RSS Feeds
Categories
Location Profiles
Places
- North America (155)
- Aruba (5)
- Costa Rica (102)
- Limon Province (101)
- Cahuita to Manzanillo (101)
- Limon Province (101)
- United States (47)
- Florida (7)
- Georgia (40)
- Twelvestones (38)
- South America (171)
- Brazil (171)
- Goiás (5)
- Quirinópolis (5)
- Minas Gerais (165)
- Caraça Natural Park (66)
- Monte Alegre (7)
- Tupaciguara (48)
- Uberlandia (44)
- Goiás (5)
- Brazil (171)
- North America (155)
Subjects
- Amphibians (10)
- Frogs and Toads (10)
- Arachnids (41)
- Amblypygids (1)
- Harvestmen (5)
- Mites and Ticks (2)
- Hard Ticks (1)
- Scorpions (1)
- Spiders (32)
- Cobweb Spiders (2)
- Huntsman Spiders (2)
- Jumping Spiders (7)
- Lynx Spiders (1)
- Orb Weavers (9)
- Spitting Spiders (1)
- Tarantulas (1)
- Wandering Spiders (1)
- Wolf Spiders (1)
- Fungi (3)
- Insects (215)
- Ants, Bees, Wasps and Relatives (44)
- Ants (25)
- Army Ants (4)
- Leafcutter Ants (2)
- Bees (2)
- Stingless Bees (2)
- Sawflies (1)
- Wasps (16)
- Chalcid Wasps (2)
- Dryinid Wasps (1)
- Paper Wasps (2)
- Pelecinid Wasps (1)
- Velvet Ants (2)
- Ants (25)
- Barklice (1)
- Beetles (27)
- Blister Beetles (1)
- Click Beetles (1)
- Ground Beetles (2)
- Tiger Beetles (2)
- Jewel Beetles (2)
- Leaf Beetles (7)
- Flea Beetles (1)
- Leaf-mining Leaf Beetles (1)
- Longhorned Beetles (1)
- Snout Beetles (7)
- Tumbling Flower Beetles (1)
- Butterflies and Moths (55)
- Butterflies (7)
- Caterpillars (27)
- Moths (23)
- Cockroaches (2)
- Dragonflies (1)
- Earwigs (1)
- Flies (20)
- Biting Midges (1)
- Blow Flies (1)
- Dance Flies (1)
- Fruit Flies (1)
- Long-legged Flies (1)
- Mosquitoes (1)
- Phorid Flies (1)
- Richardiid Flies (2)
- Soldier Flies (1)
- Stilt-legged Flies (4)
- Tachinid Flies (1)
- Grasshoppers and Relatives (9)
- Crickets (2)
- Grasshoppers (3)
- Jumping Sticks (3)
- Katydids (4)
- Mantids (3)
- Net-winged Insects (7)
- Mantidflies (3)
- Owlflies (1)
- Termites (5)
- Thrips (1)
- True Bugs (57)
- Assassin Bugs (7)
- Broad-headed Bugs (1)
- Burrowing Bugs (1)
- Leaf-footed Bugs (3)
- Leafhoppers (5)
- Planthoppers (14)
- Delphacids (1)
- Derbids (2)
- Dictyopharids (5)
- Fulgorids (1)
- Nogodinids (2)
- Plataspids (1)
- Scales (2)
- Spittlebugs (2)
- Stink Bugs (4)
- Treehoppers (15)
- Walkingsticks (1)
- Webspinners (1)
- Ants, Bees, Wasps and Relatives (44)
- Mammals (2)
- Millipedes (1)
- Polyxenids (1)
- Plants (3)
- Reptiles (13)
- Velvet Worms (3)
- Amphibians (10)
Category Archives: Featured Photos
Slender Anole
January 20, 2011 | Armonia Nature Preserve, Limon Province, Costa Rica
I photographed this slender anole, Norops limifrons, not long after sunset. This species is common and abundant in Costa Rica. It ranges from Mexico to Panama.
According to Leenders, observations suggest that this species mates for life, a rare behavior for a lizard. Energy otherwise spent by the male on defending a territory against other males is instead spent on maintaining the relationship with the female. The male and female stick together, usually never more than a few meters apart. If I’d known this at the time, I’d have looked around for this one’s mate.
Posted in Featured Photos
Leave a comment
Litter Frog
January 20, 2011 | Armonia Nature Preserve, Limon Province, Costa Rica
I thought this was perhaps an Eleutherodactylus species in the family Leptodactylidae. That determination was based mainly on the pads visible on the undersides of the hands and feet.
I asked Brian Kubicki for his opinion, and he said this is Craugastor polyptychus. That last link notes that this species was recently split from Eleutherodactylus bransfordii, so I guess was on the right track.
Looking around on the internet, it looks like the two species are separated by elevation, with this species occurring at lower elevations.
Posted in Featured Photos
Leave a comment
Contorted Moth
45mm wingspan | January 20, 2011 | Armonia Nature Preserve, Limon Province, Costa Rica
I have no idea what kind of moth this is, but I like its attempt to look very unlike a moth.
Posted in Featured Photos
Leave a comment
Heliconia Bug
20mm | January 20, 2011 | Armonia Nature Preserve, Limon Province, Costa Rica
This true bug in the family Coreidae is probably Leptoscelis tricolor. It’s #5 on this plate from the electronic Biologia Centrali-Americana. It also matches these photos from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Bocas del Toro Species Database (Bocas del Toro is only 30 miles or so from where I took this photo). Finally, the Costa Rica Biodiversity Portal only shows two species for this genus. These photos from STRI eliminate the other species, Leptoscelis quadrisignata.
This coreid is commonly known as the heliconia bug simply because it’s often found feeding on heliconias.
Posted in Featured Photos
Leave a comment
Mystery Exuvia
January 20, 2011 | Armonia Nature Preserve, Limon Province, Costa Rica
What do you make of this exuvia? I found it just like this, sticking out of a large downed tree spanning a small creek.
Not sure if you can tell, but there’s a few small horns on the side and then one larger forked horn extending out from the bottom. Whatever left it squeezed out through a split on the top.
It measured 10mm in diameter, and there’s about 18mm extended out of the tree. I carefully pulled the rest out, and it measured 45mm long overall.
The whole thing
Even the rear end is somewhat bizarre looking.
Posted in Featured Photos
4 Comments
Waxy Planthopper Nymph
6mm | January 20, 2011 | Armonia Nature Preserve, Limon Province, Costa Rica
Underneath that elaborate waxy shelter lies a planthopper nymph.
Posted in Featured Photos
1 Comment
Concealed Pupa
23mm | January 20, 2011 | Armonia Nature Preserve, Limon Province, Costa Rica
I noticed a plant whose large leaves had been eaten right down to the leaf ribs. Curiously, portions near the tips had been folded over. I couldn’t resist opening one of those up.
The pupa shown above is what I found inside. The caterpillar’s last head capsule is still attached. The pupa is flipped in the photo above because I opened up the leaf. Normally it would be suspended inside by that thread.
For some reason, the head end of the pupa reminds me of a walrus’s head.
There were quite a few other folded-over leaves, but I was too late to find a caterpillar still fattening itself up.
Posted in Featured Photos
Leave a comment
Stingless Bee Nest
January 20, 2011 | Armonia Nature Preserve, Limon Province, Costa Rica
This stingless bee nest was nestled in the hollow of a tree. The nest entrance is only about a centimeter wide, making the bees themselves only 5 or 6mm long.
As their common name suggests, these bees have no sting to defend themselves. Knowing that, I got quite close. Harmless though they may be, they certainly look mean.
Looking mean
New arrival below
In that last photo, you can see a new arrival hanging below the nest, with pollen visible in the basket on its hind tibia.
According to Hogue, there are three genera of stingless bees. Lestrimelitta can be eliminated here because it doesn’t have a pollen basket. Of the other two, Melipona is larger, hairier and the wings don’t extend beyond the tip of the abdomen as they do here. These must then be a Trigona species.
Posted in Easter Eggs, Featured Photos
Leave a comment
Dictyopharid
January 20, 2011 | Armonia Nature Preserve, Limon Province, Costa Rica
Just another one of those odd looking dictyopharids.
Posted in Featured Photos
Leave a comment
Snout Beetle
18mm | January 20, 2011 | Armonia Nature Preserve, Limon Province, Costa Rica
Posted in Featured Photos
1 Comment
