When Blood-Sucking Mega-Fleas Stalked the Earth!

The giant dinosaurs that roamed the world some 150 million years ago shared the planet with equally daunting parasites: blood-gobbling fleas that were up two centimetres long. This according to a recent article in Nature, the international weekly journal of science. (Long, serrated piercing tubes and grasping claws suggest adaptation to feed on hairy animals or feathered [...]

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Sex-starved fruit flies driven to drink more alcohol!

Let’s file this under the “Yew jus’ cain’t make this $#!t up!” category, shall we? Apparently… and I am NOT making this stuff up… sexually deprived male fruit flies exhibit a pattern of behavior that seems ripped from the pages of modern man’s ‘That’s the Story of My Life!’ When female fruit flies reject their [...]

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Bees Use Sign Language to Give Hornets the Finger!

We all know that bees do the most amazing things. They set up intricate societies. They wage war on other bee colonies. They clear their beehives of debris and dead bee bodies. But perhaps one of their most famous talents is the ability to communicate with other bees by means of a ‘wiggle dance’ by [...]

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Cricket Fossil Reveals Jurassic Love Song!

Just in time for Valentine’s Day… Fossil Cricket Reveals Jurassic Love Song Yes, those love-besotted geeks over at ScienceDaily.com have spared every expense in bringing us this heart-warming tale of prehistoric passion. [Present day Katydid (Tettigonia viridissima)] The nerdlings gush, “The love song of an extinct cricket that lived 165 million years ago has been [...]

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Zombie-like Honeybees Infested by Fly Parasite!

As if Honeybee Hive Collapse Disorder alone wasn’t enough. Now we have to contend with… ZOMBIE HONEY BEES!! (OK… OK… maybe they don’t actually literally say “Brains!”) A fly parasite that latches onto honeybees causing them to abandon their hives and die after a bout of disoriented zombie-like behaviour could be a potential threat to [...]

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Our Readers Write: Year End Thoughts

A year-end sampling of some of the responses, comments and opinions received from our readers… (translated from the original Chiropteran, various Hexapodan languages and dialects, Arachnidan, Anuran and Zombese). (A gallery of familiar faces) Dear Kosher Samurai… A close friend recommended I read your blog, saying that I would most likely enjoy your views on [...]

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The Fairy Wasp – that’s one itsy-bitsy insect!

Just when you thought the world of entomology couldn’t possibly get any weirder, we bring you… ~ (drumroll, please) ~ The Fairy Wasp! (When I say these things are small… I’m here to tell you, I mean small!) Fairy wasps are some of the tiniest little critters in the world. The entire bug is about [...]

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Ancient ‘Daddy Long Legs’ Revealed in 3-D Models

Once again, our beloved paleoentomology nerdlings at ScienceDaily.com have failed to disappoint. Ancient ‘Daddy Long Legs’ Revealed in 3-D Models! I just had to get a load of this particular 300-million-year-old Great-Great-Granddaddy Long Legs. (300-million-year-old Daddy Long Legs) It reminded me of when I first caught a glimpse of a 49-million-year-old spider, as I wrote [...]

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Bumblebees: Back from the Brink of Extinction!

Admittedly, I don’t get out much, so I think I might be forgiven when, a week or so ago, I was taken aback upon spying what I had presumed to be a hitherto-extinct creature. (a long lost friend) A bumblebee, an insect that I’ve not seen in the wild (i.e. anywhere outside my apartment) since [...]

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Loudest Animal Recorded for the First Time! (Not for Kids)

As so often happens, a headline caught my attention while I was perusing the online edition of ScienceDaily (July 1, 2011). [1] Loudest Animal Recorded for the First Time! And the winner is… The Lesser Water Boatman! The article states, “Scientists have shown for the first time that the loudest animal on earth, relative to [...]

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