace with puff balls and googly eyes.  i still giggle just thinking about it.

well, it looks like decorating isn't just for crabs.  check out this ancient lacewing larva.

i wonder if only creatures with exoskeletons decorate this way?

An artist's conception of the fossilized lacewing larvae 

with the beginnings of its trash packet.

Illustration courtesy J.A. Peñas, PNAS

http://jamesfreed.com

it was a success!

this is a follow up to the blog post "a creation of a workshop."

i got to spend a few hours with 11 high school students teaching them the basics about science illustration.  we talked about story telling with our drawings, basics of drawing and visited a small wetland area to do field sketching.

i had a good time and sounds like they did to.  

never stop looking...

...you might find a new butterfly.

Florida Museum of Natural History photo by Jeff Gage

do hippie birds prefer american spirits?

next thing you know these birds will be drinking whiskey to cure a cold.  

i love the way wildlife adapts to our urban areas.  but i hope these birds don't get sick from the carcinogens and pesticides in those cigarettes.     

City birds may use cigarettes as substitutes for fresh vegetation that drives away parasites.

MANFRED DANEGGER/NHPA/PHOTOSHOT

bowerbirds - one of my top 5 favorite birds

they are so neat!  the build these elaborate structures, then decorate them.  one (out of many) amazing thing is, these birds are building their bowers with forced perspective.  these birds have some talent.  definitely a bird to look into.

blog.designsquish.com

fungus among us

or more like in us if you are an insect or another arthropod.  these Cordyceps are endoparasitoids and make their home inside arthropods.  one particular fungus that invades a caterpillar is being investigated for its anti-inflammatory properties.  also makes a very interesting illustration subject that you can see here. 

"Illustrated Vegetable Wasps and Plant Worms in Colour" (1997)

trees telling a story

most everyone knows you can tell how old a tree is by counting its rings, but those rings can tell you so much more.  the study if the rings is called dendrochronology.  there are several subdisciplines that study everything from ecology to archaeology by studying those rings.  you can do your own sleuthing into the past here.  

image from climatepedia.org