Biodiversity in Focus Blog

The Weekly Flypaper

Morgan Jackson — Sun, 20 May 2012 05:48:12 +0000

Another week, another batch of entomophilic blogs, inspirational photographs, and spare-time diversions. General Entomology Are you an entomologist looking for a rustic home perfect for insect collecting? Then the Onion has a deal just for you! Entomologists aren’t always invited into ecosystem monitoring projects, but Chris Buddle shares his experiences with the Arctic Terrestrial Biodiversity [...]

Location, Location, Location

Morgan Jackson — Thu, 17 May 2012 23:20:57 +0000

Yesterday, UK photographer Paul Bunyard (@wildaboutimages) ran into a massive mating swarm of chironomid midges (family Chironomidae) while travelling through the Norfolk countryside, and shared some amazing images on Twitter (reproduced here with his permission). After recording the spectacle, Paul had a great question: Much like we use landmarks for finding locations where we [...]

Like a Deer Fly in the Headlights

Morgan Jackson — Wed, 16 May 2012 23:23:04 +0000

I went down to an inland dune habitat in Southwestern Ontario yesterday with my lab mates to do some collecting. For the most part insects were pretty scarce to come by, except for the biting flies, which were out in abundance. Thankfully this was the only deer fly (family Tabanidae) that I had the misfortune [...]

The Weekly Flypaper

Morgan Jackson — Sat, 12 May 2012 22:20:18 +0000

I come across a large number of interesting blog posts, news articles, scientific papers and various other types of media every week, which I try and share through Twitter on a regular basis. Since I know not everyone has been bitten by the Twitter bug yet1, I figured I’d start a weekly round up of [...]

Insect Songs for the Ages

Morgan Jackson — Wed, 09 May 2012 21:04:08 +0000

Insect nerds are a creative lot and they put their hivemind to work coming up with some amazingly Punny #InsectSongs!

It’s World Tapir Day!

Morgan Jackson — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 04:40:59 +0000

Yes, World Tapir Day is a real thing. No, you don’t get the day off work. As consolation, enjoy this photo of a juvenile South American Tapir (Tapirus terrestris) from Ecuador. All four species of tapir (3 spp. in South America, 1 in southeast Asia) are currently listed as vulnerable or endangered on the [...]

Dipterist Files – Willi Hennig

Morgan Jackson — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:03:38 +0000

The science of taxonomy is rooted in history, with every taxonomist standing on the shoulders of giants that came before. Some of these giants are well known outside of taxonomic circles: Carl Linnaeus, the godfather of taxonomy who categorized life and introduced binomial nomenclature; Charles Darwin & Alfred Russel Wallace, co-discovers of evolution through natural [...]

They’re Alive!!!

Morgan Jackson — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 21:53:49 +0000

After overwintering in a Ziploc bag stored in my barbecue, I was excited to see the first of my Eurosta solidaginis fruit flies (Tephritidae) had emerged from its puparium this morning! This was my first attempt at rearing Goldenrod Gall Flies, so I wasn’t sure what sort of success I was going to have, but so [...]

Taxonomy for 10-year-olds

Morgan Jackson — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 05:11:29 +0000

Another week, another Monday night blog challenge from the Bug Geek! Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is explain your research in 250 words or less in a way that a 10-year-old could understand. Instead of banging my head against the wall on a manuscript (see earlier challenge) I tried my hand at [...]

What once was lost

Morgan Jackson — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 18:07:09 +0000

Urophora affinis, a fruit fly in the family Tephritidae, was introduced to Ontario in the 1970′s as a biological control agent for invasive European knapweeds. When the researchers went back to check on the population a few years later, they were unable to find the species again, and concluded that the population failed to become [...]