Bluetoothkiwi documents his LEGO Mindstorms Swimming Pool Insect Terminator (SPIT) – it’s a great example of the process of problem-solving. Swimming Pool Insect Terminator (SPIT) is a special self powered autonamous floating robot that locates and destroys small clusters of bugs that float on the top of swimming pools. We used LEGO MINDSTORMS to build […]
Trilobite beetle of Laos Mad Maxine sent me a great bug link – QuaoArlo has a great collection of videos he’s taken – he’s quite the world traveler and really knows his bugs. My favorite is the Trilobite beetle from Laos – it’s fantastic! It moves in a really unusual way; its legs are all […]
Artist David Rogers makes these wonderful ginormous sculptures of bugs. He started constructing things and learned to weld when he was only 13! His bugs are well-traveled; looks like they’re currently at the New England Wild Flower Society’s Garden in the Woods in Massachusetts.
Remember seeing this thing on YouTube a while back? A lot of people thought it was fake, but it’s a real critter, an Asp Caterpillar, Megalopyge opercularis, otherwise known as the puss caterpillar. It pupates into an equally adorable moth. It can be found in the southern United States – anyone ever seen one? If […]
I’ve been curious about raising praying mantises for a while; according to Wikipedia, there are 2,000 species of mantids; only 20 of them are native to the United States. I’ve heard of people using them for a natural pest control, but apparently they’ll eat beneficial insects as well as pests, and will even eat hummingbirds! […]
Now for the real thing – Poul Beckmann takes incredible photos of beetles – there’s lots of info about them if you poke around the site. I especially like the element of surprise here with no thumbnails. He sells posters here.
Glass wants to be round, glass wants to be warm all through or it breaks; it’s very hard to work with – which makes all these delicate pointy bits even more impressive. Wesley Fleming glass sculpture, via peacay
