bugonthumb

[bugonthumb]

A graduate student studying peacock spiders in Australia discovered two new species of the colorful eight-legged beasts.

[bugonthumb]

Another, artsier take on some earlier pics of the incomparably weird snakefly. This is a female, as evidenced by her tail-like ovipositor. (Rhaphidioptera, Carbon County, Montana, 2014)

[bugonthumb]

From top to bottom: Snakefly (Rhaphidioptera), Eyed elater (Coleoptera), and Treehopper (Homoptera).

I moved back home recently, to Montana; the last best place. After four years of blue-ribbon bug-hunting in China, however, I worried the Big-Sky- State's invertebrate offerings wouldn't stack up. Clearly, I have no cause for concern.

In fact, this is the first time I've ever seen a snakefly in the wild. The implausible creature gets its name from its long, slender appearance and sinuous manner of movement. They are avid predators, often preying on the larvae of other insects. Females are characterized by their long, tail-like ovipositor, as in the one pictured.

[bugonthumb]

This wasp was mostly asleep and easily the largest wasp I’ve ever seen. At least 2” long.

Liberty Lake, Washington

6-28-14

[bugonthumb]

This is a caterpillar hunter (genus Carabus) from Zhejiang Province, China. These guys are out in abundance in late spring. The plum rains bring out the snails and slugs, which in turn brings out the hungry beetles. This guy is about two-inches long with well-developed mandibles. In addition to snails and slugs, I believe these beetles hunt millipedes, caterpillars and other insects. They are best picked up with their rear-ends facing away from you as they are equipped with a stinky defensive spray.

[bugonthumb]

Blister beetle (Family Meloidae); Sanmen, China

[bugonthumb]

Blister beetle (Meloidae); Sanmen, China

[bugonthumb]

Spring Spider Mix, Series 1: (from top to bottom) Orb-weaver (Araneidae?), jumping spider (Salticidae) , and a male sheet web spider Lynyphiidae).

[bugonthumb]

Taiwan and Back Again

Jiannian dragons and cochin-style figurines decorate a temple top near Taipei. Jiannian is a method of mosaic in which colored shards are applied to figurines to give a three-dimensional effect. Fish and dragons on temples often symbolize protection against fire.

I recently returned from my third, and likely last (for a while), trip to Taiwan. For "buggers" like me, the island really is a paradise.

A robber fly (family Asilidae) with small beetle prey

A common wasp moth (family Ctenuchidae, genus Amata), Taroko Gorge National Park

Leaf beetle, I think (family Chrysomelidae), Taroko Gorge National Park

Though small and often ingeniously camouflaged against the verdure, Taiwan's insects and arachnids abound and can be marvelously strange.

An owlfly (family Ascalaphidae), Fuyuan Forest Recreational Area

An ornate orb-weaver (Herennia ornatissima). These spiders are characterized by flat, lobed and speckled abdomens. Their coloring blends them into the tree trunks on which they build their highly effective ladder webs (see below).

Herennia's ladder web lies parallel to the trunk on which it's built. This renders it nearly invisible when viewed dead-on. As a result, insects, such as flies, fail to see the web when landing on the tree and get stuck.

Leaf beetle (family Chrysomelidae), Jiufen, Taiwan. These particular beetles are super common and seemingly pestiferous in Taiwan.

Lynx spider (genus Oxyopes), Taroko Gorge National Park

And then there are Taiwan's lantern-lit tea houses; the vivid, tiled temples; the serene, camphor-scented hot springs; ubiquitous and awesomely-stocked 7-Elevens; and of course the monkeys...monkeys, monkeys everywhere.

In Taroko, we talked with two hill villagers who were on their way down the mountain for supplies with their "pet" monkey "Baccan" in tow.

My husband and I spent much of our time exploring the island's most famous national park: Taroko Gorge, on the eastern side of the island, near the surf-city of Hualien.

The sheer verticality of the place is astounding. Upon entering the gorge, the cliff walls rise so quickly and suddenly around you that you have to crane your neck to the sky. 

Soldier beetle (family Cantharidae), Jiufen, Taiwan

The gorgeous, antique-filled Shuku Tea House in Jiufen, just outside Taipei.

One of the best parts about hiking in Taiwan is that if you go mid-week, as we did, you rarely see other hikers on the trails. One of the few we did run into--twice in fact--was a young Swiss gentleman--Lukas--who has been adventuring around Asia for the last couple of years, lucky devil. A wildlife enthusiast, he showed us how to spot lizards lurking on tree trunks he even caught one for us to hold. Check out his excellent Flickr stream.

One of the many fireflies (family Lampyridae) in the backyard of our Hualien B&B

We spent our last days in Formosa in the whimsical hillside town of Jiufen. I've spoken of Jiufen--the town that inspired the setting for the perfect Studio Ghibli fairy-tale, Spirited Away--before on this blog, so I won't dwell...except to marvel at the aptness of spotting, on this trip and in such a fantastical place, my first Asian fairy moth! These creatures, with their gilded wings, farcically long antennae, and abiding fondness for flowers, could charm warmth into the coldest hearts.

Fairy moth (family Adelidae), Jiufen, Taiwan

Even getting stuck in a Hualien cafe for forty minutes during a Typhoon shelter-drill is pleasant in Taiwan.

Sigh. Formosa, I will miss you.

Net-winged beetles (Family Lycidae) mating, Jiufen

Jiufen, from the Shuku Tea House

[bugonthumb]

Athropoda, Spring Mix; Series 1.  Three leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae) and a jumping spider (Salticidae)

[bugonthumb]

Great blog and totally charming sketches by fellow BugShot Alum Nash Turley!

Filbert weevil (Curculio occidentis, order Coleoptera, family Curculionidae)

[bugonthumb]

Chrysomelidae, maybe Lema genus? Zhejiang, China.

[bugonthumb]

Lynx spider, Zhejiang province, China.

[bugonthumb]

I'm not sure what the species (or even genus) is of this marvelous leaf beetle. I collected it just a few days ago on a trail in Zhejiang province, China. I would love some help on the ID if anyone has ideas. I've seen them before in this area and believe they are fairly common.

The above hind wing-display sequence came as a complete and happy surprise to me. I was attempting to shoot the beetle's gorgeous ventral side when her elytra began to open, revealing incredibly bright strawberry-pink hind wings. I believe the spectacle was just an attempt to right herself rather than a threat display? But, again, I'm not sure. Regardless, it was an absolute treat to see.

[bugonthumb]

After a long winter...

The bugs have finally begun to emerge here in Sanmen, China. The temps are creeping toward mild and the endless days of shivering rain are giving way to weak, watery sunshine. 

To enjoy the sunny respite, I did some early-season bug-hunting over the weekend on the old hill-pass trail near site. The day proved quiet entomologically. I did, however, spot myriad small arachnids ornamenting the verdure; orb-weavers, mostly (their gossamer banners strung here and there like sheets flung out to dry), though I did collect a small lynx spider (photos in next post). 

Toward the end of the day, I also collected a simply gorgeous leaf beetle, all swirling, lollipop-hued metallics. She had completed her life's work: sticking a batch of perfect, carmel-colored eggs to the end of budding branch. It seems early in the year (and too chilly) for such activities, but mother knows best. 

I will follow this post up with a few of the resulting white-box shots of both the beetle and the lynx. I became a fan (or perhaps addict is a more appropriate term) of "studio"-style macro while at BugShot, Belize this past September. I still adore natural light photography and believe it is, for the context and purpose it conveys, more powerful than studio. However, I admit I am charmed by the white-box's starkness and polished focus on minute details. 

[bugonthumb]

BugShot, Belize, 2013

Amblypygid, Belmopan, Belize, 2013

Last fall, I offered up five-years-worth of future Christmas and birthday presents (not to mention the Indiana Jones-style sidecar-motorcycle for which I pined) to the Master-of-the-Universe in return for a chance to attend what has to be the most glorious gathering of insect and nature nerds in the Western Hemisphere: BugShot, an invertebrate macro-photography workshop taught by four of the field's greats: Alex Wild, John Abbott, Thomas Shahan, and the incomparable Piotr Naskrecki. 

I found out about the workshop by chance, or fate. The latter seems more likely considering that, for some time, the adorably sinister tailless whip-spider (or amblypygid) has grinned smugly at me from its perch atop my Arthropod Life List, seemingly unreachable, despite my extensive bug-focused travels.

Indeed, I've had some banner insect years of late. This past spring, along foggy, petal-strewn paths in Taiwan, I was able to enjoy the Seussian-strangeness of #'s 16 and 13 on my list, a scorpionfly (Genus Panorpa) and stalk-eyed fly (family Diopsidae), respectively. A few months later, in a meadow in the Dolomites, I happened upon a coven of gilt-winged fairy moths (# 22) as they played about the clover. And in 2012, I made a triumphant--if tearful and snot-garbled--call to my husband to report my sighting of #3, a perfect, penny-sized bolas spider, tucked into itself on a leaf; its bulbous abdomen a slick of white and brown rilled yellow at its margins: the most convincing imitation of bird shit that I had ever seen. 

In Thailand, some years ago, I got as close to an amblypygid as I had ever come. At an insect hotel in the tangled jungles of Phrae, a staff-member brought me one of the amplypygid's relatives, a terribly handsome uropgygid (or vinegaroon)-- #27--that he'd found in his bathroom. 

Though each of these encounters meant the world to me, I've always longed most for my gorgeous and grotesque #1.  

Enter BugShot, Belize, and its promise to take its participants into a cave to seek out and photograph the creatures within, including cave crickets, predacious fungus gnat larvae, and, to my shrieking delight, amblypygids.

Cave cricket, Belmopan, Belize, 2013

Master-of-the-Universe (a.k.a, my ever-so-patient and obliging husband) agreed that BugShot, with its inclusion of my hero Piotr Naskrecki--katydid specialist, defender of cockroaches, and a man whom I consider to be the entomological Indiana Jones--was indeed a rare opportunity and signed me up. On one condition. That I abandon my plans to purchase a Mao-era sidecar-motorcycle, a vehicle that I fiercely desired for its ability to convey me and my be-goggled pomeranian to the grocery store with the same adventurous flair that Indiana used to flee the Nazis. 

But with amblypygids on the line, I chose wisely.

To Belize!

Though many of these photos are "studio" shots and some are digitally manipulated for artistic effect, the creatures pictured are nonetheless all ones that we found, often at night and in spite of red-ants in our pants, on the trails and in the gardens of Ian Anderson's stunning Caves Branch Lodge in Belmopan, Belize.

I dedicate these photos to MOTU, my amazing fellow work-shoppers (the nicest group of buggers you could ever meet) and our fantastic instructors. It truly was an adventure of a lifetime. 

[bugonthumb]

Fungus gnat larvae webs, Footprint cave, Belmopan, Belize