Can insects create art? In huge numbers, bark beetles inscribe their life stories onto dead wood. Entire cities are carved out in each tree, cities that flourish one year only to collapse the next year from competition and disease. Like many human civilizations before ours, each bark beetle generat
The young, living in pits around the main tunnel, spread the fungus even farther
Starry Night will not be held in 2021. Meet astronomers, enjoy interactive activities and see a portable planetarium show. This is a FREE, fun-filled night of astronomical proportions! Doors open and event begins at 6 p.m. A sample list of activities are available below along with more inf
Cosmic Time Tunnel (Galleria) Experience a journey through cosmic time and space
Plants may seem like some of nature’s most passive creatures, but some have a say in how they live and even where they live. Cody Howard, a Ph.D. candidate in the Cellinese Lab at the Florida Museum of Natural History, is hot on the trail of geophytes, plants with underground storage structures,
geophytes by Halle Marchese and Cody Howard • June 28, 2019 Some geophytes can tunnel
Beverly and Jon Thompson Discovery Zone Now Open! Permanent exhibit Press Release Major Themes and Components Did You Know Exhibit Webpage Explore, observe, study, pretend and play! This new permanent exhibit designed for children 8 and under will have opportunities for the whole fa
Children investigate how different objects float in the “Discovery Zone� wind tunnel
R esearchers have identified an invasive blood-sucking parasite on mud shrimp in the waters of British Columbia’s Calvert Island. The discovery represents the northern-most record of the parasite on the West Coast and is likely an indication of its ability to spread without human transport. Or
nutrients when they filter food, pumping oxygenated water into an expansive network of tunnel
You might think the buffest frogs would be high jumpers, but if you want shredded pecs, you should train like a burrowing frog. Though famously round, these diggers are the unsung bodybuilders of the frog world. We bring you tips from frog expert Rachel Keeffe, a doctoral student at the University o
Most tunnel hind end-first with their back legs.
In the summer of 2020, Florida Museum researchers Tobias Grun and Michał Kowalewski dove into the shallow waters off the coast of the Florida Keys and scoured the ocean floor for sea urchins. Telltale tracks and dimples in the sediment alerted them to the presence of sand dollars, sea biscuits and h
As they tunnel their way through sand, silt and mud in an endless quest for food,
Akito Kawahara was snapping pictures at a scenic outlook in Hawaii when he spotted the moth equivalent of a dodo. An entomologist, Kawahara recognized the squiggly patterns on nearby plants as trails carved by leaf-mining caterpillars and lowered his camera to take a closer look. To his astonishm
Philodoria is found nowhere except Hawaii, it is related to the common caterpillars that tunnel
Florida Museum of Natural History researchers are asking for help tracking two obscure species of ultra-fuzzy, fast-flying native bees that are most active from August through October. Southeastern plasterer bees live in scrub, pineland and sandhill habitats; adjacent open areas; and along roadsi
Females of many species in the plasterer bee family line the tunnels of their nests
Mezcal is a distilled alcohol made from the boiled and fermented sap of agave plants. Most mezcal beverages — including all brands of tequila — are sold as pure distillates, but a few have an added stowaway bottled inside: worms. Called gusanos de maguey (Spanish for agave worms), these odd organ
Their large, milky-white caterpillars parasitize several agave species, boring tunnels
