Insect Circus Museum

Yet again, I've missed the Insect Circus.




The Insect Circus Museum was at Victoria Park over the weekend and because there was a queue and I needed to be somewhere else quickly, I did not have a chance to see this excellent exhibit. May be next time?

So you don't make my mistake, you can check their schedule the Insect Circus Museum website or say hello to Insect Circus Musuum at Myspace.

Red Hook Waterfront Arts Festival

The Acme Flea Circus will be performing SATURDAY JUNE 2 at 12:30 pm as part of the Red Hook Waterfront Arts Festival Brooklyn, NY, USA
http://www.dancetheatreetcetera.org/

The fleas will be at the Waterfront Museum & ShowBoat Barge.
http://www.waterfrontmuseum.org

For more details contact:
Professor A.G.Gertsacov
Flea Trainer and Psycho-Entomologist
Proprietor, Acme Miniature Circus
http://www.trainedfleas.com

Bat Fleas - Siphonaptera Ischnopsyllidae

The bat flea could make a good flea circus performer with a different act, it likes to climb as is used to crawling up cave walls to locate bats roosting on the cave ceiling.



It is yellowish-brown in color and the males grow to 2.4 mm, and females 2.5 mm. Which in flea terms is quite large. The head, thorax, abdomen, and legs are exceptionally long and slender.

However it could be difficult to capture and feed as unlike some other fleas, bat fleas do not feed on other hosts. Female bats normally have more fleas than the males due to the additional time they spend roosting in caves and building. The larvae, pupae and sometimes adults of these fleas live in the guano that accumulates below roosts of these bats.

Please note that it is illegal to handle bats in the UK without a license.

References:
Journal of Parasitology: Ectoparasitic Insects of Bats in British Columbia, Canada
Notes on the Bat Flea, Z Rodríguez, EC Moreira, PM Linardi, HA Santos

Bugs invade the Natural History Museum?

One of the places that's been really helpful with my Flea Circus research is London's Natural History museum's Entomology department both in their detailed information on their website and also in email responses to my enquiries. The Natural History Museum is a great place to visit for both kids and adults alike and ideal for the wet weekends that we are getting at the moment.

Tomorrow they are opening up their Entomology Laboratory to talk about their detective work and scientific investigations into the samples they have collected. For those unable to make it there will be a webcast of the event.

If you are not based in London or unable to make the event then there are loads of fabulous items on sale at the Natural History Museum online shop in this month's Creepy Crawlies category. A wide range of gadgets for examining insects are available along with fridge magnets, books and videos. "Mega Bugs" by John Lyndon aka Johnny Rotten and the recent series "Life in the Undergrowth" by Sir David Attenborough" are also available.

You can also find a range of more Scientific Entomological Books and Journals at the Natural History museum's Entomology website

Ancient Fleas

The Whiting Lab at the Brigham Young University have some pictures of mummified fleas as part of the Fleas of the World project.



http://fleasoftheworld.byu.edu/ancient_fleas.htm

Flea Films on Youtube

There's been some recent changes to Youtube, the Acme Miniature Flea circus has uploaded their flea circus film clip from Don Polec's World and has been added to my list of other flea circus films there.

Also The Flea Film site has been updated to show the work in progress videos from Youtube.

http://www.thefleafilm.co.uk/VideoGallery.php

Flea Circus Posters

The artist David Manuel involved in the HP Wobulation advert has placed some of his posters on his blog.