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Blog Archives
Fuzzy Jewel Beetle
January 26, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Quick! What is it? From this angle, you might mistake this jewel beetle for a bee.
The beetle was feeding on the purplish flowers. Purple in, purple out.
Side view
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Snobbish Fulgorid
January 26, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Like many fulgorids, the front of the head of this one is oddly shaped. With what looks like an upturned nose, you could call this one downright snobbish.
Closeup of head
Take a close look at the base of the antenna below the eye.
Antenna Closeup
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Dueling Salticids
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.
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Black Fly with White Bands on Wings
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
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.
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Colorful Froghopper
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
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
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.
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Moth Face
January 25, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil
I like the beard.
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Trechaleid Spider with Young
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.
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