It’s Canada Day! For that reason, and since I’ve been doing a bit of field work, this week’s Expiscor is perhaps a bit shorter than usual. However… better some fun discoveries than none at all!

Here are a few things that caught my attention this past week:

• In the spirit of Canada Day, there a heck of a lot of species with “canadensis” as part of their name. Wikipedia has a decent list, but some important things are missing (e.g., Clubiona canadensis)

• Regenerate one leg?  How about two? Dual leg regeneration in a tarantula via Dave Stone.

• Speaking of Tarantulas … here’s a ‘jaw-droppingly” gorgeous one.

• I watched Breaking Bio‘s recent discussion with the passionate, well-spoken scientist Phil Torres. He mentioned his finding about a spider making a spider decoy. Fabulous story!

• Silky fascination: here’s a post from a little while ago all about mesothele silk, from Leslie Brunetta.

• Speaking of things not quite being as they seem, I was reminded this week of Tephritid flies that mimic jumping spiders.  For more on that topic, check out this paper.

• An atypical jumping spider. Some more details here (yes, weird and wonderful)

• Right, I should give you a jumping spider photo now. Why? Just because they are so darn cute:

• Up is down, down is up. An Entomological optical illusion.

• More about the Lepidoptera: here’s a neat story of a girl who found a giant moth in her backyard– something rare for Michigan… and Facebook helped her with an identification.

• From the Smaller Majority: bugs on bugs (I just love that pseudoscorpion!)

• Pipes, tubes, insects & engineering. Check it out! “Going micro-tubular“

• Another must-have book for Entomologists: Encyclopedia of Medical and Veterinary Entomology.

• Want to know where all the mosquitoes are? There’s an App for that (M-Tracker) (thanks to Mozziebites for that link!)

• How a new species is named. A terrific write-up about the process. Taxonomy, yeah it’s awesome.

• Speaking of taxonomy, a new species of flea, from the early Cretaceous. And a terrific name: Saurophthirus exquisitus

• On the topic of fleas – Robert Hooke sure did a nice drawing in the late 1600s… phenomenal.

• Tweet of the week… I know you want it… this one is courtesy of Rachel Graham (by the way, for non-Entomologists, a Malaise trap is used to catch insects, whereas a tent usually catches humans)

• It’s a green, green world.

• For the birds: Ornithology in Montreal is alive and well. Here’s a nice video explaining the McGill Bird Observatory.

• Natural history museums are essential for science: great post from the Lab & Field. 

• Connections: How do you relate the London Tube to the Human Body?  Here’s how.

• If great scientists had logos

• Speaking of great scientists, here’s a post by Steven Hamblin on social media and Academics – the comment section is worth a close read.

• On to another great scientist, yet another amazing post by Malcolm Campbell on “lasting impressions“.

• Thrifty photos – you can do some great things with cameras on smartphones.

• A mysterious noise that is driving Canadians crazy. Hmmmmm-It’s A very unusual story.

• WATCH OUT! A GIANT SPIDER! Great video, sure caused me to chuckle: