A challenging year 2017 was — for Oaxaca, Mexico, USA, and the world. However, lovely Oaxaca continues to survive with beauty and grace and helps keep me focused on trying to do the same. I am grateful to her every day. Thus, my New Year’s gift to you — sharing a month-by-month look back at the little things in 2017 that nourished my body and soul.
Posts Tagged ‘Chapulines’
Wall hangings in my ‘hood
Posted in Animals, Casita Colibrí, tagged Chapulines, Giant Leopard Moth, grasshoppers, insects, lizards, Mexico, moths, Oaxaca, photographs, photos on October 8, 2015| 2 Comments »
One night, several weeks ago, one of my neighbors called me to come outside to see a beautiful moth on the wall. Searching my trusty Butterflies and Moths book, it looks to me like a Giant Leopard Moth (Hypercompe scribonia). Whatever it was, beautiful it is!
Earlier that same day, while walking home, I discovered this little grasshopper. It was the first day of Oaxaca Sabe and I’m sure he was glad to have escaped winding up as an appetizer. Perhaps he will find fame and fortune as an alebrije model.
And, then there are the lizards that skitter along my terrace and around on its walls doing “push-ups,” munching on less welcome insects, and entertaining me as I putter in the garden.
Just some of the city “wildlife” in my neighborhood!
My morning caller
Posted in Agriculture, Animals, Casita Colibrí, Science & Nature, tagged Chapulín de la milpa, Chapulines, grasshoppers, Mexico, Oaxaca, photo, photographs, Sphenarium purpurascens on September 15, 2014| 4 Comments »
This morning’s sunshine (after days of gray) brought a visitor to my door…
A Sphenarium purpurascens, also known as Chapulín de la milpa. No cornfield nearby. Hmmm… perhaps the recent storms blew it off course?
Speaking of insects…Liladownsia fraile
Posted in Animals, Culture, Environment, People, Science & Nature, Travel & Tourism, tagged Chapulines, Fondo Guadalupe Musalem, grasshoppers, Lila Downs, Liladownsia fraile, Mexico, Oaxaca, science discoveries, Sierra Madre del Sur, singers, Studies in Mexican Grasshoppers: Liladownsia fraile on May 9, 2014| 4 Comments »
Yippee!!! A new, and extremely colorful, species of grasshopper has been discovered in the pine-oak forest of the Sierra Madre del Sur Mountain Range in Oaxaca. Liladownsia fraile has been named for Oaxaca’s favorite daughter and one of my favorite performers, Lila Downs, someone I’ve written about often.
From Science Codex,
A newly discovered grasshopper by University of Central Florida scientists now bears the name of Grammy-award winning singer and activist Ana Lila Downs Sanchez.
The scientists named the new species discovered on the side of a mountain road near Oaxaca, Mexico, after the Mexican-American singer as a nod to her efforts to preserve indigenous culture and penchant for wearing colorful, local costumes as part of her performances.
“It was primarily Paolo’s idea to name the grasshopper after the singer” said Derek Woller, one of the authors of the paper referring to colleague Paolo Fontana. “He’s a big fan of Lila Downs (her stage name). The grasshopper is so beautiful, so vibrant and colorful. When he told us all about her, her work, her colorful clothes, and that she was born in the region where we found the specimens, we thought, yeah, that’s great, let’s do it.” Read full article HERE.
According to the Zootaxa article, Studies in Mexican Grasshoppers: Liladownsia fraile, a new genus and species of Dactylotini (Acrididae: Melanoplinae) and an updated molecular phylogeny of Melanoplinae (a mouthful, I know, but the photos are worth scrolling through the article), Liladownsia fraile had been sighted in San José del Pacifico, Suchixtepec, and Pochutla.
By the way, if you are in Oaxaca, Lila Downs is performing tonight at the Teatro Macedonio Alcalá — a benefit for Fondo Guadalupe Musalem, a nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of the young indigenous women of Oaxaca through education.
Banned in San Fran…
Posted in Food, tagged California, Chapulines, grasshoppers, Mexico, Oaxaca, San Francisco on June 9, 2011| 2 Comments »
Chapulines, illegal??? Say it ain’t so, Joe!!!
Article from yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle’s Inside Scoop:
La Oaxaquena banned from selling grasshopper tacos and fried tarantula
Posted on 06/08/2011 at 1:29 pm by Paolo Lucchesi in Controversy