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Blog Archives
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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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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Glittery Micromoth
January 28, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil
While less noticed and more difficult to identify, the majority of lepidoptera species are small and are collectively referred to as microlepidoptera or micromoths. Though small, this one’s glittery wing scales caught my eye.
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A Walkingstick with Wings
Walkingstick | January 28, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil
We don’t have that many species of walkingsticks here in the Southeastern US. None of the ones I’ve encountered have wings. So this one looks odd to me.
Remember the jumping sticks? Here’s one more photo of one of those so you can see how easy it is to distinguish the two based on their antennae.
Jumping stick | January 28, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil
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Crypsis Challenge #4 Reveal
Hopefully it didn’t take more than a few seconds to spot the katydid in this image.
January 27, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil
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A Caterpillar to Avoid
January 28, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil
I found a couple of these large caterpillars very near to each other. First the one above and then the one below. I believe they are a species of Automeris.
With those spines and colors, it’s pretty obvious they are to be avoided. Each one of those spines is like a little hypodermic needle bearing venom.
Here are some closeups.
Head
Spiny cluster
And here’s a particularly intimidating display.
Back off!
So what would mess with this spiny critter? I discovered while reviewing photos of the latter caterpillar that there was a small fly up to no good. Sorry for the photo quality. These are extreme crops.
Posted in Easter Eggs, Featured Photos
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Some Frogs and Toads from Caraça
These are the frogs and toads I encountered in Caraça Natural Park.
Treefrog | January 26, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Toad | January 27, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Treefrog | January 28, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil
I didn’t see any snakes, and I only caught fleeting glimpses of a few large lizards.
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Colorful Butterfly
January 28, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil
I usually don’t have the patience to stalk butterflies. The colors on this one were just so vibrant that I spent about 20 minutes chasing after it.
Even the undersides of the wings, while definitely muted, are attractive (to me anyway).
Wings closed showing underside
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Glasswing Butterfly
January 28, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Glasswing butterflies lack scales on parts of their wings, leaving those parts transparent.
Though similar looking, this is not the species (Greta oto) commonly found in many of the butterfly houses I’ve visited. That one’s range doesn’t extend into South America. This is probably a closely related species. I was surprised there are so many that look very much alike. Check out this Florida Museum of Natural History page on the tribe Godyridini to get an idea.
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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.
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