{"id":2323,"date":"2012-07-21T15:01:41","date_gmt":"2012-07-21T19:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/?p=2323"},"modified":"2012-07-21T15:01:41","modified_gmt":"2012-07-21T19:01:41","slug":"the-weekly-flypaper-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/21\/the-weekly-flypaper-7\/","title":{"rendered":"The Weekly Flypaper"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Exciting news since the last Weekly Flypaper: Piotr Naskrecki, <a href=\"http:\/\/140.247.119.225\/insectphotography\/research.html\" target=\"_blank\">orthopteroid taxonomist<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.insectphotography.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">photographer<\/a>, and author (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Relics-Travels-Natures-Time-Machine\/dp\/0226568709\/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_4\" target=\"_blank\">Relics<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Smaller-Majority-Piotr-Naskrecki\/dp\/0674019156\/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0\" target=\"_blank\">The Smaller Majority<\/a>) has started a new blog &#8212; <a href=\"http:\/\/thesmallermajority.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Smaller Majority<\/a>. So far Piotr has been killing this whole blogging business, with fascinating posts on tropical entomology and macrophotography tips. I&#8217;m pretty sure I bookmarked every post he made for future reference, but here are a few of my favourites:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/thesmallermajority.com\/2012\/07\/10\/beautiful-aliens\/\" target=\"_blank\">Beautiful aliens<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/thesmallermajority.com\/2012\/07\/18\/how-to-swim-on-dry-land\/\" target=\"_blank\">How to swim on dry land<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/thesmallermajority.com\/2012\/07\/08\/improvising-with-light\/\" target=\"_blank\">Improvising with light<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/thesmallermajority.com\/2012\/07\/14\/the-eventual-usefulness-of-stuff\/\" target=\"_blank\">The eventual usefulness of stuff<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now onto the rest of the best from the last 2 weeks!<\/p>\n<p><strong>General Entomology<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you ever need a gift idea for the Dragonfly Woman, she&#8217;s got a <a href=\"http:\/\/thedragonflywoman.com\/2012\/07\/13\/friday-5-my-field-guide-wish-list\/\" target=\"_blank\">nice wishlist of field guides<\/a> that any nature nut would appreciate.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of gifts, we&#8217;re right in the midst of wedding season, and if you need <a href=\"http:\/\/ase.tufts.edu\/biology\/labs\/lewis\/publications\/documents\/2011NuptialGifts.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">nuptial gift ideas, why not take a page out of the insect world<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Erica McAlister, the Diptera curator at the Natural History Museum, London, takes you on a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nhm.ac.uk\/natureplus\/blogs\/diptera-blog\/2012\/07\/19\/oh-funny-things\" target=\"_blank\">backstage tour of the NHM insect collection and shows off some spectacular specimens<\/a>, including a grasshopper hugging a mouse. Seriously.<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s the biggest bug? The North Carolina State University Insect Collection has a <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.insectmuseum.org\/?p=4376\" target=\"_blank\">couple of options to answer that<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Entomology is a hobby all unto its own for some people, but it also happens to be a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tenkarausa.com\/blog\/?p=2955\" target=\"_blank\">sub-hobby for some fly fisherman<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>My wife and I had a date night this week and went to see <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0948470\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Amazing Spider-Man<\/a>. I really enjoyed it, but was a little disappointed that Peter Parker didn&#8217;t snack on a fly or two at some point in the movie. Even if you&#8217;re not an arachnid-infused superhero, there&#8217;s no reason why you shouldn&#8217;t consider eating bugs as <a href=\"http:\/\/ucanr.org\/blogs\/blogcore\/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7894\" target=\"_blank\">Doug Yanega explains to the University of California Food Blog<\/a>. The <a href=\"http:\/\/caterpillarblog.com\/2012\/07\/09\/bugs-in-food\/\" target=\"_blank\">Weird Bug Lady even has a tasty sounding recipe<\/a> for entomological power bars to get you started!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Flies &#8211; Diptera<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Apparently I missed the memo about Photo Bombing blogs, as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biologygeek.ca\/bloglist.php?id=29\" target=\"_blank\">Matt Bergeron<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/thingsbiological.wordpress.com\/2012\/07\/10\/tiger-bee-fly-xenox-tigrinus-a-bumblebee-parasite\/\" target=\"_blank\">Dave Stone<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/myrmecos.net\/2012\/07\/10\/bee-flies\/\" target=\"_blank\">Alex Wild<\/a> all showed off gorgeous photos of bombyliid bee flies.<\/p>\n<p>Brian Brown is having a pretty good month for publications, with his latest discussing <a href=\"http:\/\/flyobsession.net\/2012\/07\/10\/phorid-parasitoids-of-endangered-ants-also-endangered\/\" target=\"_blank\">phorid flies which are parasites of endangered ants<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/news\/2012\/07\/fruit-flies-evolve-number-sense.html\" target=\"_blank\">Researchers have bred &#8220;super&#8221; smart fruit flies which can count<\/a>. I for one, welcome our new Dipteran overlords.<\/p>\n<p>Black flies take the majority of bad press for Northern pests, but don&#8217;t forget to watch out for <a href=\"http:\/\/newsminer.com\/view\/full_story\/19326337\/article-Moose-flies-are-a-high-summer-Alaska-pest?instance=home_news_window_left_bullets\" target=\"_blank\">moose flies while in Alaska<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Robber flies are popular with a lot of people, <a href=\"http:\/\/beetlesinthebush.wordpress.com\/2012\/07\/17\/one-shot-wednesday-proctacanthus-fulviventris-ovipositing\/\" target=\"_blank\">including devoted beetler Ted MacRae<\/a>. And with their own <a href=\"http:\/\/caterpillarblog.com\/2012\/07\/10\/word-of-the-day-mystax\/\" target=\"_blank\">special facial hair, the mystax<\/a>, it&#8217;s no wonder.<\/p>\n<p>The Geek demonstrates that sometimes when you&#8217;re photographing flies, you&#8217;re only able to <a href=\"http:\/\/thebuggeek.com\/2012\/07\/20\/photo-friday-one-shot-wonder\/\" target=\"_blank\">snipe one photo before they take off<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Beetles &#8211; Coleoptera<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Emerald Ash Borer (<em>Agrilus planipennis<\/em>) has continued it&#8217;s inevitable march across eastern North America, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.connecticutplus.com\/cplus\/information\/news\/News_1\/Emerald-Ash-Borer-found-in-prospect-and-Naugatuck1741017410.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">this week being detected in Connecticut for the first time<\/a>. What&#8217;s important about this is that\u00a0<em>Cerceris fumipennis<\/em>, a solitary wasp which specializes on buprestid jewel beetles, was the first to detect it&#8217;s presence in the state. This is the sort of <a href=\"http:\/\/cerceris.info\/\" target=\"_blank\">Bio-surveillance that Phil Careless and the rest of Team Cerceris<\/a> had hoped for, and now hopefully more government agencies will invest in expanding this simple monitoring tool.<\/p>\n<p><em>Cerceris fumipennis<\/em> is also a useful tool for <a href=\"http:\/\/beetlesinthebush.wordpress.com\/2012\/07\/13\/working-with-cerceris-fumipennis-part-1\/\" target=\"_blank\">collecting other jewel beetles besides EAB<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/beetlesinthebush.wordpress.com\/2012\/07\/15\/working-with-cerceris-fumipennis-part-2\/\" target=\"_blank\">as Ted MacRae recently found out<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Of course you don&#8217;t need to always rely on other species to find your jewel beetles for you, as <a href=\"http:\/\/thebuggeek.com\/2012\/07\/09\/look-always-look\/\" target=\"_blank\">the Geek reminds us to always look<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Some people can be picky eaters, \u00a0but the same holds true for dung beetles, with <a href=\"http:\/\/membracid.wordpress.com\/2012\/07\/18\/pardon-me-is-this-stool-taken\/\" target=\"_blank\">species preferring different types of brown sauce<\/a>, and Bug Girl is on it.<\/p>\n<p>Why might it matter what type of dung a beetle prefers? Because places like Australia and New Zealand don&#8217;t have any native dung beetles, making agricultural waste a significant problem. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cosmosmagazine.com\/features\/online\/5803\/on-a-roll\" target=\"_blank\">Becky Crew has a nice feature on the work being done to bring dung beetles to New Zealand<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Not all scarab beetles like to feed on dung though, like these <a href=\"http:\/\/normalbiology.blogspot.ca\/2012\/07\/shiny-green-beetles-galore.html\" target=\"_blank\">Green June Beetles that Derek Hennen found in his yard<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>With summer comes the opportunity to watch fireflies flashing in the night. Check out this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popularmechanics.com\/science\/environment\/a-field-guide-for-flickering-fireflies-9077287?click=pm_latest\" target=\"_blank\">nice flash guide to see if you can recognize any of the species in your backyard<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mos.org\/fireflywatch\/\" target=\"_blank\">contribute to a citizen science program<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ants, Bees &amp; Wasps &#8211; Hymenoptera<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This photo of a <a href=\"http:\/\/bugs.adrianthysse.com\/2012\/07\/making-a-beeline\/\" target=\"_blank\">flying bumblebee by Adrian Thysse might be the best of it&#8217;s kind<\/a> that I&#8217;ve ever seen.<\/p>\n<p>The Gratton Lab at the University of Wisconsin &#8211; Madison is <a href=\"http:\/\/labs.russell.wisc.edu\/gratton\/2012\/06\/21\/new-technique-for-bee-identification\/\" target=\"_blank\">working on an automated bee identification project<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Urban beekeepers in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/offbeat\/story\/2012\/07\/07\/edmonton-urban-beekeeping-bylaw.html\" target=\"_blank\">Edmonton are pushing for changes to bylaws that keep their hives in hiding<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile in Edmonton, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edmontonexaminer.com\/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3593272\" target=\"_blank\">Matthias Buck has discovered 2 new species of paper wasps right under our noses<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The School of Ants is holding <a href=\"http:\/\/www.yourwildlife.org\/projects\/school-of-ants\/essay-contest\/\" target=\"_blank\">a student essay contest with a nice cash prize<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Eric Eaton shows that solitary wasps can be used for monitoring other insects, like <a href=\"http:\/\/bugeric.blogspot.nl\/2012\/07\/wasp-wednesday-wasp-vs-bug.html\" target=\"_blank\">stink bugs (potentially including the mega-pest Brown Marmorated Stink Bug)<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/bugeric.blogspot.ca\/2012\/07\/wasp-wednesday-hoplisoides.html\" target=\"_blank\">or membracids<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Moths &amp; Butterflies &#8211; Lepidoptera<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/nationalmothweek.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">National Moth Week<\/a> is coming up this week, so expect most of the bug-blogosphere to get a little scaley!<\/p>\n<p>The Dragonfly Woman started a little earlier by <a href=\"http:\/\/thedragonflywoman.com\/2012\/07\/09\/national-moth-week\/\" target=\"_blank\">announcing an event she&#8217;s helping with at her new job<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Other Insect Orders<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Troy Bartlett thinks ants <a href=\"http:\/\/naturecloseups.com\/posts\/ants-tending-treehoppers-poorly-perhaps\" target=\"_blank\">mite do a better job of taking care of their herds of membracids<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Ever wondered why your car attracts some insects like dragonflies and horse flies? <a href=\"http:\/\/thedragonflywoman.com\/2012\/07\/16\/dragonflies-on-cars\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Dragonfly Woman has a great explanation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It looks like the Cleveland Museum of Natural History is becoming <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cleveland.com\/science\/index.ssf\/2012\/07\/natural_history_museum_researc.html\" target=\"_blank\">ground zero for mantid research in North America<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Neuroptera are an amazing group of insects with incredible diversity. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bogleech.com\/netwings.html\" target=\"_blank\">Jonathan Wojcik provides a nice overview of that diversity<\/a>, and introduced me to an amazing group called the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/BioInFocus\/media\/slideshow?url=pic.twitter.com%2FbGWUNbVf\" target=\"_blank\">Spoonwings (family Nemopteridae)<\/a>. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.briancutting.com\/2012\/07\/mantisfly.html\" target=\"_blank\">Brian Cutting showed off a member<\/a> of another one of my favourite groups, the Mantis flies, while <a href=\"http:\/\/normalbiology.blogspot.ca\/2012\/07\/what-happens-when-you-combine-butterfly.html\" target=\"_blank\">Derek Hennen found a spectacular antlion adult<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Spiders &#8211;\u00a0Arachnida<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.neatorama.com\/2012\/07\/03\/ladybug-mimic-spider\/\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Oh look at that lovely lady beetle! It looks so cute and cuddly and OH MY GOD!!!&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Next time I go to Chicago, I&#8217;m definitely rewarding the <a href=\"http:\/\/whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com\/2012\/07\/12\/balooning-spiders-at-the-chicago-hilton\/\" target=\"_blank\">Chicago Hilton with my business for being so awesome with their natural history and outreach<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>I hate when I get a spider web across my face while out walking in the woods, but I think I might have to learn more about spiders and their webbing from <a href=\"http:\/\/membracid.wordpress.com\/2012\/07\/09\/book-review-spider-silk\/\" target=\"_blank\">a book Bug Girl recently reviewed, Spider Silk by Leslie Brunetta and Catherine L. Craig<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Now if all spiders lived among the canopy of trees like this\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/arthropodecology.com\/2012\/07\/17\/a-classy-canopy-dwelling-jumping-spider-hentzia-mitrata\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Hentzia mitrata<\/em> that Chris Buddle and colleagues are studying<\/a>, then I wouldn&#8217;t have to worry about silk wrapping my face&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of Chris, <a href=\"http:\/\/arthropodecology.com\/2012\/07\/19\/successful-pseudoscorpion-hunting-in-the-yukon\/\" target=\"_blank\">he went, he saw, he videoed<\/a>;\u00a0Beringian pseudoscorpions in the Yukon that is!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Taxonomy &amp; Systematics<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A parasitic isopod was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/strombo\/technology-1\/iron-like-a-crustacean-named-marley.html\" target=\"_blank\">recently described and named after Bob Marley<\/a>. Too bad the authors <a href=\"http:\/\/dailyparasite.blogspot.ca\/2012\/07\/gnathia-marleyi-or-not.html\" target=\"_blank\">messed up and published the name a few months earlier in an ecological paper before formally describing it<\/a>. Everybody repeat after me &#8212; in taxonomy, the order in which you publish or publicize MATTERS.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, because this species was named after somebody famous, the media took off with it and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/magazine-18889495\" target=\"_blank\">BBC published a top 10 list of what I&#8217;m now going to start calling &#8220;Celebronyms&#8221;<\/a>. Have I mentioned how much I hate these top 10 species lists lately? Because I do. With a passion. Ugh.<\/p>\n<p>Where should money be invested to solve the taxonomic impediment? <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wfs.org\/futurist-interviews\/futurist-interviews-quentin-wheeler-biologist-future-biodiversity\" target=\"_blank\">Quentin Wheeler of Arizona State University thinks technology leads the way<\/a> (i.e. the <a href=\"http:\/\/explorernews.com\/blogs\/university_of_arizona\/article_1d94cc2a-d053-11e1-a305-0019bb2963f4.html\" target=\"_blank\">University of Arizona&#8217;s new funding to revitalize and digitize their collection<\/a>), while <a href=\"http:\/\/iphylo.blogspot.ca\/2012\/07\/dimly-lit-taxa-guest-post-by-bob.html\" target=\"_blank\">Bob Mesibov of the Queen Victoria Museum (Tasmania) argues that more taxonomists need to be hired first<\/a>. Me? I think technology will be useless if there&#8217;s no one around to develop, maintain and actually use it. I&#8217;ll also need a job in 3-5 years, so I might be a bit biased here.<\/p>\n<p>The Willi Hennig Society Meeting was held at the end of June, and <a href=\"http:\/\/itsybitsybeetle.wordpress.com\/2012\/07\/11\/willi-hennig-meeting\/\" target=\"_blank\">Itsy Bitsy attended<\/a>. So did <a href=\"http:\/\/cladistica.blogspot.com.ar\/2012\/07\/hennig-xxxi-23-27-jun-2012-riverside.html\" target=\"_blank\">Salva at Computer Cladistics, who has a fantastic detailed review of the conference<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/news\/phylogeny-rewriting-evolution-1.10885\" target=\"_blank\">Kevin Peterson is literally uprooting the mammal phylogeny<\/a> with a new technique he&#8217;s developed. My question is what makes this new technique more accurate to the true evolutionary history of the mammals? <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pnas.org\/content\/early\/2011\/03\/10\/1012675108.abstract\" target=\"_blank\">Micro-RNA is also being used to study Diptera evolution<\/a>, but I can&#8217;t understand why it&#8217;s considered more &#8220;accurate&#8221;. It&#8217;s a wonder I get any sleep at all with these types of questions rolling around in my head&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Does the way that we traditionally draw and think of phylogenies (i.e. a &#8220;tree&#8221; of life) <a href=\"http:\/\/phylonetworks.blogspot.ca\/2012\/07\/evolutionary-trees-old-wine-in-new.html\" target=\"_blank\">block us from considering new ideas on relationships<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Academia<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/11\/citations-social-media-science\/\" target=\"_blank\">My post on Citations, Social Media &amp; Science<\/a> gathered some attention last week, including that of <a href=\"http:\/\/iphylo.blogspot.ca\/2012\/07\/citations-social-media-science.html\" target=\"_blank\">the researcher who&#8217;s improperly cited blog started the whole discussion<\/a>. The author of the paper also <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/11\/citations-social-media-science\/comment-page-1\/#comment-5186\" target=\"_blank\">stopped by and explained they tried to include the citation, but the publisher wouldn&#8217;t allow a blog to be cited like a journal<\/a>. I&#8217;m not really sure why a publisher has so much control over the content of a journal rather than the editorial staff of said journal, but I find it troubling.<\/p>\n<p>This is pretty handy for people just starting out in academia\/grad school &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.esajournals.org\/doi\/full\/10.1890\/0012-9623-93.3.223\" target=\"_blank\">Field Guide to Scientific Conferences: An Ecological Review<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Also handy, this <a href=\"http:\/\/winawer.org\/blog\/2012\/07\/09\/memoir-of-an-academic-poster\/\" target=\"_blank\">complete walkthrough by Steve Hamblin on laying out and developing a poster for a conference<\/a>. Many, many good tips here for balancing form and function. It&#8217;s also a pretty interesting view inside the head of a Post-Doc&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.sciencemag.org\/sciencecareers\/2012\/07\/how-you-write-m.html\" target=\"_blank\">It&#8217;s good to remember that it matters how you write in academia, not just what you write<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Science Communication &amp; Social Media<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Bora Zivkovic (aka the Blogfather) drops a <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.scientificamerican.com\/a-blog-around-the-clock\/2012\/07\/10\/science-blogs-definition-and-a-history\/\" target=\"_blank\">massive backgrounder on the history and rise of science blogging<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve seen a bunch of people start blogs only to watch them peter out after a few weeks\/months. As a blogger who has a relatively small (yet loyal) readership, <a href=\"http:\/\/neuroskeptic.blogspot.ca\/2012\/07\/why-blogs-fail.html\" target=\"_blank\">I can sympathize with this post on Why Blogs Fail<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/10-citizen-science-apps-2012-7#observe-birds-1\" target=\"_blank\">Here&#8217;s 10 Apps That Put Science In Your Pocket<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Olin Sander compares <a href=\"http:\/\/osilander.wordpress.com\/2012\/07\/07\/jul7_retweets2\/\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter popularity during the recent Evolution meeting in Ottawa to a sage grouse lek<\/a>. Awesome.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Photography<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ted MacRae demonstrates why the <a href=\"http:\/\/beetlesinthebush.wordpress.com\/2012\/07\/07\/the-importance-of-background-and-apparent-light-size\/\" target=\"_blank\">placement of your lighting sources and choice of background<\/a> can have a dramatic effect on a photo&#8217;s feel.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.scientificamerican.com\/compound-eye\/2012\/07\/11\/the-digital-workflow\/\" target=\"_blank\">Alex Wild has a nice flowchart of his digital darkroom workflow<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Adrian Thysse has a lovely <a href=\"http:\/\/bugs.adrianthysse.com\/2012\/07\/feature-photographer-heather-angel\/\" target=\"_blank\">interview with renowned nature photographer Heather Angel<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Other Fun Stuff<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/sciblogs.co.nz\/the-atavism\/2012\/07\/11\/you-cant-ban-redheaded-sperm\/\" target=\"_blank\">David Winter does a great job of explaining why red heads are here to stay<\/a>. Looks like my wife won&#8217;t be getting rid of me that easily!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/notrocketscience\/2012\/07\/12\/male-characins-fish-for-females-with-ant-shaped-body-parts\/\" target=\"_blank\">This fish grows ant-shaped appendages to g<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/notrocketscience\/2012\/07\/12\/male-characins-fish-for-females-with-ant-shaped-body-parts\/\" target=\"_blank\">et laid<\/a>. I feel like there&#8217;s an inappropriate joke in here somewhere&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Who needs cable TV when you can <a href=\"http:\/\/janeygodley.blogspot.co.uk\/2012\/07\/tim-freya-full-story-conclusion.html\" target=\"_blank\">get all kinds of drama &amp; comedy from social media<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.southernfriedscience.com\/?p=13509\" target=\"_blank\">Aquaman makes a terrible marine mammal<\/a>. He also makes a terrible superhero.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/what-if.xkcd.com\/1\/\" target=\"_blank\">What would happen if a pitcher threw a baseball at 90% of the speed of light<\/a>? I suspect he&#8217;d be investigated for Perfomance Enhancing Drug use and never make it into the Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Video of the Week<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Carl Zimmer was a plenary speaker at the annual meeting of the Society for the Presevation of Natural History Collections a few weeks ago, and they just posted his talk on YouTube. It&#8217;s long (more than an hour), but it&#8217;s an interesting talk and well delivered.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"695\" height=\"391\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jR8oOkpG6eM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Further Reading<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Bora Zivkovic &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.scientificamerican.com\/a-blog-around-the-clock\/2012\/07\/13\/the-scienceblogging-weekly-july-13th-2012\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Science Blogging Weekly, July 13th 2012<\/a> &#8211; (I made the Top 10 posts list! W00T!)<\/p>\n<p>Ed Yong &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/notrocketscience\/2012\/07\/14\/ive-got-your-missing-links-right-here-14-july-2012\/\" target=\"_blank\">Missing Links, July 14, 2012<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Ed Yong &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/notrocketscience\/2012\/07\/21\/ive-got-your-missing-links-right-here-21-july-2012\/\" target=\"_blank\">Missing Links, July 21, 2012<\/a><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Exciting news since the last Weekly Flypaper: Piotr Naskrecki, orthopteroid taxonomist, photographer, and author (Relics and The Smaller Majority) has started a new blog &#8212; The Smaller Majority. So far Piotr has been killing this whole blogging business, with fascinating posts on tropical entomology and macrophotography tips. I&#8217;m pretty sure I bookmarked every post he <a href='http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/21\/the-weekly-flypaper-7\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,23,397],"tags":[614,33,598,24,35,65,307,342,597],"class_list":["post-2323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogosphere","category-insects","category-weekly-flypaper","tag-academia","tag-coleoptera","tag-diptera","tag-hemiptera","tag-hymenoptera","tag-lepidoptera","tag-neuroptera","tag-social-media","tag-taxonomy","category-29-id","category-23-id","category-397-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2323"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2328,"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323\/revisions\/2328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}