Caterpillar

Caterpillar a mobile fortress bristling with hypodermic needles

Aug. 2, 2019

Adult buck moths earned the name by flying during fall deer hunting season.

Super Bloom Photograph

A super bloom of desert annuals on the Colorado Plateau

June 19, 2019

Two factors suggested that this spring and summer would witness extraordinary blooms of wildflowers on the Colorado Plateau. First of all, blooms in California were so colorful and extensive that they were easily visible from space and they attracted hordes of people taking selfies amongst the flowers. In Colorado, average...

sphinx

White-lined sphinx moths’ flight, agility a marvel

May 30, 2019

The flight of sphinx moths is a marvel, for while hovering or accelerating the wings beat so fast that they emit a fluttering buzz — wingbeat frequencies are typically 41 cycles (up and down) per second.

garden

Hanging gardens rely on seeping water in sandstone alcoves

May 14, 2019

For evolutionary biologist Jeff Mitton, a trip to the Labyrinth Canyon Wilderness brought an added discovery.

garter

Mating ball of garter snakes caught on campus

May 9, 2019

Males employ an anoxic kiss to reduce female struggle and increase compliance The dam that forms Varsity Lake on the University of Colorado campus is solid, but nevertheless riddled with crevices that provide safe havens for western terrestrial garter snakes, Thamnophis elegans. Eager to witness the various fulminations of spring,...

sego lily

Western sego lilies reach mountain meadows to hot deserts

April 16, 2019

Colorful cup-shaped flowers likely to bloom in force after wet winter.

graduate student

Chickadee Study examines hybridization of chickadees

April 5, 2019

The Boulder Chickadee Study is a collaborative, long term effort between Kathryn Grabenstein, a PhD candidate in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado Boulder, and her thesis advisor, Scott Taylor, to examine hybridization.

Beetle

Metallic wood boring beetles utilize aspen, cottonwoods and willows

March 21, 2019

Colorado is home to 92 species of metallic wood boring beetles that share the wood boring habit and glittering iridescence.

Ballhead

Ballhead waterleaf flowers get help from unexpected guests

March 19, 2019

I looked around to see what was in bloom and found a native wildflower with the strange name of ballhead waterleaf, Hydrophyllum capitatum.

pinedrops

A plant incapable of photosynthesis but good at forming bridges

March 14, 2019

Pinedrops parasitizes the mycorrhizal fungus directly, stealing water, minerals, carbohydrates and nutrients, but supplying nothing in return. In effect, it parasitizes a mutualism after germinating in the grasp of a fungus.

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