"What’s that Bug" Website Folk -
I enjoyed very much browsing your website. I am interested to know where you are located and what regional insect fauna you are most associated with. I am author of the Exploring California Insects website –
www.bugpeople.org.
Eddie Dunbar, Project Director
"Exploring California Insects"
5209 Congress Avenue
Oakland, CA 94601-5405
"Lake Merritt and Greater Oakland Insects"
a field guide covering 105 local groups
with 100 color images is now available.
Visit the ECI website: www.bugpeople.org
Hi Eddie,
Thank you for the nice letter. I can see downtown Los Angeles from my backyard. I live in the neighborhood of Mt. Washington near one of the entrances to Elyria Canyon. Most of the photos that I take for the site are in my garden or the canyon. What’s That Bug? started as a lark in a photocopied “zine” called American Homebody. When American Homebody went online, the column What’s That Bug? went along for the ride. The column generated so much mail that we purchased the domain name and www.whatsthatbug.com became a spin-off of the original site. Quite frankly, we aren’t associated with any entomological organizations, but we do occasionally get advice from the staff of the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History. One of my greatest interests is to do documentary photos of the life cycles of some local insects and I am thinking of applying for funding to create a pamplet for Elyria Canyon Park with insect photos. I have also been toying with the idea of adapting a book based on our site that could act as a humorous accompaniment to Hogue’s awesome Insects of the Los Angeles Basin.
¶
Posted 24 June 2004
§
Uncategorized
‡
°
Also tagged:
Hurrah for you guys!
I just wanted to compliment you on your fascinating site! I’m a student in Oxford studying Environmental Biology (my speciality being spiders – recently identified 807 of them for a research project!). I’ve often used your site for information in essays, and i think it’s a brilliant resource for everybody.
You must thoroughly enjoy running it.
Keep up the good work,
Olivia
Thank you so much for the sweet letter Olivia. I am amazed that a prestigious institution like Oxford has benefitted from our humble site. My biggest thrill in the spider identification category was the Red Legged Purse Web Spider. That photo was so beautiful and I was obsessed with identifying it. Have a great day.
Daniel
¶
Posted 23 June 2004
§
Uncategorized
‡
°
Also tagged:
I am a high school entomology teacher in coastal Georgia. I love your website. I just found it today. If you come across any resources that I could use for my ento. class please do not hesitate to send them to me. my email address is eharris@effingham.k12.ga.us . I have put together a web page for the class at www.effinghamschools.com/sehs/eharris We are trying to come up with material for it. I am sure that I will be sending you things now that I have found your site.
Thanks
Eric Harris
South Effingham High School
Head Volleyball Coach
Assistant Guys Soccer Coach
¶
Posted 07 June 2004
§
Uncategorized
‡
°
Also tagged:
Well, I was going through my bookmarks on my work computer today and
thought I would check the What’s that Bug site and lucky me, you’re
back! I thought the site had disappeared. I use your site occasionally
to look up insects, and may one day send a photo if I ever get stumped.
I occasionally id insects with my job, and insect id is also a great
hobby, keep up the great work!
Rene Simon,
Placer County Agriculture Department
Thank you for the nice letter Rene
We don’t plan on going anywhere. We have free web hosting and continue to exceed our monthly traffic quota about mid month. Since we do not have advertising, and don’t really want to pay additional money for a labor of love, we do disappear on occasion.
¶
Posted 03 June 2004
§
Uncategorized
‡
°
Also tagged:
Hi Bugpeople,
First off ,I am soooo not into bugs. I cant stand anything creepy crawly. I caught a bug in my office today crawling on the wall. I thought silverfish but came to find it is a house centipede. I live in Missouri and this is the first one I have ever seen. I looked for awhile and until I found your site almost gave up.I put you in my favs for future reference. But I have to tell you I have been looking at your site for well over an hour now and have never felt so creeped out.I could swear I keep feeling stuff crawling on me. And that spider/nastycreepycrawly thing from the Middle East OMG I would surely die of a heart attack if ever I saw one in person. Thanks for giving me something else to have nightmares about.
Sincerely,
Tina Brewer
¶
Posted 03 June 2004
§
Uncategorized
‡
°
Also tagged:
(01/28/2006) Possible Explanation:
Horsehair worms lead Jerusalem crickets to water?
I read the account of the pond full of drowned ‘potato bugs’ and can offer a possible explanation — There is a group of ‘worms’ (Phylum Nematomorpha: Class Gorgonioidea – unless the systematics has been reworked since I was in school) that parasitize Jerusalem crickets, among other insects and crustaceans. The adults are free-living in freshwater, do not feed, and lay their eggs in the water. The hatched young parasitize an arthropod (and sometimes leeches). They go through multiple molts in the host’s body and do not emerge until they’re nearly adults. They emerge, according to my book, when the host is near water. More than once, I’ve seen a drowned Jerusalem cricket in a puddle of water with the very active horsehair worm that had just emerged. I recall my prof saying that the gordioid worms actually may be able to ‘force’ the Jerusalem crickets to enter pools deep enough to drown them (the Jerusalem cricket, that is), if there were no other water source available, but no one had figured out how that worked. The description of the pile of drowned Jerusalem crickets in the backyard pond your correspondent described is truly impressive — maybe they had a thriving population of horsehair worms in the garden! Your site is truly wonderful —
Kathy
¶
Posted 16 October 2003
§
Uncategorized
‡
°
Also tagged:
Great website! I found a glow worm in my driveway tonight, and only figured out what it was through your page. I had only heard of them in my childhood memories. What a thrill!
D. Scott
Thanks! I really enjoyed that … your site was featured in Cool Tricks &
Trinkets Email newsletter today … and although I find bugs creepy, I was
irrationally drawn to check out your site … is that kind of like slowing
down for an accident? Maybe. Anyway, I just wanted you to know that I think
your design is great, your writing excellent, and all around, a great site!
What the Internet is all about!
Thanks!!
Regards,
M.-J. Taylor
Dear M.-J.,
Thanks so much for the glowing compliments. We’re just two college teachers with too much time on our hands and an interest in putting information out into the world. Have a great day.
Daniel & Lisa Anne
great job!
Fantastic Website!!! I’m so glad I found you! for the past 3 yrs I’ve been trying to figure out what bug is in my shower every summer and immediately learned they were springtails from your website. You guys are great! So glad you’re out there for people like me. I also very much enjoyed the beautiful photos people have submitted and have a new appreciation for bugs considering i’m scared to death of them. thanks again and keep up the GREAT work!
Keriena
¶
Posted 01 July 2003
§
Uncategorized
‡
°
Also tagged:
