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Blog Archives
Identification Challenge #4 Reveal
As Ted C. MacRae correctly guessed, the chrysalis in the latest identification challenge yielded a specimen of Papilio glaucus, an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.
April 25, 2010 | Twelvestones, Roswell, GA, USA
The blue on the upperside of the hindwings indicates this is a female. Here’s the underside of the wings:
Underside of wings
If I’d had some daylight, I’d have tried to get something other than a black background. I saw she had emerged after arriving home one evening though, so I took these shots in my home office before releasing her.
Being a fresh specimen, I thought I’d try for some closeups of the wing scales.
Posted in Identification Challenges
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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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Blow Fly
January 28, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil
I like the detail in this crop from the first image below. You can even see some pollen grains on and around the foreleg.
I’m pretty sure this is a blow fly, not unlike the common blue bottle fly.
Side View
Dorsolateral View
Posted in Featured Photos
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Velvety Yellow Snout Beetle
January 27, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil
I resisted the urge to touch this one. It just looks so soft.
Posted in Featured Photos
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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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Tick Anatomy Lesson
January 28, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil
This tick is one of the largest I’ve ever encountered. I’m happy to say it was the only one I saw.
Ticks often wave around their forelegs while perched like this, hoping to grab on to some passing potential host.
When viewed from the side, there’s an interesting bit of anatomy exposed.
Side view (do you see the smaller mite bringing up the rear?)
I wondered about the purpose of that large hole on the tick’s side so I did some research. It’s called the spiracular plate, and it’s basically a tube into the tick’s breathing system. Calling it breathing might be a stretch though. It’s really more of a passive gas exchange. The shape of spiracular plates are also used by taxonomists as a way of distinguishing various types of ticks.
Posted in Easter Eggs, 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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Pentatomid
January 27, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil
I really like the flashy colors on this large stink bug.
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Caraça Tiger Beetles
January 27, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil
I encountered a handful of these tiger beetles. At least, I think that’s what these are. I hope I don’t embarrass myself.
Most of them were up in trees and bushes as suggested by the first photo. I only encountered one on the ground.
From a distance, I mistook the first one for a large ant. Indeed, they move more like an ant than what I expect from a tiger beetle. I believe they may in fact be mimicking ants, and I found some references to back that up. None gave even a general identification though, so I wasn’t able to search for any online photos.
Posted in Featured Photos
11 Comments
Pink and Yellow Flea Beetle
January 26, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Now there’s some colors you don’t see on a beetle very often. Warning colors perhaps?
Posted in Featured Photos
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