July 31, 2016

I had such fun... out among...

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... the hymenopterans.

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16 comments:

Big Mike said...

Hymenoptera = wingers with stingers

Quaestor said...

Not always. In fact the biggest group of Hymenoptera are the ants. 33 million tonnes of them and very few wings, but all the babes have stringers.

Quaestor said...

Strangely the order name does not mean "membranous wing", though hymen has that meaning elsewhere in science, e.g. the technical term for the maidenhead (do any American females over age 12 still have those?). In this case the name translates as "married wing" or "wedded wing" from the Olympian god of wedding ceremonies. Flying insects typically have four wings in two pairs. The most obvious case are the wings of dragonflies. Houseflies have only one functioning pair, the other has changed into a kind of gyrostabilizer. Hymenopterans, the wasps, bees, and sexually functional ants have two pair, but they aren't evident to the casual eye; the wing pairs are joined by rows of minute hooks along the edges, thus "wedding" them into a single aerodynamic surface.

Sprezzatura said...

I know Althouse didn't do much blogging for the conventions. But, there's no excuse for ignoring the newest Sharknado.

Anywho, so far Lost Wages has taken a hit. More to come.

n said...

Questor,
Thanks for the entomology lesson!
#Godsamazingcreation.

Z said...

A bee isn't my idea of 'fun'!

Quaestor said...

Sharknado?! P-tooui! Distraction for backward peasants.

If you want real excitement wait for my magnum opus, Piranhacane!! Tagline: 150 miles per hour of flesh searing terror! Alternate tagline: Why it's really called the mean season! Alternate alternate tagline: You'll never go near the water again! You won't even take a bath!

Laslo Spatula said...
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Ignorance is Bliss said...

I've already caught 6 hymenopterans. Two more and I'll have enough hymenopteran candy to evolve one into a hymenoptimus.

Laslo Spatula said...

From the Fauxhaus Blog:

The Emperor's Wife Has No Clothes...

"New York (AFP) - The New York Post on Monday ran a front-page picture of potential first lady Melania Trump naked, prompting criticism on social media and charges of misogyny."

As Althouse commented in an earlier post: " I've spent hours and hours in classes with nude models. It was considered a serious and lofty activity."

Now, the introduction of props might confuse matters a bit, but sometimes a banana IS just a banana.

Not that a banana was involved: the missing banana is simply a metaphor for the usage of a banana as a symbol. And isn't the exhibitionistic outrage of some just a symbol of outrage, false outrage as a fetish of desiring real outrage?

Or -- as Dylan might have said: "But even the Wife of the President of the United States Sometimes must have to stand naked..."

I am Laslo.

Laslo Spatula said...
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Laslo Spatula said...

From the Fauxhaus Blog:

ADDED:
Woman Eating a Banana. (SFW)

Is this Art? Pornography? Advertising?

All three, depending on the Viewer?

Or is Advertising Pornography in itself?

And is Art simply Advertising, as in advertising the talent of the Artist?

Can a woman eat a banana without being imbued with sexual context?

These are questions for considering when you drink a banana smoothie free of innuendo on your way to work this morning....

I am Laslo.

Quaestor said...

All three, depending on the Viewer?

Not to Quaestor's dirty little mind. She's obviously about to bite that banana straight through, and not give it a sensual slurp. Into masochism we are not.

netmarcos said...

Nice pictures, but I am more of a lepidopteran fan.

FullMoon said...

Was telling a friend how Wisconsin Dems fled state to avoid a vote. Cannot recall the reason. It must have been something exceptionally important.

Lloyd W. Robertson said...

netmarcos especially takes me back to my favourite episode of Frasier. Niles on Muhammad Ali: "floats like a lepidoptera; stings like a hymenoptera".