Happy Birthday Doctor!

Today is Patrick Throughton's birthday. Patrick Throughton is, of course, best known as the second incarnation of the Doctor, which he played from 1966 to 1969. I've always enjoyed his 'cosmic hobo' version of the Timelord. Throughton was born in 1920 and passed away in 1987.
Happy Birthday Patrick!

Patrick Troughton as the second Doctor

Weekly Hemiptera - Oncometopia nigricans

Photo by Sean McCann, Source: EOL,
Creative Commons

Arthropod Art - La Princesse

Remember back in 2008, when that giant spider invaded Liverpool... What? You don't? Well let me remind you...

This beast, called 'La Princesse', was a thirteen meter, 37 tonnes mechanical spider, designed, built and operated by the French performance art company La Machine. La Princesse's designer, François Delarozière, also designed the giant girl and elephant puppets for the Royal de Luxe show 'Sultan's Elephant'. The spider took a year to build and was made from metal and wood. It moved using complex hydrolics and was operated by a dozen people, strapped to the spider's body.
The colossal arachnid walked moved around the city of Liverpool from 3 to 7 september 2008 as part of the 2008 European capital of culture celebrations. In 2009 La Princesse and another similar spider by La Machine appeared in Yokohama, Japan, to mark the 150th anniversary of the port.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Princesse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Machine_%28production_company%29

How did I not know about this?!

Membracid treehopper (Tribe Stegaspidini) (source: EOL)

So, I only found out recently that there is a documentary about Membracidae, a family of treehoppers. The documentary follows a team of scientists collecting Membracidae in the Amazon. It shows some of the spectacular shapes and colors of membracids, which are definitely among the most spectacular insects. In particular it talks about the possible functions of the membracids' elaburate pronotum.
The documentary is callled 'Aliens of the Amazon' and was originally broadcast on Science Channel in 2010 (I watched it dubbed in French on ARTE).
I managed to find the first two parts on Youtube, but the last part is missing and sadly I can't find it anywhere.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Weekly Hemiptera - Leptoglossus occidentalis

This little creature (well actually not that little for a bug) is Leptoglossus occidentalis, also known as the leaf footed bug or Western conifer seed bug. It's a North American species, originally, but it's now wide spread in Europe as well. I seem to be coming across this species quite regularly, these days. The specimen in the picture was one of three which showed up in my room one morning.

I know, I know... It's a nasty, invasive pest species... But it's just so pretty!

Some more Microraptor stuff.

Some cool videos I found regarding the recent findings on Microraptor.

1) Interview with Mick Ellison, the guy who did the Microraptor gui reconstruction featured in the previous post, talking about scientific illustration and various media:
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2012/03/08/science/100000001415246/drawing-on-the-past.html

2) Interview with Mick Elisson and Mark Norell on Microraptor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRWYB6KT67Q&list=FLOufTbQoc8A_AX0IzqnybUg&feature=mh_lolz

Cretaceous Crows: Microraptor's colors revealed.

Microraptor is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropods known from the early cretaceous Jiufotang Formation in China. The Jiufotang formation is well known among paleontologists for the beautifully preserved fossils, including a number of feathered dinosaurs and birds. Microraptor was a small dinosaur (adults range from about 80 to 90 cm in length) and was peculiar in that it had long flight feathers on both front- and hindlimbs. It seems likely that Microraptor was a treedweller, using its four 'wings' to glide between trees and branches.