Aphids: the Japanese Manga Stars of the insect world

From the Boing Boing Flickr pool: link. Sort of looks like little green Domos. Per wikipedia: "Aphids, also known as plant lice and in Britain and the Commonwealth as greenflies, blackflies or whiteflies, are small sap sucking insects, and members of the superfamily Aphidoidea."

Cicada Molt

From Wikipedia:

A cicada (pronounced /sɪˈkɑːdə/ or pronounced /sɪˈkeɪdə/) is an insect of the order Hemiptera, suborder Auchenorrhyncha, in the superfamily Cicadoidea, with large eyes wide apart on the head and usually transparent, well-veined wings. There are about 2,500 species of cicada around the world, and many remain unclassified.

Better yet, there is a time lapse photo of the cicada molting about half-way down the page that is pretty darn cool from a bug lover's perspective. Mrs. Spanky expressed her concern over my hemipteric musings as follows: "Yew daft man, by all that is gud in dis werld, yew be the biggest wastrel I hever laid me eyes on."

(M.A.Y. this link is especially for you. Click it, no really, click it!)
Link

Excavating an Ant Colony

Mr. Spanky has a heart for nature and the wonder that it holds. He also has a soft spot for insects mostly because they are otherworldly, inspiring, and gross a lot of people out which is just the sort of sadistic motivator that fills his life with joy.

Witness this short clip from the Science channel where a group of scientists attempt to map out an ant colony. Would they do this with a small camera attached to the head of an ant? Would they use modified endoscopic cameras on the end of a bionic arm? Would they carefully dig and expose the colony bit by bit, take measurements and construct a 3D computer model?

Don't be silly. That's too much work. They simply poured 10 tons of concrete down the holes, left it to dry for a month, and then dug it up. I'm sure the ants didn't mind.

Link

P.S. DAY, no worries, there are no millipedes in this post.

Minuscule

Funny little shorts by some French animators, "Minuscule" shows us the power of cooperation and rivalry in the insect world. Released as a collaboration between Helene Giraud, Thomas Szabo, and the Disney Channel, they mix CGI animation and real world scenes to create a humorous potpourri of the world beneath our feet. The subtitle for the clips is "The Private Life of Insects" and the stories are charming.

There are 4 DVDs full of insecty goodness in 78 creepy crawly episodes. A perfect Christmas gift for children of all ages if you can actually read French and swallow the 40€ cost. The movies themselves contain no language and as such are universally understandable.

Now Mr. Spanky is more miserly than Mr. Crachet and doesn't like to tease so of course there's more: if you are an iPod owner you can go to the iTunes store, click on Podcasts->Video Podcasts->Comedy->Minuscule, la vie privee des insectes on DVD and subscribe to 20 (and counting) of those episodes for free!

Link

P.S.: Warning, MA, there are spiders in these clips.

P.P.S.: to all you centipedes out there, break a leg!