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View images of the Common Toad, an ugly, bulky, but really sweet creature with an interesting... nightlife.
Learn about the Salsify, a beautiful plant, with edible and medicinal properties, that is currently blooming in Pelion.
Visit Mourtias, one of Pelion's most picturesque beaches on the Aegean coast.
Tour the Volos Archaeological Museum, a pretty century-old building, whose exhibits span a historical period of over 10 millennia!
Download a fantastic picture of a rickety jetty in Lefokastron, Pelion, taken by Huw Jones.
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Pyrrhocoris apterus on Mallow Flower :: 2001/09/29 :: Horton :: © A.Papadopoulos
  
Pyrrhocoris apterus on Mallow Flower :: 2001/09/29 :: Horton :: © A.Papadopoulos
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Fire Bug
Pyrrhocoris apterus
Readily identifiable by its bright red coloring and its characteristic markings, this beautiful insect can be found on many kinds of vegetation. It often swarms on the ground, feeding on fallen seeds, especially in early spring, after hibernation. It has also been known to attack other insects.
Most individual adults are short-winged, though a few long-winged individuals may occur in any population. They occur in woodland margins and clearings, and grassy scrubby places, with bare ground and suitable hibernation sites.
They are widespread in southern and central Europe, but very rare and wholly southern in Britain.
The individual shown here, which was approximately 15 mm (3/5 in) in length, was photographed on a Mallow flower, growing a few feet from the sea, in Horto.
Note: The article on the right, along with my picture, appeared in the September 2, 2002, issue of BusinessWeek! The scan is quite illegible, so I have reproduced it below:
IT'S BUG-EAT-BUG: INSECTS VS. GERMS
In June, one of the worst fears of healthcare workers was vividly realized. A patient in Lansing, Mich., became infected by a form of Staphylococcus aureus that sloughs off even vancomycin, the antibiotic of last resort against drug-resistant bacteria. The emergence of such superbugs, which experts have long predicted, poses a grave threat. But bigger bugs -insects- may provide new ammunition against the microbes.
A research group at Philadelphia's Wistar Institute has found a potential stinger in European fire bugs, Pyrrhocoris apterus. From these spotted-wing insects, a team led by Laszlo Otvos Jr. has derived a peptide, called pyrrhocorin, that exploits a previously unknown mechanism to kill bacteria. The peptide binds to and disables a protein called DnaK, critical to life, because it repairs other proteins in most bacteria. The Wistar team will also report in the "European Journal of Biochemistry", a Web journal, that the peptide does not bind to either human or mouse versions of DnaK, suggesting that a drug based on the molecule should be safe to administer to humans. But proving that will require several years of further testing and clinical tests.
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Fact Sheet
Food
Various fallen seeds; on occasion may take other insects.
Active
Not known with certainty. I have noticed them from mid-February till late October.
Habitat
On all kinds of vegetation.
Distribution
Southern and central Europe; rare and wholly southern in the UK.
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Taxonomy
Superkingdom: Eukaryota; Kingdom: Metazoa; Phylum: Arthropoda; Superclass: Hexapoda; Superclass: Hexapoda; Class: Insecta; Subclass: Neoptera; Order: Hemiptera; Suborder: Heteroptera; Family: Pyrrhocoridae; Genus: Pyrrhocoris; Species: apterus
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Acknowledgments
The article above was reproduced from the September 2, 2002, issue of BusinessWeek.
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