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Blog Archives
Fruit Fly
I start with low expectations whenever I try to identify a fly. I’m happy if I get to family, but I think I got as far as genus on this one. This female fruit fly in the family Tephritidae might be an Anastrepha species.
Reference:
[book:9968927147]
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Crooked Jaw Termites
As promised in my last post, here are some termites where the soldiers are much larger than the workers. Large is relative though, since although they are twice the size of the workers, these soldiers still only measure one centimeter.
Based on Hogue’s Latin American Insects and subsequent web searches, I believe these are termites in the genus Neocapritermes, which he refers to in an illustration as crooked jaw termites. The name certainly fits. My first thoughts after seeing one of these soldiers was that it was deformed.
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Only Termites Shall Pass
A phalanx of termite soldiers forms a first line of defense in front of foraging workers (not shown). I accidentally breathed on them shortly after this shot and they all quickly retreated.
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Bee Mimicking Assassin Bug
For me, those wings are what really give this assassin bug in the family Reduviidae the appearance of a bee.
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Marimbondo-chapéu – Hat Wasp
The local common name for these social wasps is marimbondo-chapéu in Portuguese or hat wasp in English. The name refers to the form of the nest, seen above.
Seen from below, I’d say it looks more like a sunflower. They are really packed in there. I’d estimate there are probably a couple of hundred of them.
Here’s another crop that I like of that same image.
You’ve probably noticed by now these images were taken during the day. So what are all of them doing hanging out on the nest? Taking a siesta? I wondered the same thing. I spent around 45 minutes taking pictures and attempting to gauge just how closely I could approach without alarming them. During that whole time, not a single one flew off or arrived.
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Termite Soldiers
I generally overlook termites, but this trip I decided I’d change that. These were the first ones I found. They were busy pulling grains underground.
Now that I’ve been paying attention, I can see there’s quite a variety. In this species, the soldiers and the workers are about the same size.
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Owlfly
I rarely find owlflies (family Ascalaphidae, order Neuroptera). Even though this one was in an unphotogenic location, I couldn’t resist a few photos.
This was a large one. The body was around 4cm long.
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Two Flies Sharing a Meal
These two flies are sharing a meal.
I can easily identify the larger one as a micropezid.
I’m not sure about the smaller one though.
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Jumping Spider with Prey
This little salticid has captured a small fly of some sort.
White scales on the chelicerae almost look like a mustache.
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Another Micropezid
This one looks a lot like the one I found ovipositing.
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