arlojamesbarnes's Favorites

Resting on an understorey plant. At a quick glance, I initially thought it was a bird dropping. The white hairs give it the appearance of being infected with an entomopathogenic fungi, maybe as a deterrent to predators...? Definitely the most amazing cerambycid I've ever seen!

Update: this species finally has a name! The paper naming and describing it can be freely downloaded from here: https://doi.org/10.54102/ajt.iv1x5

Updated 11/26/2022. ID’d to species. Photos of male pleopod II added. Curvature on appendix masculina is not exactly as illustrated in the description, but is quite similar. Uropod exopod is subequal in length with endopod: a diagnostic character for the species. Without material from the type locality, I’m calling it T. subequalum.

Probably the most abundant invertebrate in most of the spring runs in the Lower Canyons. ID assumed to be T. subequalum based on proximity to the type locality in Big Bend National Park. This is the only described species in the region.

Whole body dorsal photo is a female. Ventral photo is a male showing appendix masculina on pleopod II.

Dissection and more detailed comparison with T. subequalum will be made in the future.

My favourite little parasite this season:
There were at least 2 individuals of this small braconid wasp stalking the green vegetable bugs on the Cleome in my garden. (Were they first discovered in NZ by you, Stephen?)
The first one (photos 1-7) quite obviously was successful in parasitising a bug, but the second one (photos 8-17) was never quite able to connect, despite a number of attempts.
It was fascinating to watch the behaviour. Mostly the wasps managed to stay behind the bugs, and so out of sight. However, occassionally they were rumbled and then got short shrift from the Nezara.

Found under a large discarded piece of concrete. No other parts of the exoskeleton seemed to be present, so perhaps the wing was brought there by another animal dwelling underneath, such as an ant (however, at that moment only a spider, isopods, and mites could be observed).

Was stuck like this. Can't tell if it was injured, or otherwise messed up (molting gone wrong??) Or what. One of the middle legs looks like it's bent dorsally in a way it really shouldn't be able to, but I'm not an expert on the flexibility of fly legs

Mantis found on the dumpster so I relocated it away from machinery- this is a totally different color pattern than I've seen than the other green/brown ones! The amazing thing was, once I put it on a tree it completely blended in with the bark. It was amazing! Smaller than the green/brown ones as well

First known wild observations and discovery of natural fluorescent in an old world mammal or any mammal outside of North and Central America, images of the Springhare taken in August 2019. Incredible to see it’s orange and pink glow firsthand, especially when it wasn’t expected! Accidental discovery whilst out photographing scorpions under UV light

Shot using a Nikon D850 Handheld with a Nitecore Chameleon C6 ( 365nm ) torch.

For anyone interested in February 2020 a Scientific journal was released by a American research group ( no relation to me ) about this UV trait and science behind it from research in museum & zoo specimens in the US.

There are a few more images, but you might be able to imagine photographing a rather skittish nocturnal creature on foot with a UV torch in one hand and a large DSLR in the other during a unexpected encounter whilst also trying to expose a camera correctly for UV light isn’t the easiest thing to do the split second.

Socorro Isopod from the vicinity of Socorro, Socorro Co., New Mexico, USA. where it occurs at a natural spring and nearby spring-fed artificial refugium pools, the only places in the wild the species is found.

Wild adult specimens collected by Brian K. Lang for photographic purposes and subsequently released at capture site. Joel Sartore of National Geographic was also present with us this day to get pictures and his photos of this species for the magazine put mine to shame.

See also: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/5274584