What is that insect on the surface of the water?
It is a water strider nymph (immature stage), which might turn into one of these:
Notice that the nymph makes much less of an impression on the water surface than the adult?
Look at all the stuff floating at the surface. Wonder what it must be like to call the top of a pond your home.
What is eating the cowpea?
After seeing the leaves with holes and then leaves missing, I finally spotted the culprit.
Looks like some sort of armyworm, genus Spodoptera.
Almost looks like this aphid is curious about it, too.
The big news was announced today at Arizona State University:Â the Top 10 New Species for 2011.
Sometimes it is hard to remember that scientists discover new species all the time. Some of these newly discovered creatures are pretty large, which makes you wonder how they got overlooked. Take, for example, the huge monitor lizard!
Of course, we are most interested in the spiders and insects on the list.
Right on time for the Spiders in Space project, one of the top 10 is an orb weaving spider with a giant web. Sometimes the webs go across entire streams! How does the spider even do that?
In this video, you can watch one that has caught a dragonfly.
When botanists wanted to know what kind of creature pollinated a rare orchid, they set up a camera to watch. Imagine their surprise when a cricket showed up! Not only was this the first example of a cricket pollinating a plant, the cricket was a new species.
Check out the cricket pollinating the orchid in this video.
The final insect is a jumping cockroach, with back legs enlarged like a cricket’s.
Go ahead and investigate the rest of the list on your own. When you are done exploring, come on back and let us know which organism you think is the coolest!
For more information, see Roberta Gibson Writes.
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