FEAST OR FAMINE

Life on the 6 th   floor of an old Parisian building usually gives me a view of rooftops, chimneys, and the occasional pigeon. But my tiny dill plant had a far more charming guest: a 22-Spot Ladybird: a golden-yellow beetle dotted like a miniature work of art.     Now, here’s the fun part:   Not all ladybirds are red! The 22-Spot Ladybird ( Psyllobora vigintiduopunctata ) is a cheerful yellow with 22 black irregular-sized spots. Instead of snacking on aphids like many of their cousins, these little rebels eat mildew. Yes, they are the cleaners of the insect world, nibbling away at the powdery stuff that gardeners dread.   Across cultures, ladybirds are considered harbingers of good fortune. In France, spotting one can mean a wish granted; in Germany, they’re called Marienkäfer (Mary’s beetles) and are protectors of crops. Finding one on my dill leaves in Paris feels like a small blessing.   Most ladybirds are voracious predators of aphids, scale insects, an...

  Burrunjor: The Search for Australia’s Living   Tyrannosaurus  by Rex & Heather Gilroy (2011) is an account – with ample black and white photographs – of two people’s search across Australia for an alleged small species of living dinosaur – one that survived the extinction period.    Is a living dinosaur from the Cretaceous period possible? Despite much skepticism, criticism, and ridicule, the two cryptozoologists have been searching for the ‘impossible’ since the mid-1970s.   The Gilroys (and others) go Burrunjor hunting in remote, rugged swamplands, forests, and deserts in South Australia, Queensland, Northern Territory, and Western Australia. Finding fossils, bones, and footprints of other species of dinosaurs, as well as the Burrunjor, they record their finds and photograph the landscape.    They write too of the many, many sightings of the Burrunjor by people living in the outback. The first alleged sighting of the Burrunjor occurre...

Photographs of mini flyers –   mini voltigeurs –  are close-up photos of flying insects. The exhibition, from 21 October 2022 to 14 May 2023 is on the railing fence of the Jardin des Plants (the botanical garden) in Paris, hosted by the Paris National Museum of Natural History.     The photographer, Ghislain Simard, has developed specific photographic techniques designed to capture the fastest movements of the smallest insects. His photographs have won awards at the International Wildlife Photography Festival in Montier-en-Der, where he regularly exhibits his work. MARTINA NICOLLS MartinaNicollsWebsite    I     Rainy Day Healing    I    Martinasblogs    I     Publications     I     Facebook    I    Paris Website    I    Paris blogs    I   Animal Website    I   Flower Website   I   Global Gentlemanliness SUBSCR...

The Insectarium – Collecting, Arranging and Preserving Bugs, Beetles, Butterflies and More – With Practical Instructions to Assist the Amateur Home Naturalist  by Harland Coultas (2018) is a vintage insect guide republished for a contemporary audience. It was originally written for entomologists and naturalists, and retains the original text, illustrations, and artwork.   Harland Coultas (1817-1877) was a British botanist born in North Lincolnshire. Most of his works were written from the 1850s. His most well-known article is ‘What may be learned from a tree’ written for the New York Times on 4 August 1860, reproduced from his book of the same title.   Insects are arthropods, such as beetles, cockroaches, ants, bees, grasshoppers, flies, moths, and butterflies.    An insectarium in a commercial, artificial habitat with glass sides, enabling people to view and study insects (6-legged creatures) in a more-or-less similar replication of their usual habitat. It can ...

  Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants (2013) is a ‘braid of stories’ from Robin Wall Kimmerer, a botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. It is an intertwining of science, spirit, and storytelling.   The book begins with sweetgrass, believed to be the first plant to grow on Earth – a sacred plant. The author tells us about other important plants too: pecan, strawberry, maple, witch hazel, freshwater green algae (‘the water net’), water lily, corn, and so on.   Robin Wall Kimmerer is a plant scientist, and she adds, ‘but I am also a poet and the world speaks to me in metaphor.’    She talks in powerful poetic prose of the ‘communal generosity’ of plants, a ‘mycorrhizal network’ that unites people to land and ancestral responsibility, and the gifts of plants that go beyond food and shelter to songs of wisdom. She tells of the ‘grammar of animacy’ and indigenous words that encapsulate all meaning: su...

  The City of Paris and the Natural History Museum is celebrating the 10 th   anniversary of their observatory, participatory science project called ‘ Sauvages de ma rue’   – Wildlife of my street – dedicated to urban flora. The project runs throughout the year. It provides an opportunity to better understand the biodiversity of cities and to become a scientific observer of local flora – plants and vegetation. People just have to choose a street and note the plant species on the sidewalk using identification cards. People are asked to observe the plants on a daily basis, look at the base of trees, and explore the sidewalks and lawns. No botanical expertise is required to make a list of species in the neighbourhood. To guide people,  the Natural History Museum  provides very simple tools. There is also an online game called The Plant Game and two training sessions in the form of photo quizzes to become knowledgeable about the 240 most common plant species in Fren...