{"id":2294,"date":"2012-07-07T17:21:45","date_gmt":"2012-07-07T21:21:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/?p=2294"},"modified":"2012-07-07T18:24:56","modified_gmt":"2012-07-07T22:24:56","slug":"the-weekly-flypaper-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/07\/the-weekly-flypaper-6\/","title":{"rendered":"The Weekly Flypaper"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Evolutionary biologists from around the world have converged on Ottawa this weekend to partake in the First Joint Congress on Evolutionary Biology<\/a>. Luckily for those of us who couldn’t make it, there are a ton of people tweeting about talks, the conference and evolution in general. I’ve been watching the #evol2012 hashtag<\/a> all morning while writing this, and although I’m even more jealous of those that are attending the conference in person, I’m glad I can enjoy a slice of the conference through the tweets of others!<\/p>\n

General Entomology<\/strong><\/p>\n

There was plenty of talk about national insects this week. I brought up Canada’s distinct lack of a national insect over at ESC Blog<\/a>, while Brian Cutting noted how lame many of the state insects are in the US<\/a>. Meanwhile, across the pond, Africa Gomez found some insects who had come out to celebrate the UK’s National Insect Week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Charley Eiseman has a fun party trick: watch a walking stick emerge from it’s egg<\/a> and then get guests to try and figure out how the hell it fit in there to begin with!<\/p>\n

While teaching this winter, my students were equal parts horrified and fascinated when we talked about entomopathogenic nematodes. I can’t wait for them to read Ed Yong’s story about the glowing green bacteria who lend a deadly hand<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dragonfly Woman continues to find cool stuff at her new job<\/a>, including a magnificent phantom midge larva!<\/p>\n

Unlike Gatorade, which fails to contain any actual alligator, Chapul energy bars will contain plenty of ground up crickets to help keep you jumping<\/a>!<\/p>\n

The Amazing Spider-man was released this week and looks great, but I kind of wish\u00a0Peter Parker had been bitten by any of these other superpower-inducing arthropods<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Diptera<\/strong><\/p>\n

An amazing new fly was described this week by Brian Brown<\/a>, and now ranks as the smaller species of fly we know of at only 0.4mm long! Brian has an excellent write up of his discovery over at flyobsession<\/a>, and he also posted a bonus illustration of the fly which wasn’t in the paper<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Geek in Question was asked what a strange looking aquatic arthropod was<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dave Stone got up close and personal with a\u00a0Diogmites<\/em> robber fly<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In what was easily the most galling post of the week, Charley Eiseman explores the hickory homes of flies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Home Bug Gardener starts with a pretty picture of a flower fly, but soon begins an etymological exploration into the meaning behind\u00a0Syritta pipiens<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Everytime Africa Gomez posts a photo of beautiful fly like this\u00a0Scaeva pyrastri<\/em><\/a>, it makes me more determined to get to the UK and see some of these things for myself!<\/p>\n

And just to further established which order is truly the best:<\/p>\n

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Seeing gibbons, hornbills, and tons of ants is cool. But the most exciting part of my trip to Cambodia was seeing stalk-eyed flies live.<\/p>\n

— Fred Larabee (@bugbiter) July 1, 2012<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n