Tag Archives: parasites
Petaluma Bird Sanctuary Threatened
There is a new asphalt plant planned for a site along the Petaluma River. GOOD NEWS, right!? Industry, new jobs in a ravaged marketplace… But, in this case, the costs may be too high. Because in this case, the proposed … Continue reading
Filed under backyard fauna, endangered species, human behavior, Uncategorized
Parasitic Wasps, part deux
A friend to BV has alerted the author to the following video, as a follow-up to a recent posting on parasitic wasps. His advice? Not to watch this while eating lunch. Dear readers, heed this wise man’s advice. But *do* watch. The … Continue reading
The Pop-Culture Guide to Swine flu
The purpose of BV has always been to inform, and now the author feels called upon to clear up some misconceptions floating around about the swine flu epidemic. We’ll start with a brief “scene from a paparazzi”: ****************************************************************************************************************************** [exterior, … Continue reading
The Ant-lion (lion ant)
The entire premise of Bestiarum Vocabulum, as some of you might know, rests on the genre of the medieval bestiary ( or bestiarum vocabulum). It is therefore meet that we occasionaly visit the archives for entries, as part of an … Continue reading
Undead Spiders Survive Mass Drowning.
The author of BV, dear readers, is not happy. She is, in fact, deeply, deeply troubled. And all because what she is about to report confirms her deepest suspicions about order Araneae; spiders are, in fact, evil minions of the undead sent … Continue reading
Cane toads just can’t catch a break
Once upon a time, 101 Cane toads were deliberately introduced to Australia, under the premise that they would eat the beetles ruining the sugar cane crops, ridding the farmers and population of a costly pest. Yet as we have learned time and … Continue reading
Ichneumon wasps: evidence against religion or just mean sons of Bi*%*!s ?
Darwin once offered the ichneumon wasp as proof against the central tenets of natural theology, which believed in the creation of all living things by a benevolent god. Expressing his opinion in a letter to American botanist Asa Gray, Darwin wrote: ”I cannot persuade myself that … Continue reading
Filed under backyard fauna, parasites, Phobia-inducing
Yeti Crab; merchandising goldmine?
In 2006, a group of marine biologists announced that they had discovered a new species of deep-sea crab; the so-called “yeti crab,” named for the abominable snowman of the Himalayas, earned its nickname because it sports legs covered with long, yellow hairs. Other preliminary nomenclature for Kiwa hirsuta included “Paris Crab” and ”Trump … Continue reading
Invasive Species/ Critical Habitat Alert
Will libraries, which have been sanctuary to books (libri) since they evolved on earth, slowly be replaced with genus “kindle,” bloodless, soulless creatures of invention? Will paper and cloth-bound books themselves be replaced? Some laud the efficiency and convenience of this new … Continue reading
Filed under endangered species, Uncategorized
ANGLERFISH:
Male Anglerfish (from the order Lophiformes) are tiny, insignificant in appearance, and were, when scientests first began studying the Anglerfish, thought to be parasites attached to the much larger females (up to 20x larger than the males). When a male matures, his digestive … Continue reading
Filed under marine life, parasites, the strange and the beautiful, Uncategorized
Weasels: Genus Mustela
Weasels have long been pervasive on earth- often reviled as thieves, there are weasels on every continent in the world. Certain members of genus mustela reportedly perform the “mesmerizing weasel war dance” after fighting or stealing food.* Members of this genus are known as tricky, … Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
The anti-book worm
Anti-book worms (cestoda antibibliographia) are a new discovery similar to the amoeba Naegleria fowleri (the brain eating parasite). Despite its name, the anti-book worm enters the host through contact with the old books in which the worms incubate;* anti-book … Continue reading
Filed under parasites
