I love what fleas look like from above vs. from the side
I didnât realize this was surprising to so many people!
This lateral flattening allows the flea to âswim like a fishâ through fur, aided by the many backwards-facing barbs and hairs along their sides.
If youâve ever tried to pick them off a dog or cat youâve seen this in action, it really is like theyâre gliding through a liquid environment and amazingly fast, hardly even using their legs to do it.
This is also why they donât have wings, which would get in the way of this trick, but they compensated with incredible jumping ability that may as well be flight.
Hundreds of millions of years ago, though, fleas couldnât jump and they were flattened top-down:
This is because fleas were originally parasites of dinosaurs, and while dinosaurs often had feathers, feathers have a different density and the âfur swimmingâ wouldnât have worked yet.
The first fleas similar to todayâs fleas probably began evolving towards the end of the dinosaurâs run, adapting to the increasing number of our ancestral mammals. Dinosaurs shrank into modern birds so rapidly, it seems, that their original fleas vanished entirely.
So basically whenever you get bit by a flea, you caught that from a dinosaur.
This hellgrammite showed up at work today.
Thought Iâd share with you all.
Sweet dreams everybody. đđ
I love the interlaced pattern in the wings of the Eastern dobsonfly (Corydalus cornutus), which is the adult form of the more familiar hellgrammite. This is the female. The male possesses thin, elongated mandibles that are mainly used for jousting with other males and for courtship of the female. The femaleâs mandibles, on the other hand, are fully functional and capable of delivering one hell of a painful bite if sheâs threatened (donât ask me how I know). Dobsonflies arenât commonly seen because they have very short lifespans (about a week or less after emerging from the pupal stage). Their main goal is to mate and lay eggs. Although they appear somewhat ominous (but are actually quite harmless unless mishandled), they are one of natureâs foremost barometers of a healthy ecosystem – they are pollution-intolerant, and their presence indicates a healthy stream or river nearby.
Appalachian Summer, 2018, Volume Twenty-Seven: Wild Bergamot. A familiar summer wildflower of Appalachiaâs dry, open woods and fields and certainly one of its most versatile plants, wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) is a tall, showy perennial herb with a long history of use as a medicinal herb, tea plant, honey plant, and garden ornamental. During its summer bloom time, itâs also one of the âgo-toâ nectar sources for a wide variety of insects and hummingbirds. One of the little bugs I most love – the hummingbird clearwing moth (Hemaris thysbe) – is a frequent visitor, attracted by its preference for pink or lavender flowers; swarms of these darting sphinx moths descend on wild bergamot patches during the hottest hours of the day. The plant produces flower heads, which rest on a whorls of gray-green, leafy bracts, at the ends of its long stems; tubular, double-lipped flowers, pink to lavender in color,
begin blooming from the middle of the head outward, giving a wreath-like appearance. The leaves grow in opposite pairs on the stem and are
lanceolate, finely-toothed, and give off an oregano-like odor; they can be used to make an aromatic tea. Also known as wild bee balm, this sun-loving plant in the mint family spreads aggressively both by branching rhizomes and self-seeding. The leaves were used by Native Americans to treat respiratory ailments and to prepare a poultice to treat minor wounds and infections. Nowadays, itâs often planted as a garden ornamental and a honey plant.
Camouflage is an important and popular defense in the insect world, and this is especially true for moths. As many moths are nocturnal and inactive during the day, it is important that they can remain hidden in broad daylight, even when hiding in plain sight. On this lichen-covered rock sits a prime example, the mottled prominent (Macrurocampa marthesia)Â Â
Mottled prominent (Macrurocampa marthesia), Fishers Island NY. July 2018.Â
As caterpillars, they hide by resting against the vein of leaves that they feed on, trying to mimic the part of the leaf they had just eaten. If this tactic does not work, the caterpillars are capable of spraying a burst of formic acid from a gland just above their prothorax (i.e., the caterpillarâs âneckâ). Mottled prominents feed on beech, oak, and maple. Â
Up to two generations a year, with caterpillars common by late spring onward. Caterpillars overwinter as pupae. Â
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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