Dueling Salticids

Posted on August 17, 2010 by Troy Bartlett

Standoff | January 26, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil

I first spotted just one of these male jumping spiders. As I prepared to take some photos, it became aware of another male nearby. They approached one another and were obviously sizing each other up in preparation for a fight. Neither backed down, and so the fight was on.

Fight!

I like how they raise their pedipalps like boxing gloves. Or maybe that’s just to keep them away from the others fangs? Which would you bet wins this bout?

Knockout!

According to the timestamps on my images, they fought for around seven minutes. It looked like the object was simply to dislodge the opponent and send them tumbling away. You can see how they are using their long front legs to try and grab the other’s hind legs and pull them out from beneath each other. This is the knockout shot, as the one on the left has succeeded in grabbing the right one’s hind leg and right after pushed it off the leaf. read more

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Black Fly with White Bands on Wings

Posted on August 7, 2010 by Troy Bartlett

January 26, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Flies are a difficult order for me so I won’t pretend to know for sure what family this one belongs to. My guess would be a bee fly.

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Leaf Beetle Feeding Behavior

Posted on August 7, 2010 by Troy Bartlett

January 26, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil

This leaf beetle has created an interesting little scene.

There’s the leaf damage caused by feeding. The spots appear to be changing color as they age. I assume the green one to the top right of the beetle is the freshest. The light colored ones near the top must be the oldest.

There’s also some frass spread around.

Looking at this, I wonder if the feeding behavior isn’t offering some measure of camouflage. From a distance, the beetle appears to be just another damaged spot on the leaf. read more

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Colorful Froghopper

Posted on July 27, 2010 by Troy Bartlett

January 25, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Another find from my first night at Caraça’s sanctuary.

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Acrobatic Harvestman

Posted on July 26, 2010 by Troy Bartlett

This harvestman was climbing amongst some leaves, no doubt searching for prey.

January 25, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Wandering in search of prey

Here’s some other interesting shots of this individual. If you look carefully, you can see some white mites.

Mouthparts closeup

Abdomen closeup

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Earwig with a Clubbed Abdomen

Posted on July 25, 2010 by Troy Bartlett

January 25, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil

I’ve never seen an earwig quite like this before. In fact, I’m not entirely sure it is an earwig. When I first saw it my initial impression was of a beetle, a rove beetle perhaps. As far as I know though, no beetles have those earwig like pincers.

If this species is described in the literature, I wonder if the scientific name doesn’t somehow reference the clubbed abdomen. The whole insect looks prehistoric somehow.

This wasn’t the only one I saw. I spotted another one near by. It wasn’t quite as nice looking though, with a wing stain and a missing antenna. read more

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Moth Face

Posted on July 20, 2010 by Troy Bartlett

January 25, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil

I like the beard.

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Trechaleid Spider with Young

Posted on July 19, 2010 by Troy Bartlett

The first thing I photographed after arriving in Caraça Natural Park was this hunting spider, found wandering in an unpaved parking area.

Trechaleid Spider with Young | January 25, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Up until I started preparing to write this post, I figured this was a wolf spider. After reading to learn more about the parenting behavior shown here, I’m now convinced it is instead a species in the family Trechaleidae. What first tipped me off was a similar photograph in this little book:

[book:0060849746]

Several identifying characteristics are mentioned for the particular species pictured. After some online searching, most appear to be shared by other species of the family. read more

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Caraça Natural Park

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Troy Bartlett

Caraça Panorama

The Trip

This past January I visited Caraça (pronounced kah-RAH-suh) Natural Park in Brazil. This was a side-trip for me, part of a larger trip to visit my wife’s family in Brazil.

Caraça Natural Park, Brazil

Getting There

From our hometown Uberlândia I flew to Belo Horizonte (BH), capital of our state, Minas Gerais. I drove four hours or so from the BH airport to the park. The crappy rental car combined with the Monday morning traffic didn’t add up to a pleasurable drive. But once I was out of the city, I was able to relax a bit more and take in the scenery. read more

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Reptile Day 2010 at Fernbank Museum

Posted on July 11, 2010 by Troy Bartlett

Fernbank Museum, a local natural history museum, opened in Atlanta in 1992. Its predecessor, the Fernbank science center, opened in 1967 and remains open today.  I have vivid memories of visiting the science center as a school kid. They both grew out of an effort that began in 1938 to preserve what had become known as Fernbank forest, 65 acres of old-growth urban Piedmont forest.

Fernbank Museum Entrance

I had been wanting to check out a special gecko exhibition at the museum. When I saw yesterday would be Reptile day, I knew it was time to visit. As a bonus, I saw online that there would also be a special exhibition of nature photography by local photographer Bill Harbin. read more

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