Sloan's Urania

We have a lot of packing to do. I'm also going to probably have to give up a lot of the found objects I've gathered in the studio. Hopefully I will find some people that could use boxes of high quality garbage.

Art

still carving the rabbit

Hopefully bisque firing the rabbit and soldier fly

Animal

Sloan's Urania (Urania sloanus) was a day flying moth with interference based colors similar in appearance to the Lolonandriana I mentioned a while ago. It was native to Jamaica and has not been seen since 1895. It is thought that it was wiped out as the Jamaican low land forests were cleared for farm land. Currently only one preserved specimen of the moth exists in the Peale collection at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. It was named after the Muse Urania that specialized in astronomy and astrology.

Fire Beetle

Art

carve rabbit

Animal

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ctam/ / CC BY 2.0

The fire beetle (Pyrophorus noctilucus) has the brightest bioluminescence of any insect. It is bright enough to read by at 45 millilamberts. Unlike a firefly it can not turn off it's bioluminescence but it can brighten and dim. The bioluminescent spots are on it's thorax and resemble LED's. It is native to Central and South America as well as the Caribbean.

Curved Spiny Spider

Art

paint the cricket

Animal

photo by Malaysian Spiders

The curved spiny spider (Gasteracantha arcuata) is a small orb weaver with a spiny abdomen from southeast Asia. They are sexually dimorphic, the males are much smaller and lack the giant horns. It is thought that the horns make them less palatable to predators. They have a tendency to build their webs in places where they might be disturbed by flying birds so they will actually build visible tuffs of silk into the web, it is theorized that these help the birds avoid their webs.

Giant Isopod

Art

glaze and fire the ceramic cricket bits

Animal

Photo by Coda

The Giant Isopod (Bathynomus giganteus) is a bit like a thing from a horror movie, it is part of the order of crustaceans that contains rolly pollies (pill bugs (Armadillidium vulgare)), but grown out of control. They are about as related to rolly pollies as weasels are to walruses but they look a good deal like them in a giant version. They are the largest know isopod and come from the benthic zone of the ocean where they have been for the last 160 million years functioning as scavengers. They are eaten in Taiwan and described to taste like crab.

Picture for scale

Ebony jewelwing

The vacation is over now. I had a good time we stopped several places and saw a lot neat things. We stopped first at the Exotic Feline Rescue Center in Indiana. I got several good pictures of large cats. If you have never been to it and like to visit large cats I highly recommend it the cats there seem reasonably happy and active. I don't recommend bringing very small children as they seem to kind of excite the predatory side of quite a few of them. I'll get into some of the other stuff later in the week. 

Here is an upside-down puma

Art 

goal for the week 9hrs

fire tiles

make clay

work on Anubis masked figure

net +

Animal

The ebony jewelwing (Calopteryx maculata) is a damselfly from northeastern North America. I happened to see a lot of them this weekend at a wildlife refuge we stopped at on the way back.  I had been previously unaware there were black winged damselflies and thought I would share. They are sexually dimorphic the females have a white spot on their wings and the males have solid black wings. They eat small arthropods and tend to live near small creeks.

Here is a better photo of a male

photo by HenryMcLin

Twin head-tailed monster

Animal 

Photo by fossilmike

Dicranurus monstrosus or since Dicranurus translates to twin head-tail, the twin-head tailed monster was a lower Devonian trilobite with an unusual array of spines. It looks a bit like the shadow ships from Babylon 5 except with ram horns. It is thought that the spines may have been for defense against early jawed fish such as smaller relatives of the Dunkleosteus. The spines also may have been useful for holding the trilobite out of the mud. They were found between Euramerica and Gondwanaland. Most of the fossils of this species today are found in Morocco. They are very popular with trilobite collectors

Acteon beetle

Still strangely depressed. Network + studying is coming along.

Art

goal for the week 17hrs

Today

work on and hopefully finish sphinx

Animal

Photo by photo.gustavomorejon.com

The Acteon beetle (Megasoma acteon) is one of the world's heaviest insects. It might well be the heaviest but that seems to be open to debate. For example gravid giant wetas (really, really big crickets) are heavier, but does it count if it is only heavier when gravid... stuff like that. They are about 4 inches long and quite bulky. Acteon beetles are native to northwestern South America, and I've not found anything that directly says they are found in the rain forest but they seem to thrive in a deep mulch with 90% humidity so I'm guessing. They are carpusluar and mainly found in the evenings between January and November. Vegitation and rotting wood seem to be their main food sources. Males and Females differ greatly as the males have three prominant horns one on their head and two off their thorax. The females have no horns. They are very strong beetles and can easily rip through screen mesh and their exoskeleton is described as thick almost crab-like. Apparently if placed on their back on a smooth surface they can not right themselves and can die if left in that position. The larva which are also quite large and can weigh as much as 1/12500th of a ton, also the larval stage is much longer then the adult stage. The adults tend to live 100-150 days while the larva take 3 years to reach maturity. Even their eggs are quite large often exceeding 2 inches in lenght beforh hatching. The eggs have a very long incubation period for an insect taking up to a month to hatch.

Megasoma Acteon was described by Linneaus in 1758, and retains its original name. This is significant as Linneaus was the one that developed the basis of the taxonomic system used today. Carl Linneaus is known as "the father of Taxonomy" he developed the concepts of hiearchical classification and binomial nomerclature still in use today. He also under went the giant task of trying to classify all known life. Most of his of his original classifications have been disputed, further examined, and changed. So the Acteon Beetle has one of the oldest scientific names that is still in use. This beetle's name probably references mythology, Linneaus seems to have used a lot of gods and mythological figures in the names he gave. For example another beetle with a vaguely canine-like head in the genus Megasoma, that was named by Linneaus is Megasoma anubis. Megasoma acteon probably came from the story of Actaeon the hunter (Acteon in french), who came upon Diana goddess of the hunt bathing in the forest. Diana was angered that Actaeon had seen her and turned him into a stag, which was dismembered by his own hounds. The beetle was probably named Megasoma acteon to refer to the stag-like horns of its thorax.

Lolonandriana

For the record My pancreas (like Rick's) has no medicinal benefits.

Art

goal for the week 18.5 hr

work on the sphinx

Animal

photo by Cody Hough 

The Lolonandriana (Chrysiridia rhiphearia) is a moth that is native to Madagascar and migrates to Asia it is often considered one of the most striking Lepidoptera. It does not have pigment, its color instead comes from interference on it's wing scales so it is a bit difficult to get a true impression of the moth from photographs but if you have seen much dichroic glass you can probably get the idea. The moth's bright colors are a warning of its toxicity. Some of the Native Malagasy believe that this moth is a form that their dead ancestors souls would take to inhabit the earth, so to destroy the moth would be an attack on their ancestors. I would guess that they were just thrilled to death by all of the vast interest by butterfly collectors, can't find any real information on how that went.

Lord Howe Island stick insect

I talked to a friend tonight at goth night about using bones for odd purposes. He was telling me about a corset he had made with a trim made out of little bones. He said he had to eat a lot of chickens to get them all. I've had pretty good luck with owl pellets myself for sculpture stuff.

Art

Goal for the week 16.5 hrs

Today

 work on the sphinx

Animal

Photo by Peter Halasz

The Lord Howe Island stick insect (Dryococelus australis) is probably the world's most endangered insect. They had once been abundant on Lord Howe island near Australia but were thought to have been completely wiped out by black rats in the 1930's. In 2001 about 30 of them were discovered on a tiny isolated treeless sea stack called Ball's Pyramid living under a Melaleuca shrub. Four of them were removed two were taken to the Melbourne zoo and two given to a private breeder in Sydney. There are now about 15 times the wild population living in captivity and there are plans to reintroduce them to Lord Howe island after the rats have been removed.  Current predictions are that this will happen around 2011. 

A picture of one that is less dead

Giant Sea Scorpion

I'm nearly done cataloging all of the channels the company I work for offers at all of the sites with video. They basically had me confirm the station of every channel at about 50 or 60 sites from a slingbox. It was odd that they are having me do this as I have not really watched television consistently for about 8 or 9 years so I'm not really familiar with the shows and I'm really bad with celebrities for movie identification. I was kind of horrified to find that there is an entire reality show based station, perhaps more then one. Also something weird happened to the Learning Channel, they don't seem to do documentaries anymore.

Art

Goal for the week 13hrs

Today work on the dragon  

Animal

Stuart had somehow not heard about the giant 8ft prehistoric sea scorpions (Jaekelopterus rhenaniae) they found somewhat recently. So, I thought that I would do those today, then I discovered there were no usable pictures. Finally I got frustrated and decided it would be faster to draw one only to find that there is considerable disagreement as far as how many legs and body segments reconstructions of sea scorpions seem to have. I gave up and drew something that I thought looked kind of like that sea scorpion. The giant sea scorpion was found in Germany and seems to be mostly known from a claw fossil. The rock around the claw suggests that it lived in brackish areas. They may well be the largest invertebrates or at least one of them. It is thought that they would not have been able to support it's weight on land and so would not have been able to leave the water.

Giant tailless whip scorpion

Could not find any baling wire in the house yesterday so that kind of stopped the work on Serenity last night. 

Art

Goal for the week 14.5 hrs

Today

attach the arms to Serenity

finish painting Serenity's hands to match the rest of the body

Other touch ups

work on sphinx

Animal

Photo by Acrocynus

The giant tailless whip scorpion (Damon diadema) is a very unusual arachnid from Africa. They are not true scorpions but are in a distinct arachnid order. Their first set of legs have become modified sensory organs that function like antenna. They do not have venom glands but they do have pair of pedipalps with pincers that they use to break up their prey. As a defensive behavior they can break off bits of their legs when grasped, they later regenerate the legs. While there is not a lot of good data about their lifespan they have been observed to live at least ten years in captivity and mature adults continue growing throughout their lives reaching lengths of up to 8 inches. Very unusual for arachnids they show kin recognition in behavioral studies. Young will remain close to their mothers and interact with them. Related young will also stay together in a group in unfamiliar surroundings.

A video of one moving around

Eastern bloodsucking conenose

I'm having  hard time finding good blocks of time to work on art. I tend to get better results from longer blocks of time. I may start experimenting with new schedules. 

Art

Goal for the week 18.75 hours

Today

make clay

work on the guy with the Anubis head

Animal

Photo by Cotinis

The eastern bloodsucking conenose (Triatoma sanguisuga) is an assassin bug that ranges all over from the eastern United States to South America. Assassin bugs in general prey on other insects such as cockroaches and bedbugs and a number of the very beneficial north American assassin bugs also have the spots on side and that general body shape so one should take care not to jump to conclusions. The eastern bloodsucking conenose does feed on the blood of vertebrates particularly rats and mice though it is not completely unheard of for them to go after sleeping humans. When they do bite humans it is generally around the mouth. The nymphs have a sticky coating on their body that they use to pick up dust and debris to help camouflage themselves. They are long lived insects and can take 3 years to fully develop. Their feeding bite is generally painless , but they should  be handled  carefully as they also have a defensive bite that is very painful and can cause nausea and in some cases severe allergic reactions. 

A blood feeding assassin bug that looks sort of like the Eastern bloodsucking conenose but might be a different species versus an adorable baby vampire bat video

Devil Flower Mantis

Art

Goal for the week 5.25 hrs

Today

sanding boxes

Animal

photo by Destinys Agent

Today I thought I would cover one of the weird mantis of the world as they are many and worth looking at. The Devil flower mantis (Blepharopsis mendica) is a two and a half inch mantis from north Africa and the Canary islands. They specialize in flying insects which they snap out of the air from a camouflaged position. They are not very long lived the males only live about 6 months and the female can make it about 11 months. The Devil flower mantis pictured above is a nymph as they mature their abdomens straighten out and they grow large spotted wings. They seem to be somewhat popular in captivity among collectors of mantises. One keeper of these insects noted that it was a shame that they could not run on a hamster wheel so they may be very active for mantises (or that person might be odd).

And now a video of one eating a bug

Honey bee

Art

Goal to the week 20hrs

today

sanding still

Animal
photo by Teone!

Mythology

The honey bee (Apis mellifera) plays a very important role in many mythologies. For the ancient Egyptians honey bees came from the tears of Ra. They were vaguely associated with his mother Neith a weaver and war goddess and they were also associated with the rule of Lower Egypt. A major Minoan goddess Potnia a mistress of the animals was also associated with the honey bee. Mycenaean tombs were shaped like bee hives as bees symbolized the transition between life and death.  In Greek mythology Zeus was fed honey by the nymph Melissa while he was being hidden from Cronus. He gave the honey bee its sting for feeding him while he escaped Cronus. In the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, his gift for prophecy was given to him by the Thriae, three bee nymphs.

Bee hieroglyphic picture

plaques depicting the Thriae

Rocky Mountain Locust

Art

goal for the week 13.5 hours

Today

still sanding the boxes. So many boxes.

Animal

Once there were vast swarms of Rocky Mountain locust (Melanoplus spretus) that ranged over most of the western United States. one of these swarms was over 198,000 square miles and could contain over 3 trillion individuals. 30 years after this swarm was recorded the species was completely extinct the last living specimen was recorded in 1902. They were such a problem for the western agriculture that some farmers tried to kill them with dynamite and other explosives to no real effect. It was thought that the problem these locust had is that they depended on a particular breeding ground that at some point was farmed over, completely destroying the species. Despite their great numbers during the time of their existence very few locust were ever collected, fortunately for entomologist wishing to study them a great number of locust mummies were preserved in Grasshopper Glacier in Montana.

Coconut crab

I should watch the inauguration today I did not get a chance to  yesterday. Things kept coming up and then work.

Art

goal for the week still 17.5 hours

today 

sand boxes

Animal

Photo by FearlessRich

The coconut crab or robber crab (Birgus latro) is the largest land living arthropod it inhabits many of the islands between Asia and Australia. Coconut crabs can have a leg span of over 3 feet and can weigh over nine pounds they have been known to live up to thirty years. They are very similar to hermit crabs and the juveniles will live in shells in the same manner until they exceed a certain size. They breathe with a spongy lung-like organ called a branchiostegal lung which must be kept wet they also have vestigial gills but will actually drown if submerged in water to long. True to their name the adults can open and eat coconuts as well as many other things such as fruit, nuts, and small animals. The some of Chamorro associate them with Taotaomona (ancestor spirits from before recorded history) and believe the Taotaomona can inhabit the crabs. The crabs are eaten by people however some crabs become extremely poisonous after eating the roots certain plants one of these plants is believed to be piratea (Ceodos umbraculifer) the toxin is similar to that found in fugu.

Sacred Scarab

I'm feeling kind of out of it. It may be the paint fumes at work.

Art

goal for the week 15hrs

Today

sand boxes (lots to go)

Animal

photo by Sarefo

Mythology

For the Ancient Greeks and the Ancient Egyptians there were only male sacred scarabs (Scarabaeus sacer) and they reproduced by themselves in the dung ball, they also carried their dung balls which to the Egyptians held a life giving potential in a manner similar to the sun crossing the sky. For the Ancient Egyptians this scarab was associated with the god Khepera (Khepri) who had a head that was a full scarab and was charged with filling the sun with life in the morning so that it could be rolled across the sky and then safely getting it into the mouth of Nut (goddess of the sky) so that it could emerge from her womb the next morning. Khepera has an odd relationship with Ra there seems to be several versions in some cases he is a form of Ra, in others he replaces him, and still in others he rides in the sun boat and assists. Khepera also played a part in the rebirth of the dead in that he became the dead body with the potential life (like the ball of dung) from which the spiritual body could emerge. During Ancient Egyptian burials a green stone scarab was added to the chest cavity of the deceased or as jewelry to act as a guardian of the heart, to help with the opening of the mouth ceremony, and help ward against false evidence being presented during the weighing of the heart. The scarab was also worked into jewelry and seals for a variety of reason sometimes a representation of the rebirth of the body, probably sometimes as a representation of Ra, other times for luck, ect. I could probably babble far longer on the various significances of the scarab in Ancient Egyptian religion and the uses of faience scarab seals but I should probably stop here.

Bell bearer leafhopper

I had to work today to make up for the day off Friday. We started cleaning out the flood damage having finally gotten the water out of the basement. I have not yet found a dehumidifier but I think that would help a lot.

Animal

The Bell bearer leafhopper (Bocydium globulare) probably has the strangest thorax among insects. It appears to be a leafhopper carrying a 1950's modernist sculpture on it's back. This 4mm leaf hopper is from South America (most of the pictures I found were taken in Brazil) and is a member of the Membracidae family which are known for their strange shapes. Many members of the Membracidae family would make lovely organic modernist pieces. The growth on its thorax breaks easily and might be carried off instead of the leafhopper by a predator. It is also theorized that the growth on this leafhopper's thorax may mimic an insect's head from the front.

Here is a photo of the Bell bearer

Here is a front view to show you how that weird structure might look like an insect head

Vampire moth

Not to much going on. I think I have most of the family related shopping done.

Art

goal for the week: unrealistic

Today

titmouse

dragon

Animal

It appears there is a vampire moth (Calyptra thalictri) now, It was discovered by Vladimir Kononenko in 1999 in Siberia. Previously they they were thought to only feed on fruit but, it seems the males will also go for the blood of mammals. They have a hollow two chambered proboscis that they rock back and forth to pierce skin. Then the blood pressure pushes barbs out of their proboscis making them difficult to detach. They are also known to drink the tears of large animals such as elk. Vampire moths are thought to be completely harmless to humans as they are not known to carry any diseases and they take an extremely long time to pierce skin so would likely be brushed away anyway. The current theory for why the behavior developed is to provide a nutritional boost to the young that feed on mostly sodium poor meadow-rue leaves.

Video of vampire moths feeding on scientists