My RSS Feed

The Humble Cicada

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2012-01-13T08:33:08-08:00

Cicadas are an interesting insect. Adults are typically between 1 and 2 inches long while some tropical species can reach 6 inches in length. Worldwide there are about 3,000 species; nearly all of them have their own distinct song. The songs are produced by structures, located on each side of the abdominal segment, called tymbals. The tymbals are ribbed membranes with muscles that are used to contract the membrane inward producing the distinctive click of the cicada. As the membrane expands back another click is produced. Each membranes alternately contracts. To amplify the songs the male has a hollow, air-filled abdominal cavity. Interested females respond to the songs with wing flicks that produces a sound similar to snapping one’s fingers.

When a pair has mated the female will deposit her eggs in branches with her ovipositor, laying up to several hundred eggs at a time. When the eggs hatch the nymphs will burrow into the ground to live out their juvenile lives. Most species will spend two to five years underground sucking the xylem from the roots of trees. However, some species such as the Magicicada, known as periodical, will spend 13 or 17 years underground before emerging.

Periodical cicadas have five distinct juvenile stages before they are ready to leave their burrows. When they are ready to leave the ground the nymphs will begin digging tunnels to the surface and at night they will climb up trees en masse to molt and reveal their transparent and delicate wings. Adults will live only a few weeks to a month starting the cycle all over again.

See my Framed Cicadas

How much is a bee worth? Ecosystem Services

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2011-11-22T07:31:45-08:00

How much is a bee worth?

Insects pollinate almost a 1/3 of our food and provide this service for free! So why are they not factored into the GDP, an economic number giving an estimate of our countries total economic output every quarter? How much would it cost us if bees were to disappear, which is happening to a degree right now.

This GDP fails to account for the billions of dollars of FREE services that nature provides, which impacts policy makers who tend to only look at numbers. These free services are called Ecosystem Services and include things we take for granted like clean air, carbon sequestration, climate regulation, pollination and seed dispersal – to name a few.

The BIG question is how much would it cost us if nature were not there to perform these services? Scientists are trying to figure this out the cost of these services. One study wanted to highlight an estimate of the total output of insects in the United States – $57 Billion. This is a conservative estimate and ONLY for the United States. Without insects, the authors note, human life on earth would eventually be extinguished.

Here is a breakdown of some of the services by economic value:

Value of crop production from pollination by native insects: $3 billion

Crop losses averted by beneficial insects from predation or parasitism of agricultural pests: $4.5 billion

Percent of native pests controlled by other insects: $65 million

Economic losses averted every year by burial of livestock waste by dung beetles: $380 million

Amount spent for hunting, fishing and observing wildlife that relies on insects as a food resource: $50 billion

Number of North American bird species that are primarily insectivores: $395 million

So, how much is a bee worth to us? Priceless.

Source: BioScience, April 2006, reprinted in Scientific American July 2006

The BUG Studio Tour

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2011-11-16T22:53:39-08:00

The B.U.G. studio is situated in one room of a San Francisco 3 bedroom flat. Our apartment was built one year after the 1906 earthquake, so it has lots of old charm.

Finished insects are stored in the back against the wall. Mr. T (upper right) watches over me.

In the center of the picture, in the terrarium, are my Madagascan Hissing Cockroach family (8 members). They like to come with me when I do insect presentations at local schools.

Once insects are dried and spread, I store them in the same drawers museums use. These drawers were acquired from the California Academy of Sciences and Berkeley entomology collections.

Pinned beetles drying. The pins are used to make the beetles perfectly symmetrical.

My shipping station which is an old IKEA bar stand.

(In the upper left) My mausoleum for "Debbie" the South African Darkling beetle, who lived with me in Cape Town until a parasite crawled out of her and killed her. Also displayed are my Green Business certificate and Blue Ribbon award from the 2008 Maker Faire, the largest DIY festival in the world.

This is where I pin & spread my specimens and also make my butterfly wing jewelry. My world is full of little drawers.

One of the best things about working from home is I get to hang out with my son all day. He loves to watch me spread butterflies and often gives some good advice, although I don't understand it.

Bathroom break for a Rhino Beetle.

Butterfly Wing Jewelry waiting to be finished.

A rough gang of tricycle weevils that sometimes cause trouble in my studio.

I only use perfect specimens in my insect displays. The ones that are not up to my standards go into the "Bone Yard" where I can harvest parts if I need to repair a specimen. Maybe I should send these to Fear Factor?

Ten of the most enjoyable days of my science career were at the Ant Course, a unique workshop sponsored by Harvard University and the California Academy of Sciences that brings together some of the best ant scientists in the world together. One of the greatest living scientists, E.O. Wilson, signs every certificate.

Butterfly Wing Jewelry Giveaway!

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2011-11-04T08:30:12-07:00

Welcome to my first BUG give-a-way! Listed below are 5 ways you can enter up to 5 times to win one of THREE prizes. I am giving away three (3) BLUE MORPHO Butterfly Wing jewelry pieces from the Sterling Silver Single Oval Butterfly Wing Collection – a $39 value each (You can get up to FIVE entries (but only one winner per prize - 3 different winners), here’s how:

1. Become a facebook fan and leave a comment that you just joined. Current fans can just leave a comment on my facebook fan page that you want to enter the contest. (1 entry)

2. Share my facebook fanpage on your facebook and leave a comment letting me know. (1 entry)

3. Tweet (@bugunderglass) about this Giveaway. (1 entry)

4. Write a blog post about your favorite BUG piece or about my work and link back to this post or comment. (1 entry)

5. Do all four of the above and receive a fifth entry (make sure to leave a comment!) (1 entry)

The giveaway begins today and ends Sunday, November 13th at 12 midnight, PST. I will choose the winners that night from a random number generator and post the winner on the following Monday (the next day)!

Thanks for all your support!

(this giveaway is open to United States residents only)

Desert Caravan Camelback Weevil

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2011-10-29T23:02:51-07:00

New Insect Diorama (9x9 inches) - Weevil Riding a Camel

Available here: ETSY

Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2011-10-14T11:09:39-07:00

Come join me at the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival. Will have lots of new Damask Style Butterfly Prints and other pieces not found online.

A Ceiling Made of Jewel Beetles

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2011-10-10T09:59:05-07:00

A palace in Belgium puts a new spin on the term “Green Building Material” with the use of 1.4 million green jewel beetle wings to adorn a ceiling. The Hall of Mirrors (2002) is an instillation by artist Jan Fabre in the Royal Palace of Brussels that took over 3 months to make and 30 assistants to assemble.

Image Credit: Angelos.be

People unfamiliar with insect exoskeleton may believe a material like this won’t last, but in an interview with Sculpture Magazine, Jan explains:

I use strong materials, which happen to have a fragile appearance. The color of those beetle shells will never fade, for the outer integument contains chitin, one of the strongest and lightest materials on earth, which was used for objects destined for the Mir space station.

Image Credit: Scultpture.org (close up of beetles)

The next question one may ask - Where does someone get 1.4 million beetle wings? I discovered this on a recent trip to Thailand and found that this beetle is very abundant and prepared as a food! Anyone visiting Bangkok will see many of the fried insect dishes and this beetle is eaten by the ton. The colorful wings are discarded before this unique protein dish is prepared. What a great use for an animal by product!

You can see more of this artist’s work at: The website of Jan Fabre.

The Ancient Egyptians and Their Beetles

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2011-09-30T14:57:04-07:00

For ancient Egyptians beetles were an integral part of daily life, burials and mythology. Darkling beetles, Prionotheca coronata, have been found in entombed pottery jars, stone vessels themselves were sometimes carved in the shape of beetles, click beetles, Agrypnus notodonta, were depicted alongside a fetish of the goddess Neith, and gold pendants shaped like jewel beetles, Acmaeodera polita and Steraspis squamosa, were popular during the Old Kingdom. When the Egyptians realized that the creatures could damage a corpse a spell was added to the Book of the Dead meant for repelling the destructive creatures:

“Begone from me, O Crooked-lips! I am Khnum, Lord of Peshnu, who dispatches the words of the gods to Re, and I report affairs to their master”.

However, the beetle most important to the Egyptians was Scarabeus sacer, the dung beetle whose habit of rolling up dung into a ball where it lays its eggs reminded the Egyptians of the daily travels of the sun across the sky. The apparent spontaneous generation of larvae was associated with their god Khepra or Khepri who was also capable of self generation and renewal. Khepri was also thought to push the sun across the sky and down into the underworld at night, only to reappear each morning.

It is not surprising that the hieroglyph representing the dung beetle was read kheper and as a verb meant to create or to come into being. This hieroglyph was used to write Khepri’s name and in fact the deity was often depicted as having a beetle either on or for a head.
During the New Kingdom kheper took on yet another aspect as a sacred symbol. Large amulets featuring a scarab on one side and a spell on the other were placed over the heart of a mummy. As such, the amulets were referred to as heart scarabs. The spell on the back was also from the Book of the Dead (spell 30) and read,

"O my heart which I had from my mother, O my heart which I had upon earth, do not rise up against me as a witness in the presence of the Lord of Things; do not speak against me concerning what I have done, do not bring up anything against me in the presence of the Great God, Lord of the West."

ABOVE PICTURE OF BEETLE IS AVAILABLE: http://www.etsy.com/listing/67923853/framed-scarab-beetle-with-egyptian-money

I’ve listed some of the resources I used to research this article as they may be of interest to lovers of beetles and ancient Egypt. Ancient Egypt Online is a particularly good resource if you are interested in further exploring the culture, religion, mythology and literature of ancient Egypt.

While not referenced for the article you may want to visit the Pyramid Texts Online where you can read the complete text in English or view the Hieroglyphs in their entirety. A number of other important works are available at that site as well, including the Rosetta stone and E.A. Wallis Budge’s Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary.

Ancient Egypt: The Mythology
http://www.egyptianmyths.net/

Ancient Egypt Online
http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/khepri.html

Beetles and the decline of the Old Kingdom: Climate change in ancient Egypt by Miroslav Barta
http://cuni.academia.edu/MiroslavBarta/Papers/139985/Beetles_and_the_decline_of_the_Old_Kingdom_Climate_change_in_ancient_Egypt

The Book of The Dead
http://www.sacred-texts.com/egy/ebod/

The Book of The Dead Plate XVI featuring chapter 30 found on heart scarabs
http://www.sacred-texts.com/egy/ebod/ebod23.htm

Khepri Wikipedia Article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khepri

Meet the Beetles

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2011-08-29T12:38:26-07:00

Bug Under Camera - Stop Motion Insect Movie

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2011-08-09T07:35:02-07:00

Amazing stop motion film from 1912 with insects.

Władysław Starewicz (August 8, 1882 - February 26, 1965) was a stop-motion animator and director of Russian origins, via Poland. His early work began while the Director of the Museum of Natural History in Kovno, Lithuania, where he produced several short documentaries. For his fifth film he wanted to shoot two stag beetles fighting. Stag beetles are however nocturnal which posed a problem. When Starewicz wanted to film them he needed to use lights, which caused the stag beetles to go to sleep. He did not give up however, and decided that he could re-create the battle by attaching wire legs to the creatures, thereby using them as stop-motion puppets. This was only the first of many stop-motion shorts and feature length films.

Throughout his life Starewicz produced 66 films, some of his best known works are perhaps The Beautiful Leukanida (1912), The Grasshopper and the Ant (1911), The Tale of the Fox (1939), which may remind contemporary audiences of The Fantastic Mr. Fox, and perhaps the most famous of his productions, The Cameraman’s Revenge (1912).

The Cameraman’s Revenge is about a married couple, two beetles, who feel their home life is not as exciting as it could be. Each spouse is unfaithful, the husband with a dancing dragonfly and the wife with an artist friend and beetle. In a meta-commentary that would make even the most severe cinephile giggle the dragonfly’s jilted lover, a grasshopper, is also a cameraman. Mr. Grasshopper packs up his large box camera and follows the dragonfly and Mr. Beetle to a hotel where he catches them in the act, making sure to get an establishing shot before some intimate close-ups through a key hole. This film returns in the final act to plague Mr. Beetle when he takes his wife to a movie where Mr. Grasshopper shows his masterpiece before the audience. Even by today’s standards the animation is superb. Of course, fans and readers of Bug will enjoy the use of beetles and other insects as puppets. (R.Payne)

Bug Under Microscope

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2011-08-02T06:26:27-07:00

A local scientist has been stopping by the Bug Studio to pick up various insects to photograph with a Nikon camera that includes a auto-montage microscope set-up. The results have been amazing and I want to share some of the photographs. One can really see the amazing architecture and color of these ancient creatures.

The weevil family is one of my favorites because of this group's characteristic long neck, which helps me humanize these insects in my miniature insect dioramas. Under a microscope, a whole new world is revealed.

Pictured below is a beetle from the Eupholus genus.

Below is a photograph of this beetle above photographed with auto-montage.

The Leopard Lacewing, Cethosia biblis, is a ornate butterfly that has a range from India to Asia, and has been used in my collaboration with the Poetry Store (picture below).

This same butterfly below with Auto-Montage.

New Designs

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2011-07-07T18:04:32-07:00

After having a baby last month, I am slowly getting back into the game. I am currently working on a new series of designs and will have a slew of items available on ETSY in the coming weeks. Also adding some pieces from my collaboration with thepoetrystore. Here is a preview:

The Cicadas are coming.....

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2011-05-10T07:52:39-07:00

Having lived underground since 1998, these cryptic insects have missed a lot of important world events. However, they are ready to come out and their mass exodus is scheduled for this summer. If you live in the southeastern part of the United States, be prepared for an invasion of biblical proportions - Brood XIX is here. Bug Under Glass offers a beautiful framed cicada on ETSY. Learn more about the cicada swarm here.

Osama beetle Laden minutes before raid

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2011-05-02T11:47:02-07:00

Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2011-04-29T07:26:00-07:00

I had the pleasure of screening a unique insect film called “Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo”, a film that unveils Japan’s appreciation and love affair with insects. Beetle Queen takes you on a historical journey that unveils insects prominent and endearing standing in Japanese culture. Narrated with frequent poetic prose (film is subtitled) that features various examples of how insects influence Japanese society and culture; from pet stores and fruit stands that sell fighting beetles, to their philosophies on nature and harmony. I highly recommend this film for anyone who wants to see how another culture perceives (and loves) insects. This film will be on PBS May 17th, but check your local listings as times may vary. To learn more, visit this interactive website about the film.

Ant Blogs

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2011-04-12T11:07:44-07:00

Have ants in your house? This collection of blogs not only has some interesting stories on pest control, but also some nice information about insects.

See more of these pictures at: http://myrmecos.net/

Six Legged Meat

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2011-02-20T11:56:30-08:00

Photo: John S. Dykes

At the London restaurant Archipelago, diners can order the $11 Baby Bee Brulee: a creamy custard topped with a crunchy little bee. In New York, the Mexican restaurant Toloache offers $11 chapulines tacos: two tacos stuffed with Oaxacan-style dried grasshoppers.

Could beetles, dragonfly larvae and water bug caviar be the meat of the future? As the global population booms and demand strains the world's supply of meat, there's a growing need for alternate animal proteins. Insects are high in protein, B vitamins and minerals like iron and zinc, and they're low in fat. Insects are easier to raise than livestock, and they produce less waste. Insects are abundant. Of all the known animal species, 80% walk on six legs; over 1,000 edible species have been identified. And the taste? It's often described as "nutty." READ MORE

Butterflies & Poems Meet

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2011-02-07T19:17:47-08:00

Opening this Friday at Secession Art Gallery is a collaboration between Bug Under Glass and the Poetry Store. This show highlights some of Silvi's amazing poetry work highlighted with some of my butterflies.

Stay tuned for some of our pieces which will be up on ETSY soon.

Friday, February 11, 6:30-9:30pm

R.I.P. Uncle Milton - purveyor of dangerous toys

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2011-01-26T20:40:42-08:00

Would you buy venomous biting ants for your kids ? My parents did and millions of others did as well. How could a product that stung and bit you become so popular? Learn more about this amazing ant entrepreneur who sadly passed away today.

Renegade Craft Fair

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2010-12-16T15:01:30-08:00

Renegade THIS weekend -- last minute shopping

Petaluma Downtown Craft Mart's Holiday Crafterino

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2010-11-23T08:07:54-08:00

For those in the North Bay, I will be a a Holiday Craft show November 28th. Here are the details:

Where: Petaluma, CA.
When: November 28th 11-5pm
www.petalumadowntowncraftmart.com

BugUnderGlass featured in Herman Miller Blog

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2010-11-22T19:11:43-08:00

You can check out my BUG studio in the Herman Miller Blog.
http://www.hermanmiller.com/lifework/inspiration-artist-kevin-clarke/

Not available on iTunes

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2010-11-18T17:55:20-08:00

but available on ETSY

Grasshopper Wing Pendant

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2010-11-11T09:05:42-08:00

I have always loved Grasshoppers and they usually don’t get a lot of respect for their beauty. I hope these new sterling silver grasshopper wing pendants help change that. Their wing venation have beautiful architecture and color.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/61502353/grasshopper-wing-pendant-sterling-silver

Let's Go Giants!

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2010-10-27T09:27:29-07:00

The San Francisco Giants are in the World Series! Everyone here in SF wants to go but I don’t know if they allow Rhinoceros Beetles into games!

See the complete beetle diorama collection HERE.

Real Butterfly Wing Jewelry has arrived

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2010-10-25T07:15:47-07:00

I had the pleasure of taking a jewelry course in Thailand in order to learn how to make my wife's engagement ring. Some of these learned skills have carried over to a new offering at Bug Under Glass - Butterfly Wing Jewelry. Please come back as I will be adding new styles as fast I can make them. Every piece is hand crafted with sterling silver, glass and a real butterfly wing.

Maggots (not) for breakfast

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2010-09-21T10:39:06-07:00

Last week my wife said, “it would be great if I could eat breakfast without maggots on the table” (referring to my insect breeding box). Although she had a point, she was wrong to call them maggots because they are actually beetle larva. Maggots are fly larva and most beetle larvae are offended by that term, so I corrected her politely.

J-Pop Summit Festival

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2010-09-15T08:02:43-07:00

This weekend attend one of the nation's biggest pop culture events of the year at the 2nd Annual J-Pop Summit Festival. This one of a kind, all day event will feature awesome Bazaar Bizarre artists (Heidi Kenney of My Paper Crane, Mr. Funky Crochet, Bug Under Glass and many more!), the best in modern Japanese films, fashion, music, art, retail design and pop culture.

I will have some amazing new framed butterfly displays that I have done in collaboration with another artist.

see all the Bazaar Bizarre vendors here.

Saturday September 18th 2010 11-6 PM
Japantown, California

Ant & Tree Vs. Elephant

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2010-09-13T09:27:33-07:00

A new study finds elephants might be afraid of ants and unveils a little more of amazing symbiotic story of the ant and Acacia tree.

Ants defeat elephants to save Acacia tree
Ants in your pants? That's nothing compared with ants up your snout. And that's what elephants in the African savanna must contend with when trying to snag a meal from a certain type of acacia tree.
In fact, the pesky animals are keeping African elephants from devouring so-called Acacia drepanolobium trees as they have been to other tree species in the area, a new study suggests.
"Ants swarming onto an herbivore's face often tend to head for the sensitive parts such as the nostrils before hunkering down and taking a bite out of the offending animal," said study researcher Todd Palmer, a University of Florida biology professor. "While the outside of an elephant's trunk is very tough, the inside of the trunk is very sensitive and full of nerve endings. It seems that elephants simply do not like ants swarming up the insides of their trunks."
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

Hissing Cockroach Adoptions beginning today!

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2010-09-08T10:30:16-07:00

I have three 3 very cute and calm Madagascan Hissing Cockroaches up for adoption, with a priority given to teachers. I can’t ship these little guys and they will have to be picked up at the Bug Studio. Hissing Cockroaches make great classroom pets and require little maintenance. They don't bite, talk back, are cuddly and great for classroom observations of nature. I will provide care instructions. They do prefer warmth so I will give preference to classrooms with a terrarium, hopefully without a snake in it. Contact me if you are interested.

Conference of Creative Entrepreneurs

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2010-08-09T09:18:08-07:00

BUGUNDERGLASS will be attending and speaking at the Conference of Creative Entrepreneurs in Seattle. Come by if you are in the area.

http://www.creativeconferencewest.com/

ABOUT:

The Conference of Creative Entrepreneurs (CCE) is three days of seminars, interactive discussions and hands-on Workshops. More importantly the CCE is a special community event that will allow you to…

Learn It.
Gain the skills to start or expand a creative business. CCE will cover everything from filing taxes, vending at your first trade show to participating in guerrilla marketing. Every successful career started out by learning through trial and error. You will have the unique opportunity to learn from veteran professionals in the creative industries. CCE will feature a line up of notable speakers including Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching, Faythe Levine, director of Handmade Nation, and Marci Rae McDade, editor or FiberArts Magazine. Makers from all walks of life will share the essentials to grow your passion into a sustainable career.

Make It.
Creative Entrepreneurs live to MAKE. Whether it is the craft of digital design, or traditional woodworking, we love to make something on our own. At CCE you can build a toolkit to improve you blog or web store, turn wool in to felt fabric, digitally photograph your work like a pro and embroider your first pillowcase! Experts will share their craft with you through demonstrations, hands-on activities and workshops.

Live It.
At CCE, we will have fun and share with each other. We hope all our participants will continue to grow the CCE mission in their own communities (both on and offline). We are a strong contingent of creative professionals on the West Coast, and we must continue to build resources, collaborations and institutions to ensure future generations value independent creative commerce. CCE is a celebration of the entrepreneurial spirit and a place for you to grow your professional goals. Come live the creative life with us!

Hooray for Grass! - the evolution of

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2010-03-03T18:56:57-08:00

Grass often gets mowed, chewed by insects and most of the time just overlooked. However, its importance is very significant in the evolution of animals, especially insects. This piece was in the NY Times and is a very well written piece about the forgotten plant that insects love to eat.

Evolution By the Grassroots
NY Times, March 2 2010

Imagine the Earth without grasses.

There would be no lawns or meadows. No prairies. No savannahs or steppes. No wheat fields or rice paddies. No sugar cane.

No sheep, elephants or horses.

No people.

We live in the age of grass. Indeed, from our point of view, the evolution of grasses was one of the most momentous events in the history of the Earth. Which is why I’m nominating them for Life-form of the Month: March...... READ MORE

Strongest Bug in the World Revealed

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2010-03-24T21:11:48-07:00

photo: www.freakingnews.com
Imagine being able to lift a six double decker buses! Well, if you were a certain type of beetle, in theory, you could. The world record no longer goes to the Rhino Beetle, which is still one of the strongest, but to a type of scarab beetle. Learn more about this STRONG INSECT here

Ant Architecture

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2010-03-05T19:11:33-08:00

Besides exhibiting amazing colors, unique patterns and behaviors, insects are also pretty amazing artists. Many have already witnessed the beauty of a spider web or the geometry of a honeybee honeycomb, but nature still offers many hidden crafts waiting to be discovered. Fellow ant reseracher Walter Tschinkel figured out a way to expose the amazing artistic skills of the ant. On a personal note, I was very fortunate to have hung out with Walter on a 10-day ant class in Arizona and he is an incredible and very funny person. One of these ant nests is on display at the California Academy of Sciences.

Here is a video from CBS news on Dr. Tschinkel and his process.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

The Caterpillar Diet

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2010-02-14T14:05:42-08:00

Caterpillars grow to about 27,000 times the size it was when it first emerged from its egg. If a human baby weighed 9 pounds at birth and grew at the same rate as a caterpillar, it would weigh 243,000 pounds when fully grown!

Macro Photography of Insects of a different scale

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2010-02-04T21:37:36-08:00

Photography of very small insects can be difficult because of the limits of traditional cameras and problems with depth of field, meaning some parts of the subject are out of focus while others are in focus when photographing small objects. This can be a cool effect in art, but in science we need to see all the parts of the insect, especially if you are trying to determine the species. This is because in order to identify a species correctly you need a clear picture of all the features on the insect body – head, thorax and abdomen.

In the past, microphotography was limited to a device called an Electron Microscope, which is big and bulky, expensive and produces images in black and white. Luckily, in the last 6 or 7 years there has been a revolution in microphotography, one such system is called Syncroscopy Automontage. This particular camera is attached to a microscope and takes a number of pictures (often 30 or more) across the body of the insect and then pieces the pictures together with software.

This creates a crystal clear image that is in focus from head to toe. Antweb, at the California Academy of Sciences, uses this technology and there are many others using it as well. The results open up a whole new world of the beauty of insects. Take a look at some amazing macro insect pictures here.

Swallowtail Tails

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2010-01-06T20:18:27-08:00

Swallowtail butterflies are a group of butterflies in the butterfly family Papilionidae (papilio means butterfly & moth in Latin). There are an estimated 550 known species and hundreds more waiting to be discovered. The common name, Swallowtail, comes from the fact that a majority of the members of this group of butterflies have an extension at the end of each hindwing that resembles the tails of swallows. You can witness these extensions in the picture of Papilio Ulysses. However, if you look at the small variety of Swallowtails listed in my shop you may notice that some members do not have this extended tail. Therefore, this feature is not the only characteristic used in the classification of swallowtails.

The interesting fact about these “tails” is their evolutionary feature. Birds love to eat butterflies and when they attack butterflies they go for the neck or body, which would be a clear-cut kill instead of a piece of wing. In response to this, swallowtails have evolved tail extensions that resemble their necks and body. Therefore, a bird will see these extensions as a “body or neck” and be directed away from the butterfly’s vital organs and fly away with a piece of wing, leaving the butterfly with its life.

Bug Quote of the Day

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2009-12-09T22:26:05-08:00

“it’s only when you look closely at an ant through a magnifying glass on a sunny day that you realize how often they burst into flames” - Harry Hill

all about Monarch Butterflies

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2009-11-28T07:53:56-08:00

Monarch butterflies are probably the best-known species of butterfly in North America. They are famous for their long migrations south before the northern winter frosts kill their eggs and adults. These migrations are one of the most amazing in nature and individuals can travel up to 2,000 miles from home. In North America, the migration patterns differ depending on where the butterfly lives. Monarchs living in the western part of the US migrate to a small number of sites scattered along the coast of California. One of these sites is close to where I live in San Francisco, called Pacific Grove. The most famous travelers come from the eastern US where an estimated 100 million butterflies head south to Michoacan in central Mexico.

These journeys are very tough on the Monarch and most of them do not make the whole journey. However, many stop to breed along the way and the butterflies that make the reverse migration in spring are often five generations removed from those that originally migrated in autumn. Along these migrations, Monarchs lay eggs on milkweed, which is the only plant their caterpillars will eat. It is from this milkweed diet that the butterfly gets its toxic defense. Milkweed contains poisonous cardiac glycosides that the Monarch sequesters when the caterpillar eats the plant. These glycosides cause severe vomiting in most animals that eats either a monarch caterpillar or the adult butterfly.

BugUnderGlass creates a museum quality framed Monarch Butterfly display made from farm-raised Monarchs that are not taken from wild populations.

Tank the Madagascan Hissing Cockroach

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2009-11-18T20:45:18-08:00

Let me introduce Tank. Tank just moved here from Madagascar and is really grumpy (I know this because hissing cockroaches hiss when they are mad - and tank hisses a lot); hence his give name - Cantankerous. We just call him Tank. And you can’t blame Tank for being grumpy with three missing forearms, a half broken antennae, and currently living in a room with a women cockroach about to have 15 babies. Furthermore, he is a cockroach, which are hated by most.

Despite his reasonable reasons for being grumpy, Tank is here to teach us something about his fascinating family, who have been around the block a lot longer than most animals. In the upcoming months, Tank will demonstrate and share some of the amazing attributes of cockroaches. I promise you will never look at a cockroach the same again.

Today Tank is going to give you a little background on his family ancestry. Tank is a cockroach and a member of the Blattodea insect order, which contains 4,000 other known cockroach species. Tank’s ancestry goes back farther than the dinosaurs and the earliest cockroach-like fossil relatives appeared about 325 million years ago. Tanks closest relative is the termitie, which most scientists believe evolved from cockroaches about 100 million years ago. Realizing being related to termites does not help his PR, Tank has hired me to convince you his family is cool.

Insect Wallpaper

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2009-11-13T19:37:01-08:00

Jennifer Angus, an artist from Madison, WI, has created some insect art that may give some people nightmares. But, if you are an entomologist, it may give you another type of dream. This is not your typical wallpaper you can get at Home Depot, but wallpaper embellished with REAL insects, 1,000’s of them. I think it is absolutely beautiful and if my wife would let me, I would plaster the whole house with it. Jennifer’s works have been featured at many major museums and to learn more and see her work visit her website at http://www.jenniferangus.com/home.htm

Ancient Fly Monster Discovered

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2009-11-03T19:40:35-08:00

A researcher at Oregon State University discovered an ancient species of fly (order: Diptera) that was found embedded in a piece of amber dating back over 100 million years old. What makes this fly so special is that it is a new species, genus and family of insect that has never before been observed. The most fascinating aspect of this discovery is that the fly has FIVE eyes and a HORN, which is equipped with three of the eyes. Talk about an unusual ancient monster! The new species is called Cascoplecia insolitis, which is roughly translated as “old and unusual”. This unusual fly lived in the jungles of Myanmar (also known as Burma) over 100 million years ago and despite its ferocious look is thought to be a docile little creature that fed on the pollen and nectar of tiny flowers. The three eyes on top of its horn would have given it the ability to see predators coming while it was nibbling on its food. Read more here.

Ant of the Month

kevin@bugunderglass.com — 2009-10-23T14:15:08-07:00

The ant genus of the month is the Cataglyphis genus. This ant would not win any Ant America Pageant but it would definitely win a desert survival competition. Why? Because it is one of the most heat tolerant animals known to man! One species of this group (called Cataglyphis bicolor) lives in the Sahara desert and can withstand temperatures up to 158 degrees! Considering no known land animal can live permanently in temperatures over 120 degrees -- this is an incredible feat. This ant is a scavenger and survives on the corpses of other arthropods that can’t take the heat. The image comes from www.antweb.org, which has amazing pictures of ants. You can learn a little more about ants on this website.