Category: Nature
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Failed replication and a germination mystery
In “The Nature of Oaks”, Doug Tallamy suggests an experiment: To be fair to worm catchers, many of the inhabitants of oak leaf litter are barely visible to the naked eye even though they are everywhere you look. But there is an easy way to observe some of the larger arthropods in the litter beneath…
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Caterpillars overwinter outside
One fact from Doug Tallamy‘s The Nature of Oaks that surprised me especially: Some caterpillars in colder climates overwinter outside! Bernd [Heinrich] decided to dissect golden-crowned kinglets that had been killed during the winter by window strikes in Maine. To his surprise and my amazement, their tiny crops were jam-packed with caterpillars — caterpillars the…
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J. Gordon Edwards Entomology Museum
Our youngin is interested in entomology so we were happy to get a chance to visit the J. Gordon Edwards Entomology Museum at San Jose State University. We were very grateful to Dr. Fred Larabee for being up for showing us around; from his enthusiastic introduction to the collection and the work being done around…
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Viceroys aren’t faking it
I finally finished Doug Tallamy‘s book “Bringing Nature Home” today. I’d highly recommend it. You might also like this talk from him and his site homegrownnationalpark.org. One aside in the book that caught my attention: One of my favorite butterflies, the viceroy (Limenitis archippus), is most commonly found near willow hosts… The adults are the…