Some cool slim fast images:
Ahem … bit of privacy, please!
Image by wallygrom
A pair of Lily Beetles enjoying a warm summer evening … 🙂
From Wikipedia –
The scarlet lily beetle (Lilioceris lilii), or red / leaf lily beetle, is a leaf beetle that eats the leaves, stem, buds and flower of lilies, fritillaries and other members of the family Liliaceae. They mainly lay their eggs on Lilium and Fritillaria species. Observed in absence of Lilium and Fritillaria species, the numbers of eggs laid were significantly less and the survival rate of eggs and larvae were lowered. It is now a pest in most temperate climates where lilies are cultivated. Lily leaf beetles overwinter in the soil and come out early in spring whereas adults stay in moist environments.
Identification
Lily leaf beetles (Lilioceris lilii), belong to the Order Coleoptera, Family Chrysomelidae. In general, adult lily leaf beetles are around 6 to 9 mm (¼–⅜ in) in length. The adult’s elytra (harder forewings) are shiny and bright scarlet in colour. The lily leaf beetle’s underside, legs, eyes, antennae and head are all pitch black, greatly contrasting the bright red colour of the wings. They have large eyes, a slim thorax and a wide abdomen. Their antennae are made up of 11 segments. Furthermore, they have notched eyes and two apparent grooves on their thorax.
They are often confused with the cardinal beetles as they also have a black underside and wings that are spotless and red in colour. However, the lily leaf beetles have wings that are shinier with tiny dimples on them, they are more rounded in shape compared to the dull, narrow, flattened and elongated cardinal beetle. Another difference between the two is their food preference. Lily leaf beetles are herbivores and are usually found on lily plants eating their leaves whereas the cardinal beetles are usually found on tree bark and flowers and feed on flying insects. Lastly, the cardinal beetle has a comb-like antennae.
Lily leaf beetles are fast fliers and hide very well. Additionally, when disturbed, they make a squeaky noise to deter predators.They could also be confused with unspotted ladybirds. Lily leaf beetles however are much slimmer than ladybirds.
Distribution
The lily leaf beetle was indigenous to Europe and Asia. It has thought to been introduced to North America through the importation of bulb plants around 1945. First spotted in Montreal, it has spread throughout Canada and eastern United States within decades. It has also become an invasive alien insect in the United Kingdom, where it has established itself after its introduction in 1943. It has since spread from Surrey to as far north as Glasgow.
Life cycle
During the winter, adult lily leaf beetles rest in an undisturbed protective environment, normally shaded, cool and moist. Lily leaf beetles overwinter in soil or plant debris underneath the lily leaf plants they fed on during the previous summer and sometimes in gardens or woods quite a distance away from their host plants. In early spring, they emerge to feed on young lily leaves and mate. Females can lay up to 450 eggs each season by laying about 12 eggs on the underside of an individual lily/fritillaria leaf in irregular lines along the midrib to conceal them. Hatching of the eggs occurs in about 6 days. The larvae begin to feed underneath the leaf and working up to the rest of the plant, feeding for up to 24 days. They then burrow themselves in the ground to pupate in a cocoon formed by saliva and small particles of soil. In about 20 days, they emerge as adults and continue to feed until winter. In some cases, they are able to go through this cycle more than once in a single year.
Behaviour
Not only are the eggs laid underneath the leaf to stay hidden but they are also covered with a thick sticky brown substance for further protection. As larvae, they use their own frass to make a protective shield, allowing protection from the sun and predators. However, the fecal shield is not an adequate protection against the parasites. It actually acts as a chemical cue for the parasites to locate the larvae. As adults, a sense in danger can trigger a defense mechanism, thanatosis. The beetle becomes motionless, folds up its appendages and falls with its black under surface facing up; helping it camouflage with the ground to get away. If it is unable to escape, they are also able to ‘squeak’, by rubbing two parts of its body together, used to startle the attacker. This process is known as stridulation and could even shock a bird or any other predator that may attack the lily leaf beetle.
Human impact
Lily leaf beetles leave considerable damage on host plants. Managing the ornamental lilies have become difficult in regions where lily leaf beetles have established. Damage to the leaves and flowers can also leave the plants weakened and susceptible to diseases such as Lily grey mold.
Maritime Provinces of Canada, especially Fritillaria and Lilium gardens in Halifax, are largely affected by lily leaf beetles. A garden in Waverly, Nova Scotia has reported decline of lily species and cultivars from 50 in 1996 to only one species in 2006. A newly discovered lily species in 2007, Lilium canadense, has raised the concern for protection of this Canadian native lily and control of leaf lily beetle.
Mechanical and chemical control
There are no registered chemicals for lily leaf beetle control, and handpicking of larvae and adults prove to be most effective. However, best strategy for lily leaf beetle control is to avoid planting susceptible plants in the first place.
Although there are no specific chemicals to control lily leaf beetle, domestic insecticides registered for general leaf beetle control containing carbaryl, methoxychlor, malathion and rotenone have proven useful in controlling the populations. However, malathion and carbaryl, effective on adults and larvae, are toxic to bees and other insects, respectively. Products based on Neem extracts are useful in killing very young larvae and repelling adults without comparable harm to other insects. Neem products should be applied every 5 to 7 days after egg hatch.
Mechanical control involves mainly handpicking and crushing the larvae and eggs on the underside of foliage and removing the adults in the soil to avoid the introduction. Drowning the beetle in soapy water can be as effective as handpicking. Floating row cover has been effective in preventing the adults from feeding and laying eggs in the spring. Handpicking is deemed more effective than use of Neem-based products.
Biological control
There are no natural predators or parasites of lily leaf beetle in North America. In 1996, University of Rhode Island began testing the effectiveness of biological control of lily leaf beetle using six natural parasitoids in Europe. CAB International Bioscience Switzerland Center has also participated in this project from 1998 till 2001.
Total parasitism rate in the last instar stage averages about 90% on wild lily Lilium martagon, 75% in gardens and 60% in cultivated lily fields in Europe. Most of lily leaf beetle parasitoids are wasps that lay eggs inside the host and effectively kill all infected individuals. Parasitoid wasp, Diaparsis jucunda Holmgren (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae), dominates over 90% of the parasitoid infections in lily leaf beetle. However, in gardens and commercial fields, Tetrastichus setifer (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) and Lemophagus pulcher (Szepligeti) become the dominant parasitoids in the later season.
University of Rhode Island experimented with release of European parasitoid wasp, Tetrastichus setifer, in Massachusetts from 1999 to 2001 to control for the lily leaf beetle population. The experiment had shown reduction of the beetle population. Population decline was also observed at another experiment site in Rhode Island. In 2003, another parasitoid, Lemophagus errabundus, was also released in Massachusetts and is now established in the region. Similar attempts of parasitoid release have been made in Boston with positive results.
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: North American P-51C, “Excalibur III”, with tails of Concorde & Boeing 707 in background
Image by Chris Devers
Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | North American P-51C, "Excalibur III":
On May 29, 1951, Capt. Charles F. Blair flew Excalibur III from Norway across the North Pole to Alaska in a record-setting 10½ hours. Using a system of carefully plotted "sun lines" he developed, Blair was able to navigate with precision where conventional magnetic compasses often failed. Four months earlier, he had flown Excalibur III from New York to London in less than 8 hours, breaking the existing mark by over an hour.
Excalibur III first belonged to famed aviator A. Paul Mantz, who added extra fuel tanks for long-distance racing to this standard P-51C fighter. With it Mantz won the 1946 and 1947 Bendix air race and set a transcontinental speed record in 1947 when the airplane was named Blaze of Noon. Blair purchased it from Mantz in 1949 and renamed it Excalibur III, after the Sikorsky VS-44 flying boat he flew for American Export Airlines.
Gift of Pan American World Airways
Manufacturer:
North American Aircraft Company
Date:
1944
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
Wingspan: 11.3 m (37 ft)
Length: 9.8 m (32 ft 3 in)
Height: 3.9 m (12 ft 10 in)
Weight, empty: 4,445 kg (9,800 lb)
Weight, gross: 5,052 kg (11,800 lb)
Top speed: 700 km/h (435 mph)
Materials:
Overall: Aluminum
Physical Description:
Single seat, single engine, low wing monoplane, World War II fighter modified for racing.
• • • • •
Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Boeing 367-80 Jet Transport:
On July 15, 1954, a graceful, swept-winged aircraft, bedecked in brown and yellow paint and powered by four revolutionary new engines first took to the sky above Seattle. Built by the Boeing Aircraft Company, the 367-80, better known as the Dash 80, would come to revolutionize commercial air transportation when its developed version entered service as the famous Boeing 707, America’s first jet airliner.
In the early 1950s, Boeing had begun to study the possibility of creating a jet-powered military transport and tanker to complement the new generation of Boeing jet bombers entering service with the U.S. Air Force. When the Air Force showed no interest, Boeing invested million of its own capital to build a prototype jet transport in a daring gamble that the airlines and the Air Force would buy it once the aircraft had flown and proven itself. As Boeing had done with the B-17, it risked the company on one roll of the dice and won.
Boeing engineers had initially based the jet transport on studies of improved designs of the Model 367, better known to the public as the C-97 piston-engined transport and aerial tanker. By the time Boeing progressed to the 80th iteration, the design bore no resemblance to the C-97 but, for security reasons, Boeing decided to let the jet project be known as the 367-80.
Work proceeded quickly after the formal start of the project on May 20, 1952. The 367-80 mated a large cabin based on the dimensions of the C-97 with the 35-degree swept-wing design based on the wings of the B-47 and B-52 but considerably stiffer and incorporating a pronounced dihedral. The wings were mounted low on the fuselage and incorporated high-speed and low-speed ailerons as well as a sophisticated flap and spoiler system. Four Pratt & Whitney JT3 turbojet engines, each producing 10,000 pounds of thrust, were mounted on struts beneath the wings.
Upon the Dash 80’s first flight on July 15, 1954, (the 34th anniversary of the founding of the Boeing Company) Boeing clearly had a winner. Flying 100 miles per hour faster than the de Havilland Comet and significantly larger, the new Boeing had a maximum range of more than 3,500 miles. As hoped, the Air Force bought 29 examples of the design as a tanker/transport after they convinced Boeing to widen the design by 12 inches. Satisfied, the Air Force designated it the KC-135A. A total of 732 KC-135s were built.
Quickly Boeing turned its attention to selling the airline industry on this new jet transport. Clearly the industry was impressed with the capabilities of the prototype 707 but never more so than at the Gold Cup hydroplane races held on Lake Washington in Seattle, in August 1955. During the festivities surrounding this event, Boeing had gathered many airline representatives to enjoy the competition and witness a fly past of the new Dash 80. To the audience’s intense delight and Boeing’s profound shock, test pilot Alvin "Tex" Johnston barrel-rolled the Dash 80 over the lake in full view of thousands of astonished spectators. Johnston vividly displayed the superior strength and performance of this new jet, readily convincing the airline industry to buy this new airliner.
In searching for a market, Boeing found a ready customer in Pan American Airway’s president Juan Trippe. Trippe had been spending much of his time searching for a suitable jet airliner to enable his pioneering company to maintain its leadership in international air travel. Working with Boeing, Trippe overcame Boeing’s resistance to widening the Dash-80 design, now known as the 707, to seat six passengers in each seat row rather than five. Trippe did so by placing an order with Boeing for 20 707s but also ordering 25 of Douglas’s competing DC-8, which had yet to fly but could accommodate six-abreast seating. At Pan Am’s insistence, the 707 was made four inches wider than the Dash 80 so that it could carry 160 passengers six-abreast. The wider fuselage developed for the 707 became the standard design for all of Boeing’s subsequent narrow-body airliners.
Although the British de Havilland D.H. 106 Comet and the Soviet Tupolev Tu-104 entered service earlier, the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 were bigger, faster, had greater range, and were more profitable to fly. In October 1958 Pan American ushered the jet age into the United States when it opened international service with the Boeing 707 in October 1958. National Airlines inaugurated domestic jet service two months later using a 707-120 borrowed from Pan Am. American Airlines flew the first domestic 707 jet service with its own aircraft in January 1959. American set a new speed mark when it opened the first regularly-scheduled transcontinental jet service in 1959. Subsequent nonstop flights between New York and San Francisco took only 5 hours – 3 hours less than by the piston-engine DC-7. The one-way fare, including a surcharge for jet service, was 5.50, or 1 round trip. The flight was almost 40 percent faster and almost 25 percent cheaper than flying by piston-engine airliners. The consequent surge of traffic demand was substantial.
The 707 was originally designed for transcontinental or one-stop transatlantic range. But modified with extra fuel tanks and more efficient turbofan engines, the 707-300 Intercontinental series aircraft could fly nonstop across the Atlantic with full payload under any conditions. Boeing built 855 707s, of which 725 were bought by airlines worldwide.
Having launched the Boeing Company into the commercial jet age, the Dash 80 soldiered on as a highly successful experimental aircraft. Until its retirement in 1972, the Dash 80 tested numerous advanced systems, many of which were incorporated into later generations of jet transports. At one point, the Dash 80 carried three different engine types in its four nacelles. Serving as a test bed for the new 727, the Dash 80 was briefly equipped with a fifth engine mounted on the rear fuselage. Engineers also modified the wing in planform and contour to study the effects of different airfoil shapes. Numerous flap configurations were also fitted including a highly sophisticated system of "blown" flaps which redirected engine exhaust over the flaps to increase lift at low speeds. Fin height and horizontal stabilizer width was later increased and at one point, a special multiple wheel low pressure landing gear was fitted to test the feasibility of operating future heavy military transports from unprepared landing fields.
After a long and distinguished career, the Boeing 367-80 was finally retired and donated to the Smithsonian in 1972. At present, the aircraft is installated at the National Air and Space Museum’s new facility at Washington Dulles International Airport.
Gift of the Boeing Company
Manufacturer:
Boeing Aircraft Co.
Date:
1954
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
Height 19′ 2": Length 73′ 10": Wing Span 129′ 8": Weight 33,279 lbs.
Physical Description:
Prototype Boeing 707; yellow and brown.
• • • • •
Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Concorde, Fox Alpha, Air France:
The first supersonic airliner to enter service, the Concorde flew thousands of passengers across the Atlantic at twice the speed of sound for over 25 years. Designed and built by Aérospatiale of France and the British Aviation Corporation, the graceful Concorde was a stunning technological achievement that could not overcome serious economic problems.
In 1976 Air France and British Airways jointly inaugurated Concorde service to destinations around the globe. Carrying up to 100 passengers in great comfort, the Concorde catered to first class passengers for whom speed was critical. It could cross the Atlantic in fewer than four hours – half the time of a conventional jet airliner. However its high operating costs resulted in very high fares that limited the number of passengers who could afford to fly it. These problems and a shrinking market eventually forced the reduction of service until all Concordes were retired in 2003.
In 1989, Air France signed a letter of agreement to donate a Concorde to the National Air and Space Museum upon the aircraft’s retirement. On June 12, 2003, Air France honored that agreement, donating Concorde F-BVFA to the Museum upon the completion of its last flight. This aircraft was the first Air France Concorde to open service to Rio de Janeiro, Washington, D.C., and New York and had flown 17,824 hours.
Gift of Air France.
Manufacturer:
Societe Nationale Industrielle Aerospatiale
British Aircraft Corporation
Dimensions:
Wingspan: 25.56 m (83 ft 10 in)
Length: 61.66 m (202 ft 3 in)
Height: 11.3 m (37 ft 1 in)
Weight, empty: 79,265 kg (174,750 lb)
Weight, gross: 181,435 kg (400,000 lb)
Top speed: 2,179 km/h (1350 mph)
Engine: Four Rolls-Royce/SNECMA Olympus 593 Mk 602, 17,259 kg (38,050 lb) thrust each
Manufacturer: Société Nationale Industrielle Aérospatiale, Paris, France, and British Aircraft Corporation, London, United Kingdom
Physical Description:
Aircaft Serial Number: 205. Including four (4) engines, bearing respectively the serial number: CBE066, CBE062, CBE086 and CBE085.
Also included, aircraft plaque: "AIR FRANCE Lorsque viendra le jour d’exposer Concorde dans un musee, la Smithsonian Institution a dores et deja choisi, pour le Musee de l’Air et de l’Espace de Washington, un appariel portant le couleurs d’Air France."
“Blur” – Dublin the Dog
Image by An Ceann Corr
My dog was moving so fast that I could not get a clear picture, but this one turned out interesting. Taken with a Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim.
