Flickr Group: "Caterpillars with Eyespots"

Some time ago I made a Flickr group called "Caterpillars with Eyespots" to collect photos of caterpillars that have eyespots. This is a great place for people to see the diversity in both the eyespots themselves, and the species that possess them! There are examples from all over the globe. Right now (Nov 23 2012) this group has 170 photos in the pool, and new ones are added all the time so be sure to check in regularly.

About "Caterpillars with Eyespots"

This is a group dedicated to collecting photos of Lepidopteran caterpillars with eyespots, or otherwise mimic snakes. 

Eyespots (markings that resemble vertebrate eyes) have evolved many times in Lepidopterans (butterflies and moths). The fact that this adaptation has arisen independently so often in this group indicates the general effectiveness of this anti-predator defence.

When adding a photo it is not a problem if you are unsure about the ID, but where possible please include any additional information about behaviour or body size and tag the following in any photo you add:

-Family
-Latin name (binomial name)
-Location (i.e., geotag)


If you are interested in the topic of caterpillar eyespots, or have photos you would like to add please consider joining the group and contributing to either the discussion topics or photo archive. You will need a Flickr account, but signing up is quite painless because you can link it directly to your Yahoo, Google, or Facebook account.

The Biologija Bump!

What up Finland?

Map showing the geographical distribution of "hits" on this blog Nov 16th 2012.
You can't see Croatia well on this map but I assure you that the Croats are coming out too!

Excitingly, my blog has reached a new audience today according to Google Analytics. Over the last week or so I have been corresponding with journalists from Biologija.com.hr about my research on caterpillar eyespots. Specifically, Behija Salkić and the journalist Nikola Koletić have expressed a keen interest in my work and and have been great to work with. Their article came out today and can be found here. The article is in Croatian, but if English readers are interested in reading it they could always use Google Translator. The translated article title is: "Colouration of the caterpillar - an evolutionary advantage or something else?". More information about this particular research paper can be found here.

Biologija.com.hr is a website run by a non-profit organization called Bioteka-NGO based in Croatia whose main goals are to promote general understanding of the natural sciences in society, make science more engaging and interesting, and raise awareness about the role the public plays in preserving the environment. Occasionally, general interest pieces on biological research in the news are overly simplified, contain inaccuracies, or unjustifiably extapolate the results, so for interest's sake I used Google Translate on some of their content. I must say that I was really impressed with the accuracy of their information and the overall quality of the science writing on Biologija.com.hr. Keep up the good work!

A personal note to any first-time visitors: Welcome to my blog! Have a look around - I have listed the most-visited posts below. I hope you find something in my posts that interests you, and be sure to check back in from time to time to see how my work progresses. 

As always, feel free to leave any questions or comments in the 'comments' section below.

My top 5 most-visited posts:

• Pink Underwing Moth (Phyllodes imperialis) - Family: Noctuidae
• Life is stranger than fiction
• Lanturn Fly (Fulgora lanternaria)
• The Puss Moth (Cerura vinula) - (Family: Notodontidae)
• Possibly the best known eyespot caterpillar: Hemeroplanes sp. (Sphingidae)