The act of slug love requires the two to swing suspended on some kind of filament - you see a glimpse of it at the top of the photo.
Then that blue stuff is secreted...and then sucked back in.
Like I said...kinda gross.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Slugs Need Love, Too
This grossed me out. I hate slugs - but I guess it's as the title suggests:
The act of slug love requires the two to swing suspended on some kind of filament - you see a glimpse of it at the top of the photo.
Then that blue stuff is secreted...and then sucked back in.
Like I said...kinda gross.
The act of slug love requires the two to swing suspended on some kind of filament - you see a glimpse of it at the top of the photo.
Then that blue stuff is secreted...and then sucked back in.
Like I said...kinda gross.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Every Bug Has Its Day
We didn't have fireworks on the Fourth of July - we had fireflies.
It's been a good year for lightning bugs. For some reason - the wet weather perhaps? - there were a lot of them. I say 'were,' because the bloom is over. Just a few stragglers blinking in the night.
Fireflies aren't flies - they're actually a type of beetle. Kansas is the western edge of their habitat. They're an eastern bug - lightning bugs are a rarity on the west coast.
Their glow comes from a chemical reaction in light-producing organs in the firefly's abdomen. They're quite efficient at producing light: nearly 100 percent of their light is given off as light. An electric light bulb, by contrast, gives off 10 percent light while the other 90 percent is heat.
Each species of firefly has a specific flash pattern. Males use it to catch the fancy of females in the area and a quick flash communication between the two ensues as they prepare to get it on. The bioluminescence is also thought to be a warning to other predators: "don't eat me, I taste really bad."
Their life span is about two months. Which made me wonder: if, as Einstein said, time is relative, does time slow down for a firefly? Do they cram a lot of living in that short period? There was certainly a lot of sex happening out in the woods on the Fourth of July.....
Nature's light show.
It's been a good year for lightning bugs. For some reason - the wet weather perhaps? - there were a lot of them. I say 'were,' because the bloom is over. Just a few stragglers blinking in the night.
Fireflies aren't flies - they're actually a type of beetle. Kansas is the western edge of their habitat. They're an eastern bug - lightning bugs are a rarity on the west coast.
Their glow comes from a chemical reaction in light-producing organs in the firefly's abdomen. They're quite efficient at producing light: nearly 100 percent of their light is given off as light. An electric light bulb, by contrast, gives off 10 percent light while the other 90 percent is heat.
Each species of firefly has a specific flash pattern. Males use it to catch the fancy of females in the area and a quick flash communication between the two ensues as they prepare to get it on. The bioluminescence is also thought to be a warning to other predators: "don't eat me, I taste really bad."
Their life span is about two months. Which made me wonder: if, as Einstein said, time is relative, does time slow down for a firefly? Do they cram a lot of living in that short period? There was certainly a lot of sex happening out in the woods on the Fourth of July.....
Nature's light show.
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