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.
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
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
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
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
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
The artist David Manuel involved in the HP Wobulation advert has placed some of his posters on his blog.
In my previous blog entry I mentioned that I had found a reference to the Industrious Fleas in a book by George Augustus Sala and wonder if it was connected to my research into L.Bertolotto. A trip to the Westminster Archives proved fruitful and after a little light reading I found the relevant section of the second volume and was both glad to see this strong connection between the world of the Flea Circus and the genealogical research linking Bertolotto in London and Canada. Sala mentions that Governor Monck's butler was the owner of the Industrious Fleas. However there is also a sad story to tell as Sala describes the destruction of the fleas in a fire.
Life and Adventures of George Augustus Sala written by himself
In Two Volumes
Vol II
Third Edition
Cassell and Company, Ltd 1895
Page 45
Richard Wiseman who wrote the history of the flea circus article available on Walt Noon's site has brought out a book called Quickology.
"‘Quirkology’ is a term coined by Prof Richard Wiseman to refer to psychological research that is quirky. Much of this work uses mainstream methods to investigate unusual topics, or unusual methods to investigate mainstream topics."
In the flea circus article Richard Wiseman also mentions "Nightmare Alley" a novel by William Lindsay Gresham. If you have a copy of this book and know of the flea connection there then please let me know.
From: Lord William Russell and his wife, 1815-1846
by Georgiana Blakiston
Publisher: London, J. Murray, 1972.
ISBN: 0719522420 9780719522420
Oakley, Dec 3rd, 1839
Arthur and Odo were Natural History enthusiasts and the diary goes on to tell how they had a large amount of pets, visited the snake shops in Cannon Street and a taxidermists in Bank.
These two went on to become an MP, Lord Arthur John Edward Russell and the first British ambassador to the German Empire, Odo William Leopold Russell, 1st Baron Ampthill.
There is also tenuous Bertolotto connection because Lord Russell died on 16 July 1846 at age 56 in Genoa, Italy which was where Bertolotto was born.
