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Blog Archives
Immature Stink Bugs
January 26, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil
The nymphs of some stinkbug species will stick together, as shown here.
Posted in Featured Photos
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Gold Moth Caterpillar on Wingstem
October 8, 2009 | Twelvestones, Roswell, GA, USA
I found this caterpillar last fall. It was munching away on the flowers of what I believe to be wingstem. The plant was growing beside a walking trail at a forest edge.
Here are a couple of other views.
Head
Dorsal View
I’m basing the identification on similar photos of Basilodes pepita on BugGuide and in Wagner.
I like the bold colors. Wagner states that the combination of colors, behavior and foodplant suggest it might be unpalatable.
Reference:
[book:0691121443]
Posted in Featured Photos
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Velvet Ant
January 27, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil
I like finding velvet ants, but boy are they tough to photograph in the field. They don’t stand still unless they’re hidden. This crop is the best I could do for this one. I saw one other one like this.
Posted in Featured Photos
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Pelecinid Wasp
January 28, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Wasps in the family Pelecinidae are distinctive and easily recognized by that long thin abdomen. I’ve see them closer to home as well, but I can’t recall if I’ve ever gotten a decent photo. I do remember chasing after quite a few in vain or watching as one teased me from someplace just out of reach. I got lucky with this one.
What I thought was a red marking turns out to be a small mite.
There’s only one genus, Pelecinus, for this family. There appears to be at least two described species in the tropics.
Posted in Easter Eggs, Featured Photos
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Some Army Ant Observations
January 27, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil
That’s the general scene. I encountered these army ants on the side of the trail towards the end of the afternoon. The odd thing is that I didn’t see much more than what’s shown here. There were a couple of holes in the ground, outside the shot above, but roughly in the upper left and lower right. Despite some searching in the nearby vicinity, I didn’t find any other ant trails. But there were ants streaming in and out of the two holes, forming roughly two paths. The bottom path was moving to the right and the top to the left.
Posted in Featured Photos
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Unexplained Beetle Behavior
January 27, 2010
Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil
This beetle looks like a buprestid to me. The interesting thing is that it’s splitting this leaf lengthwise. In the second photo, you can see where the cut starts in the upper right. That would seem like an odd way to eat, so I suspect there’s some other purpose. Is anyone familiar with this behavior?
There’s also what appears to be a small wasp hanging out on the elytra.
Posted in Featured Photos
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More Bizarre Treehoppers
 January 28, 2010
Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil
These treehoppers are probably two species in the genus Cyphonia.
The first one you may recognize from this book cover.
[book:1554073456]
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Mating Wasp Mimics
January 28, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Normal disclaimers apply (flies are difficult to identify), but these mating flies might be a Systropus species.
Did you think they might be wasps? They are almost certainly wasp mimics.
Don’t be fooled by what appears to be an extra wing on the one to the right. That’s just a trick of the camera.
Posted in Featured Photos
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Mottled Tortoise Beetle
October 10, 2010 | Twelvestones, Roswell, GA, USA
A few weeks ago I found this tortoise beetle, Deloyala guttata, on the underside of a sycamore leaf in a nearby park. Most of the time you only see tortoise beetles safely tucked away inside their “shell” (hence their name). I waited for this one to start moving around so I could get this shot.
Posted in Featured Photos
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Target Tortoise Beetle
January 28, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil
I’ve seen variations on this pattern for tortoise beetles throughout Central and South America. I often see the species referred to as target tortoise beetles, though a quick google search seems to confirm my suspicion that that common name applies to many different species across several genera.
Posted in Featured Photos
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