Environment Archives - Page 53 of 54

Environment

The sleek Hawk Moth is built for speed

By Kim Pullen – Australian National Insect Collection Hawk moths are built for speed in the air. Their smooth tapered body houses powerful flight muscles in the thorax, powering a pair of long but relatively narrow forewings and much smaller hind wings. Not only can they fly fast and far, but they can also expertly...

Environment

Assassin bug lures ants to their death

By Kim Pullen – Australian National Insect Collection Ants are everywhere, as most householders and picnickers know all too well. So it is not surprising that in the Australian bush environment many ant predators, large and small, have evolved to take advantage of their abundance. The Echidna’s alternative name – Spiny Ant-eater – leaves no...

Environment

An insect half a metre long – Dinkum!

By Kim Pullen – Australian National Insect Collection Insects come in all shapes. Some are long and thin, others short and plump. Some have a normal outline, but are no thicker than a piece of paper. Many are cylindrical, many rounded, some hemispherical and some almost spherical. Then they have all manner of appendages: antennae and...

Environment

Trigonalid wasps: to survive, you must first be eaten

By Kim Pullen – Australian National Insect Collection The edge of a leaf would not normally be a smart place for an insect to lay an egg. A hungry caterpillar or sawfly larva might inadvertently eat it, on its way to demolishing the whole leaf. But amazingly, a trigonalid wasp egg actually needs to be...

Environment

Insect of the week – Cockroach

By Kim Pullen Australian National Insect Collection (Inspired by New South Wales’ (nickname the Cockroaches) win in State of Origin this week) We love to hate cockroaches. They scuttle across the floor when we turn the light on, and leave stains in kitchen cupboards. They seem to thrive in the foulest places. But the few...

Environment

Insect of the week – White Stemmed Gum Moth

By Kim Pullen – Australian National Insect Collection A huge caterpillar covered in tufts of black spines is not something most people would feel encouraged to touch, or even go near. But the habits of the White Stemmed Gum Moth (Chelepteryx collesi), together with the fact that it lives in nearly all the cities of...

Environment

Insect of the week – Delicate basketwork can mean trouble for gum trees

By Kim Pullen Psyllids are small bugs with soft, vulnerable bodies, so how do they escape predators? Adult psyllids can jump and fly out of harm’s way – that’s why they are sometimes called ‘jumping plant lice’. But the immature – nymphs – can neither jump nor fly. So many Australian species find protection under...

Environment

Insect of the week – Weevil rolls her (or his) own

[wpvideo szFXkSPV] The video above shows the Australian dung weevil in action. The video was shot by DAFF entomologist Michael Gorton who works out of Cairns. By Kim Pullen – Australian National Insect Collection To Ancient Egyptians, the scarab beetles they observed rolling fabricated balls of dung across the ground symbolised the sun god rolling...

State of the Climate 2012

Australia’s land and oceans continue to get hotter and our climate continues to change. These are two of the findings in State of the Climate 2012, an updated summary of Australia’s long term climate trends released by the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO today. CSIRO Chief Executive Dr Megan Clark said the latest analysis painted...

Straw house 1: Fire 0

We helped sustainable designer Joost Bakker, test an environmentally friendly building option for bushfire-prone areas.

A golden tail of Beyoncé’s bootylicious fly

A previously un-named species of horse fly whose appearance is dominated by its glamorous golden lower abdomen has been named in honour of American pop diva, Beyoncé. According to our own Bryan Lessard, the Australian National Insect Collection researcher responsible for officially ‘describing’ the fly as Scaptia (Plinthina) beyonceae, the fly’s spectacular gold colour makes...

Stop the pop?

An earlier post raised the problem of old helium-filled balloons turning up on beaches along the east coast of Australia. Should they be banned from being released into the environment? Have your say. [polldaddy poll=”5758243″]

Environment