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 Walter and his process.


Watch CBS News Videos Online

Tags: insect art

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

Evolution By the Grassroots - NY Times

"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

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Join us for our ever-popular independent design fair - featuring over 40 Bay Area designers and artists selling the latest chic and unique clothing, jewelry, limited edition screen-printed posters, and other fun stuff all at affordable prices. There will be tasty snacks for sale as well as a full bar. And of course it wouldn't be Noise Pop without some excellent music.

http://www.noisepop.com/2010/pop_n_shop.php

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 27
Admission is FREE
Noon-5pm
The Verdi Club
2424 Mariposa St.
San Francisco, CA

Tags: craft shows

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!

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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 hind wing that resembles the tails of certain swallows. You can witness these extensions in the picture of Papilio Ulysses to the right, and if you scroll down to the Swallowtail section in my shop. 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.

Tags: swallowtails