InsectView

Ah the venerable Honeybee. Humanities history with this insect stretches back beyond the written word, even beyond podcasts. This incomprehensible timeframe has left people with a lot of time to figure out many different ways to keep, collect, and utilize honeybees. This is the focus of our first episode on honeybees, where we cover topics like early honey collection methods, the development of beekeeping, and the competing theories around the honeybees evolutionary origins.

Hear about the bedbug infestation terrifying the city of Paris, an interesting new way of detecting heavy metal contamination (hint, if you were planning on eating plant galls in industrial areas, don't), and why there's a journal of apiculture in the Wright Brothers exhibit at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museums.

Pierre Andre Latreille, a French entomologist who lived from 1762-1833, is probably best known for having his life saved by a beetle. However there's a lot more to his story, and he went on to make a number of sigificant contributions to the field of entomology ( all thanks to the beetle ). Learn all about this lesser known but important entomologist on this new episode of Insectview. https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.en.19.010174.000245 https://www.amusingplanet.com/2020/09/pierre-andre-latreille-entomologist-who.html

Get the scoop on why insects fly to light, the bugs at the American Musuem of Natural History's new wing, and what happened to the LAPD officer who was attacked by bees in this new news episode! Sources https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.11.536486v1 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/25/arts/design/jessica-ware-insects-american-museum-natural-history.html?searchResultPosition=5 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/25/arts/design/gilder-center-natural-history-museum.html https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/1-sent-to-hospital-after-hundreds-of-bees-swarm-encino-neighborhood/ https://ktla.com/news/local-news/swarm-of-bees-closes-streets-in-encino-injuries-reported/ https://ktla.com/news/local-news/lapd-volunteer-recovering-after-being-swarmed-by-bees-in-encino/ https://www.foxla.com/news/lapd-volunteer-suffers-fractured-eye-socket-after-horrific-bee-attack-in-encino https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-05-18/los-angeles-expenses-lapd-volunteer-stung-bees-attack-viral-video https://twitter.com/LAPDPIO/status/1659000653832933376 https://www.gofundme.com/f/volunteer-lapd-officer-attacked-by-bees

Meet Antarctica's largest native terrestrial animal, the Antarctic Midge, Belgica antarctica. Learn all about it's discovery during the voyage it was named after, it's interesting biology, and tiny genome in this new episode of Insectview!

New year same Insectview! Tune in to hear our recap of 2022, as well as some plans for the future.

If you life in north America, you're almost certainly familiar with the little orange and brown caterpillar called the wooly bear. If you're in the Eastern US you may have even gone to a wooly bear festival! However, the rest of its life cycle is less familiar to most people, a fact we hope to remedy! Tune in to hear about the wooly bear, its mythos, and the celebrations that have sprung up in it's honor! Citations: https://academic.oup.com/biolinnean/article/68/4/557/2645369 https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/214/14/2416/918/How-do-tiger-moths-jam-bat-sonar https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/214/7/1205/33560/The-sub-lethal-effects-of-repeated-freezing-in-the https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12770036/ https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/banded-woollybear https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26281804/ http://www.minnesotaseasons.com/Insects/Isabella_tiger_moth.html https://academic.oup.com/biolinnean/article/68/4/557/2645369

In this episode of insect news hear about a rediscovered rare army ant fossil, a newly discovered milk like substance ants consume, and a selection of insect news stories from the early 20th century. Amber army ant: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/11/221122221254.htm Ant milk: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/11/221130114454.htm

In this episode of Insect News we look back on the story of bumble bees playing that was all over the news a few weeks ago. We also take a look at why you might be attracting more mosquito bites then other people, and how some researchers used a CT scanner... on a swarm of bees?

It may have been a slow couple weeks on the Insect News front, but there's always something going on in the world of insects! Hear about the entomological origins of daylight savings time, a fake spotted lanternfly, and a woman charged for assault by using... bees?

The Ignobel awards were handed out recently, and the biology prize was given to research on scorpions ( not an insect, but close enough for us)! We also take a look at the recent resurgence of plastic eating waxworms in the news, get the whole story on this episode of Insect News!

The Rocky Mountain Locust is responsible for what is the largest locust swarm in recorded US history. In 1874 the swarm emerged from the rocky mountains and swept across the Midwest, blocking out the sun and covering entire states, leaving farms completely stripped of vegetation. Learn all about the 1874 swarm, and the insect that it was composed of, on this episode of Insectview! Sources: https://books.google.com/books?id=kSU4AQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA25#v=onepage&q=caloptenus&f=false The fate of the Rocky Mountain locust, Melanoplus spretus Walsh: implications for conservation biology ( Jeffrey A. Lockwood ) https://www.hcn.org/issues/243/13695 https://www.historynet.com/1874-the-year-of-the-locust/#:~:text=In%201874%20some%20120%20billion,great%20Western%20migration%20of%20Americans.

The first episode of a new experiment we're doing where the topic is insect news! This hopefully bi-weekly series will be a quick look at whatever has been happening in the world of insects. For this episode we cover monarch butterflies status on the red list, the ongoing advance of the spotted lanternfly, turning ants from pets to garden helpers, and mosquitos unstoppable smelling abilities.

You may not have heard of it, but you've definitely encountered this insect before. The Cochineal insect is used to make a striking red dye that can still be encountered in foods and makeup at your local grocery store. Learn all about it's biology and history on this episode of Insectview!

As far as moths go, this one is up there with the prettiest! Learn all about the luna moth's taste in plants as well as it's interesting defense mechanisms!

An insect everyone knows! The House Fly has been mildly irritating humanity since the dawn of time. Learn all about their life cycle, relation to public health, and why they're still afraid of Canadian children to this day.

Hear ye Hear ye! The tale of the trial of the century is about to be told, the wine growers of St. Julian vs... weevils? Wait what? We're trying out a different format this episode by going over a piece of insect history! Tune in to learn about how medieval courts brought insects to trial! Source The Criminal Prosecution of Insects : Harry B. Weiss

Bombs away! Learn all about this adorable flies curious egg laying habitats as we finally discuss an actual fly! Sources - The evolutionary pattern of host use in the Bombyliidae (Diptera): a diverse family of parasitoid flies (Yeates et al.) - https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/pollinator-of-the-month/bee_flies.shtml - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombyliidae

Lets take a look back at the past year of Insectview, our plans for the future, and the candidates for the Bug of the Year!

Welcome to your one stop shop for learning all about the enigmatic aquatic predators known as Dobsonflies! Citations - Oviposition of the Dobsonfly (Corydalus cornutus, Megaloptera) on a Large River (Brian P. Mangan) - Bionomics and Ecological Services of Megaloptera Larvae (Dobsonflies, Fishflies, Alderflies) (Sara Lariza Rivera-Gasperin et al.) - Behavioral Observations on the Dobsonfly, Corydalus cornutus (Megaloptera: Corydalidae) with Photographic Evidence of the Use of the Elongate Mandibles in the Male. ( Thomas J. Simosen et al.) -https://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/eastern_dobsonfly.htm