On Bees

Pink Katydids

On Ants & Butterflies

Leaf cutter ants and bacteria
You can only understand so much about a species by considering it in isolation. It's interactions with the rest of life on earth is often hard to study, but when studies are done they yield some fascinating interactions.Take leaf-cutter ants as an example. I'm sure that most readers of this blog will know they cut sections of vegetation, take them into their nest, and grow fungus on them. The fungus is what the ants eat, they have evolved to become farmers. The evolutionary history of this relationship is interesting, but there are other players.In 1999 it was found that the fungus gardens are helped by

Poecilimon sp.: Orthoptera from Turkey

Spider Smuggling
The transfer of flora and fauna across international borders, and in some circumstances internal borders, is often controlled by law. The reasons for this vary from protecting native species, to protecting imported species, particularly if they are considered rare.WalesOnline.co.uk reports that A Welshman, Lee Arden, has been arrested in Brazil for smuggling spiders for the pet trade. Now Brazil is one of those countries where you really do have to be careful, and have all of your permits in order. Th

Invertebrate Rearing journal
Along with a few friends and colleagues I am starting a journal, Invertebrate Rearing, that will cover the rearing of all invertebrates (apart from stick insects and cockroaches). The journal is open access and free to publish in so check it out: Invertebrate Rearing.The website isn't too hot just yet, but we have until January for the first issue.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2009
On the 27th October 2009 (yet another timely post) I visited the Wildlife Photographer of the Year preview at the Natural History Museum, London. This year the exhibit has moved to a different gallery, giving it a bit more breathing room and has a mo