The Smaller Majority

A record breaker in my neighborhood

When it comes to finding the world’s most [insert adjective] insect, one usually needs to go to some remote, usually tropical location. But it just happens that the world’s smallest cricket lives right around the corner from my house. The Eastern ant cricket (Myrmecophilus pergandei) is a remarkable and highly adaptable little creature. These insects…

Against the sun

Right after finding out that you should always take the lens cap off before taking a picture, the second most important lesson in photography that we usually learn is that we should not point the lens against the sun. There is a very good reason for this: the camera’s light metering system will attempt to…

The rarity of blue

The other day I was listening to Radiolab in my car (if you don’t know this program, give them a listen), and the topic of the episode was our perception of colors. I was struck by the statement that the color blue is exceptionally rare in nature and, as a consequence, philologists claim, this is…

Danger, in black and white

Many years ago I read a book by Raymond Maufrais, a colorful French character, whose writing about South American exploits remains virtually unknown outside of France (and, for some reason, Poland.) The book, “Aventures en Guyane”, was published posthumously, and was based on his diary found in a remote village in the interior of French…

Red-headed Bush Cricket, part 2

Exactly one month ago I saw my first Red-headed Bush Cricket, also known as the Handsome Trig. It was a tiny nymph, but it already carried its signature large mandibular palps, waving them like crazy. Yesterday, while in Estabrook Woods, MA, I heard a cricket call that I did not recognize. After my wife and…

My local bioblitz

During the last few days I was supposed to be a member of a team of photographers and scientists, whose job was to document the biodiversity of animals and plants of the Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. This event, organized and sponsored by the National Park Service and National Geographic Society, aims to bring…