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29 October 2012
Hurricane Sandy in the Fort Valley
Up here on the northwest flank of Massanutten Mountain, Lily and I prepared for Hurricane Sandy in several ways. We bought a generator this week (actually, we ordered it last week before Sandy was a twinkle in the atmosphere’s eye, but it was delivered this week), we stocked up on food (pizza with fresh veggies tonight), and we cut down a big tree in our back yard that could have …
Monday macrobug: parsleyworm
Look what I found while out weed-whacking in the yard: (gloved fingers for scale) That’s the larva of the black swallowtail butterfly. This good-looking caterpillar is colloquially known as a “parsleyworm.” In these last two shots, check it out without and with the osmeteria (fleshy “horns” behind the head) everted in defense: The osmeteria get to be about 3 times longer than that last shot, but I couldn’t photograph them …
Callan Bentley is Associate Professor of Geology at Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America. For his work on this blog, the National Association of Geoscience Teachers recognized him with the James Shea Award. He has also won the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia, and the Biggs Award for Excellence in Geoscience Teaching from the Geoscience Education Division of the Geological Society of America. In previous years, Callan served as a contributing editor at EARTH magazine, President of the Geological Society of Washington and President the Geo2YC division of NAGT.