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Blog Archives
Prominent Caterpillar
22mm | January 20, 2011 | Armonia Nature Preserve, Limon Province, Costa Rica
This caterpillar looks enough like some of my local caterpillars that I can confidently say it’s a prominent moth larva. Its markings camouflage it well as it inserts itself into areas it has eaten.
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Gold-spotted Orb Weaver
18mm | January 20, 2011 | Armonia Nature Preserve, Limon Province, Costa Rica
This large orb weaver was hanging out in the understory. I believe this might be Eriophora nephiloides. Most online photos for the species show a brighter yellower abdomen. It appears to be quite variable. Here’s a photo of one similar to mine (along with what’s pictured at wikipedia).
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Large Bark Katydid
75mm | January 19, 2011
Armonia Nature Preserve, Limon Province, Costa Rica
This large katydid was trying to remain inconspicuous on the side a tree. With a body three inches long and antennae over twice that, it was difficult to miss. I considered making this a crypsis challenge, but it seemed too easy.
In the second photo, it’s in the lower right corner.
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Colorful Jumping Spider
4mm | January 19, 2011 | Armonia Nature Preserve, Limon Province, Costa Rica
It’s hard to resist jumping spiders. This little one sort of has the colors of the Costa Rican flag!
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Better view of abdomen
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Apterostigma collare
4mm | January 19, 2011 | Armonia Nature Preserve, Limon Province, Costa Rica
I spotted the structure below on the underside of a large leaf. I really didn’t know what it was, and I gently poked at it. It was quite fragile as it turns out, and it fell open to reveal an ant nest. I then immediately regretted not having taken a photo beforehand. The next day I was lucky enough to find another one, also pictured.
6cm x 4cm | Unexpected ant nest
4cm x 2cm | Nest with an ant entering
These nests are the work of an ant in the genus Apterostigma. Ants of Costa Rica has an info page for this genus in Costa Rica. I tried to use the key there to identify these, but it was a bit technical for me. I’m basing the species identification on the statements from the site that seem to indicate that only Apterostigma collare builds these nests under leaves. There are some more photos of nests at that same site.
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Amplypygids – Tailless Whip Scorpions
20mm | January 19, 2011 | Armonia Nature Preserve, Limon Province, Costa Rica
These fearsome looking arachnids have an order to themselves, Amblypygi. Though commonly called tailless whip scorpions or whip spiders, they are neither. Intimidating though they may look, they aren’t dangerous and possess no venom. They are quite timid in fact, and I had to take care not to scare them away while photographing them.
Here’s how you might expect to see one actively moving about, with its oversized first pair of legs outstretched.
Longest legs extend outside frame
That first pair of legs is modified for use as antennae. They wave them about, sensing and probing. While the body of this one measured only 2cm, each one of those antenniform legs was 8cm long!
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Hammerhead Fly
7mm | January 19, 2011 | Armonia Nature Preserve, Limon Province, Costa Rica
I spotted this little fly on the underside of a large leaf. I was really thrilled to find something so unusual. I probably spent about a half hour chasing it around from one perch to another. Luckily, it always flew just a short distance.
Dorsal view
I had heard of antler flies before, and I figured this was a good candidate to be one. Initial internet searches using that phrase didn’t turn up anything though. On a whim I tried searching for “hammerhead fly” since that seemed like an obvious common name for this fly. That turned out to be a good guess, and I found lots of similar looking images of Richardia telescopica in the family Richardiidae. I’ve been unable to eliminate the possibility of similar looking species. If not for that uncertainty, I’d have made this into an identification challenge.
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Black and White Weevil
15mm | January 19, 2011 | Armonia Nature Preserve, Limon Province, Costa Rica
My SWAG for this weevil is Cholus costaricensis, based only on illustration 16 on this plate from the Electronic Biologia Centrali-Americana. I could find no other information about this species online, but the name fits!
It’s got some fancy feet.
Fancy Foot
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Cockroach Mating Call
5cm | January 19, 2011 | Armonia Nature Preserve, Limon Province, Costa Rica
I found this impressively large two inch long cockroach just like this, sticking out its abdomen from the side of a creek bank after dark. I found the behavior odd, and I suspected that it might be releasing pheromones to attract a mate. I really had no idea if cockroaches did that or not. After some recent reading, that does appear to be part of the courtship ritual. To initiate courtship, a female will call nearby males in this manner. Presumably then, this is a female.
A while later, I managed to catch her in a different pose.
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Bullet Ant
January 19, 2011 | Armonia Nature Preserve, Limon Province, Costa Rica
This species, Paraponera clavata, is the infamous bullet ant. In Costa Rica, its common name is “bala,” which also means bullet. If somehow you don’t already know, the name derives from its powerful sting. Getting stung is said to be as painful as getting shot. I’ve also heard it referred to as “hormiga veinticuatro”, or  24 hour ant, for the duration of the pain. I’m happy to say I can’t testify to any of this personally.
I saw plenty of these large ants. It was difficult to get any images though, as they seem to be constantly on the move. These images were taken at night as the ant crawled around on a tree trunk.
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