Another post from our invertebrate specialist, Rachael Knight. It’s a must read for cicada lovers! When Ranger Greg wrote about the Magicicadas last May, I couldn’t wait to get out to the Eno and experience it for myself. I was especially intrigued by Robin’s comment: “…when you pick one up it growls at you!” The idea of a growling insect was amusing to me, so I grabbed the camera and went out to see if I could capture the phenomenon. Read more
Posts tagged: #invertebrates
Scorplings Update :(
I asked Rachael to report in on the Scorplings, and her response is below: It is bad news I’m afraid. They died not long after my post in fact. A couple of weeks ago we had another birth, but ended up losing all of those as well. Leon has had success in the past rearing them, but sadly we’ve not been lucky lately. Such is how it goes at times. Bummer.Read more
Big Word of the Month: Myrmecophily
Uli, our Butterfly House Director, after reading Rachael’s last post, sent along this information: Myrmecophily: literally “ant-love” (as opposed to Myrmecophobia: the fear of ants). The term is applied to mutually beneficial associations between ants and other organisms such as plants, arthropods, and fungi. An example of a “butterfly-ant love” affair is the Malaysian Hairstreak (Anthene emolus) that selects plants hosting aggressive Weaver ants (Oecophylla smaragdina) to lay eggs so that the ants can protect the growing caterpillar against otherRead more
Hidden Portal
Another wonderful invertebrate post from Rachael, the Museum’s entomology specialist, below. Remember her last post on Scorplings!? (It’s a must read!) Enjoy. In Life’s Devices, inside a large glass container, there are a series of domes and pipes. Within that structure lives a huge colony of Atta cephalotes, which over the course of the last seven years has grown to 20,000 members. Long before the advent of agriculture, the leaf-cutter ants were feeding on fungus they grew in their own gardens,Read more
Scorplings!?!
We did have births at the Museum in April, although not wolf pups. Rachael Knight, the Museum’s entomology specialist, spends her time in the Insectarium. Read her report below about the birth of some Pandinus Imperator scorpions. Please let us know in the comment section if you’d like Rachael to share more stories from the world of invertebrates! As far as we know there were three of them [scorplings]. When we (Butterfly House staff) noticed the little white chubby nymphsRead more