Tag Archives: spider

Bugs: Chubbuck, Idaho

Just a fraction of the insects flying and crawling around in Chubbuck, Idaho.

This big Ten-Lined June Beetle flew into my Chubbuck, Idaho, kitchen while I was frying my homegrown potatoes, 29JUL2023.  They are common in the U.S. & Canada. This one has underdeveloped ‘paddle’ antennae. They are known for being bad at flying, often flying into obstacles. The larvae take as long as four years to develop:

This bee seemed to love this giant Chubbuck onion, 29JUN2023:

Some butterflies/moths seen in Chubbuck, Idaho, last Summer 2022, video by me:

I found a couple of Praying Mantis crawling on the ground, I thought they might want to be higher up, but they wouldn’t have anything to do with it, August 2022:

Sometime in 2022.

06SEP2021.

14AUG2021.

02JUL2021.

Katydid, 02SEP2020.

A young Katydid, 28JUL2020.

Chubbuck, Idaho, 22SEP2018.

Cat Faced Spider (Araneus gemmoides, aka Jewel Spider), I haven’t seen any for the past few years (the Pland-emic?).  They should also be called ‘human eye’ spider because they have designs on their backs that look like eyeballs.

Cat Faced-Jewel-Eyeball Spider, Chubbuck, Idaho, 18SEP2018.

Locust Plague(?), 2021:

Photo by AAron B. Hutchins.

FAT HOPPER, AND THE GHOST OF ITS FORMER SELF

A praying mantis paid a visit to my computer keyboard, in Chubbuck, Idaho. I tried to put it outside, but it seemed to like the attention and didn’t want to leave. Video by me, September 2020:

July 2013, Mosquitoes: LARVAE SWARM AFTER IDAHO RAIN STORM! STANDING WATER CLAIM A MYTH?

More bug stuff: “…A PERFECT TERRIBLE STORM.”; CRAWLING MORMON CRICKETS & FLYING GRASSHOPPERS JOIN FORCES?

WHY BUYING FLOWERS FROM OVERSEAS IS A NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT!

PHILIP J. FRY SHOULD’VE KEPT THOSE SPACE-WORMS! EXERCISE IS ALSO GOOD FOR YOUR…PARASITES?

Spider Man is for real: The Dutch combine spider webs with human skin, makes bullet proof skin

Human skin has been bio-engineered to include spider silk.  Scientists in the Netherlands then fired a bullet at it.  Turns out it’s bullet proof!

Don’t get too excited, it was only a .22 caliber bullet.  But it shows promise, after all spider’s silk is the strongest thing in nature.

https://youtu.be/iX3LtVuGp4c

The experiment is known as 2.6g 329m/s (a reference to the .22 bullet), and was actually the invention of an artist, Jalila Essaidi.  She was inspired by a U.S. scientist, Randy Lewis, at the University of Utah.

The spider silk came from Utah, it was combined with skin in a Dutch dermatology lab, and Essaidi paid for the experiment.  The spidey skin has spider silk between the dermis and the epidermis.

Essaidi said her main motivation was simply to see if it could be done.  She also fired a few .22 rounds at the spidey skin.  She doesn’t think the spider silk is harmful because it’s biodegradable, so it would degrade over time.  She also thinks that, unfortunately, that would result in loose skin.