A mangrove floods with the incoming tide:
A juvenile, blue tarantula emerges from its burrow at night:
Thread-legged bug (Emesinae) is often confused with either praying mantids or stick insects, but they are actually more closely related to other hemipterans like cicadas, except that they use their piercing mouthparts on other insects, rather than plants:
A stick insect with flared protuberances on the legs and abdomen help to disrupt its shape and further complicate its form:
An entomopathogenic fungus is not fooled by the camouflage, however good it may be:
A leaf-mimicking katydid abandons its tree of choice in order to descend to another plant to feed on:
Sexually dimorphic huntsman spiders mating in the rainforest understory. Independently it would be difficult to have determined that these two individuals were the same species, and illustrates the challenges inherent to taxonomy:
A mouse opossum (Marmosa murina) is a voracious insectivore, and remains active throughout the night, locating prey by means of its outsized parabolic ears, protruding eyes and sensitive whiskers:
A pirate spider (Gelanor sp.) initially hunts down an orbweaver by plucking at the outer threads of its web. When that fails, it ventures onto the web itself, cutting the radial lines as it makes its way to the centre, cutting off escape routes, while also minimizing the chances that it will itself become ensnared:
A pair of rain frogs (Pristimantis sp.) in amplexus after heavy rains during the rainy season:
Striated heron fishing:
Thanks for looking and commenting,
Paul
Rainforest Mix
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- MarkSturtevant
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Terrific stuff! I always like the ambience you capture in your pictures. I feel like I am there.
The thread legged bug may be a kind of assassin bug (Reduviidae). That family comes in such odd shapes.
The pirate spider has extraordinarily long pedipalps, with complex knobby bits on the ends. I suppose this is a male (male copulatory organs are on the pedipalps), but I wonder why its pedipalps are so long.
The thread legged bug may be a kind of assassin bug (Reduviidae). That family comes in such odd shapes.
The pirate spider has extraordinarily long pedipalps, with complex knobby bits on the ends. I suppose this is a male (male copulatory organs are on the pedipalps), but I wonder why its pedipalps are so long.
Mark Sturtevant
Dept. of Still Waters
Dept. of Still Waters
Fascinating - again!
Troels Holm, biologist (retired), environmentalist, amateur photographer.
Visit my Flickr albums
Visit my Flickr albums
Thanks Oscar, Troels, Chris, Mark, Yawns and Leonard, much appreciated.
Mouse opossum's are relatively common and somewhat forgiving of approach. This particular individual ran up a small sapling and was afraid to come down, despite the fact that it was almost within reach. I was able to get to within a couple feet.
Mark - Pirate spiders have araneophagic diets (both males and females), and so it could represent an adaptation to sexual predation. There would be greater pressure to evolve this kind of adaptation where sexual depredations are assured versus black widows and other facultative sexual predators whose behaviours can be somewhat mitigated through behavioural adaptations like the presentation of nuptial gifts.
Mouse opossum's are relatively common and somewhat forgiving of approach. This particular individual ran up a small sapling and was afraid to come down, despite the fact that it was almost within reach. I was able to get to within a couple feet.
Mark - Pirate spiders have araneophagic diets (both males and females), and so it could represent an adaptation to sexual predation. There would be greater pressure to evolve this kind of adaptation where sexual depredations are assured versus black widows and other facultative sexual predators whose behaviours can be somewhat mitigated through behavioural adaptations like the presentation of nuptial gifts.