The Urban Pantheist

Here are some spiders that I either couldn't identify, or I figured they were probably ones that I'd shown in the 280 project already. Spiders are always good anyway, so enjoy:


This little one has bagged a honeybee, complete with saddlebags loaded with pollen.


This beauty is probably a male Agelenid spider, but I didn't get a shot of the eye arrangement to be sure.


I noticed this cross orbweaver at a cookout yesterday. I forget that not everyone is as excited to see them as I am. I should carry a container to rescue unwanted spiders from ungrateful homeowners and party hosts.

The house centipede, Scutigera coleoptrata, has appeared on this blog a number of times proportionate only to the amount of needless distress this harmless animal seems to cause. The house centipede is distinguished among centipedes by having all its segment fused into a straight line. This, along with its 15 pairs of very long legs, allows it to run very quickly. These beneficial predators are native to the Mediterranean, but now are found in and around houses around the world. On Tuesday morning I found one quietly resting on the outside wall of my house.


Later on Tuesday I watched the first inspection of the honey bee hives at the zoo.

Ever since I learned it existed, I've wanted to see the La Brea tar pits. That alone was reason to go to Los Angeles. This main lake by the road is actually a pit created by humans 100-150 years ago, digging the tar out because it's a useful substance. Native Americans also dug the tar out to use as an adhesive and water-proofing agent. I had the impression before that the animals would sink in tar over their heads, but that's probably not what happened. According to the information in the Page Museum (the museum associated with the tar pits) a large animal got stuck once a decade or so, and predators would swarm in and feed--getting stuck themselves. Fossilized fly pupae and other insects show that the trapped animals were exposed for some time before their remains sunk into the tar to become the most important record of ice age life known.

( more tar pit, more museum! )

I was outside taking advantage of it being summer (YEAH BABY) and a honeybee decided to take a rest on my keyboard.



I observed it for a while, took these pictures, then got back to work, carefully avoiding any work that required the control key.

European robin on the Reading campus.

( Insects on flowers on the Reading campus )

On this day in 365 Urban Species: Freshwater bryozoan, a personal favorite, discovered while snorkeling with a reporter from the Weekly Dig.

Photos by cottonmanifesto. Location: On a volunteer milkweed plant in a garden in Olmsted Park.

Urban species #194: Honeybee Apis mellifera

No other insect has had as significant and positive interaction with humans as the honeybee. This animal is thought to be native to Europe, North Africa, and western Asia. Now it is found on all continents except Antarctica, in both cultivated and wild forms. Like pigeons, bees are provided with homes without fences, cages with open doors. They are free to roam, and frequently new colonies are established in the wild. The bees must find a hollow tree, or similar substitute, which in the city is often a space within the walls of a building. Specialized exterminator businesses exist to remove bees and their hives (usually keeping the honey) from urban settings.

Honeybees are social insects, forming colonies with thousands of individuals. The honeybees seen gathering nectar from flowers are sterile female workers. They produce honey to provide a year round source of food for their developing larvae. The tremendous amount of sugar (a difficult commodity to come by in ancient times) honeybees produce is just the most obvious and immediate importance they have. Far more important is their service as pollinators for crop foods and wild plants. Most good farms have hives on site to ensure that flowers become fruit, a process that is impossible in many cases without the bees. The cultural significance of honeybees in ancient times is reflected in the repeated association of honey with the gods. Today it's a term of endearment so prevalent, most of us who use it rarely even think of the literal meaning of "my honey."

Reportedly up to 40 people in the United States die from bee stings each year, but most of these are probably stings from yellow jackets and other wasps. Honey bees are relatively docile insects; this investigator has handled them in the field without incident. Experiments in Brazil to develop more productive honeybees have famously resulted in a strain of bees that are far more aggressive. "Africanized" or "killer" bees are those descendants of these honeybees that exhibit the behavioral traits of being more likely to sting an intruder and much more likely to pursue an intruder. These traits seem to be spreading northward from the original Brazilian population, making apiarists and apiphobes in North America quite nervous. Apparently, adding insult to injury, Africanized bees produce much less honey than other honeybees.



( Two more views, by my honey: )