Notes from my experience breeding and studying a wide variety of different invertebrates.
Thursday 28 August 2008
Camel Spider Hysteria
Today's Metro features an article about a Camel Spider that apparently lives in somebody's house and killed their dog. This is a good example of how poor journalist coverage of science topics can be. First of all, Camel Spiders aren't spiders, they belong to a different order of arachnids, the Solifugae (Latin, to flee from the sun). Stories of these arachnids chasing humans are due to the fact that they want to stay in their shadow!
Camel Spiders are not venomous, and normal prey includes other invertebrates and small lizards.
Wednesday 27 August 2008
Some Bug Art
This is taken from the Rogue Entomologist, the website of artist Judith Klausner. There are also some depictions of beheading featuring mantids.
New Species Found in eBay Amber
Tuesday 26 August 2008
New to Britain snails found in Cliveden House
If you thought that Cliveden House was most famous for orgies involving Noel Coward or that infamous scene in Scandal then think again!
The centimetre long Mediterranean snail Papillifera papillaris has been found, that could have lived unnoticed for 100 years.
The BBC report is here.
My local paper picked up on this story, and made a few mistakes - for most people they probably wouldn't be a huge issue, but they annoy me! Will comment on them very soon.
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Copyright Ed Baker