Climbing

Photo: Nikolenko Vladimir

Careful what you eat!

Man dies after bug-eating contest

A feast of cockroaches and worms was the last meal for the winner of a bug-eating contest.

Edward Archbold, 32, of West Palm Beach, was "the life of the party," stuffing handfuls of insects into his mouth with about 30 other contestants vying for the grand prize of an $800 python at the Ben Siegel Reptile Store, Broward Sheriff's investigators said.

Shortly after the contest was over, Archbold wasn't feeling well and began to regurgitate. He collapsed outside the store and later died at a hospital, investigators said.

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Pretty buggy

Georgiy Jacobson, Beetles Russia and Western Europe, (1905-15)

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Beautiful bugs

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Mazda develops case of arachnophobia

An itsy bitsy spider may be crawling up your vehicle's evaporative canister and putting your life at risk. According to Jeremy Barnes, director of communication and national events for Mazda, the car maker discovered small spiders had entered the evaporate canister vent lines of some of its 4-cylinder Mazda 6 vehicles and spun webs, subjecting the vehicles to possible fuel leaks. "We've found blockage in this line that appears to be related to a particular type of spider," Barnes said. The culprit is the yellow sac spider, a small arachnid with a body about three-eighths of an inch long with legs that measure about three-fourths of an inch. Mazda has recalled 65,916 vehicles. Mazda will soon contact every 4-cylinder Mazda 6 owner in North America. Source Photo: Rick Vetter

The world's biggest moth?

My friend Jake caught this monster moth in Crestwood, Illinois, in August, 2008. His daughter, age 8, is holding it. This has got to be the most ginourmous insect we've ever seen! Does anyone know what this is? Here's another look ... Yes, yes, we let it go after pictures were taken. Photos: Julie Corsi

17-year Cicadas emerge in the Midwest

These cicadas spend 17 years underground, living off sap from tree roots. Now is the time when they appear in mass, shed their brown skeletons and mate. Before they die, females will lay the eggs of the batch scheduled to arrive in 2024. This periodical cicadas swarm technically is called The Great Northern Illinois Brood XIII, they have red eyes instead of green like the annual ones. They can emerge in vast numbers — as many as 1.5 million per acre — in a path about 200 miles long that stretches from northwestern Indiana to Wisconsin. They don’t bite or sting and their single purpose is to mate, lay about 30,000 eggs and die. The male cicadas’ buzz is so loud they can be heard a quarter-mile away. The racket is a love song. Only the males sing. The females are lured to the sound and fly nearer. A female responds to a male with a flick of her wings. The two gradually draw close to one another until they meet for mating. Male cicadas die soon after mating. Females lay 400 to 600 eggs in as many as 40 to 50 different nests before they die. The billions of cicada nymphs hatch in their nests high in the trees, drop to the ground, and burrow into the earth. There they find a succulent tree root, which they tap into with a special strawlike mouth part. They feed on the tree sap and pass through their various growth stages until, 17 years later, it is time to emerge and renew their life cycle. National Geographic News explains that periodical cicadas are found only in the United States east of the Great Plains. Seventeen-year cicadas are found mainly in the northern, eastern, and western part of their range.