I’m cleaning out my backlog of old photos. Here’s some small living things that I’ve taken pictures of in the relatively recent past… Let’s start with two butterflies in the Gallatin Range, Montana: Returning to Virginia, here’s a fuzzy little white moth: A crane fly is next… (M.A.G.I.C. has been churning out lots of crane … Read more
Today, for your viewing pleasure, please check out five macro GigaPans of insect fossils from the Florissant fossil beds in Colorado (34.07 +/-0.10Ma). These amazing specimens were collected by Joe Cancellare, a student working on research supervised by Josh Villalobos of El Paso Community College in El Paso, Texas. Our M.A.G.I.C. project is helping Joe … Read more
Got access to the wife’s photos from South Africa. Here are two other charismatic insects:
Here is a collection of creepy-crawlies I saw in South Africa: Big grasshopper/katydid orthopteran: Another big orthopteran (“locust”?), obviously beefier than the previous one: Beach roach (Blattodea): Mating true bugs (hemipterans): Here’s a big snail, too: And best of all? This solpugid! Solpugids are arachnids, but they are not spiders. Along with vinegaroons, scorpions, pseudoscorpions, … Read more
It’s that kind of day. Grasshopper? Cricket? Katydid? Some kind of orthopteran, anyhow. Not a full adult, to judge by the lack of well-formed wings. And, here’s a yellow crab spider:
Some kind of caterpillar I spotted on the Billy Goat Trail yesterday – can’t find a perfect match for it to identify the species. Anyone know? Chime in. UPDATE – My colleague Victor Zabielski pinned it as Schizura concinna, the redhumped caterpillar. Thanks, Victor!
Two macrobugs from yesterday’s field trip to the Rockfish River area south of Charlottesville… … a really fast orange-and-maroon grub: …and an elegant fly: We also saw some rocks, but I’ll have to blog about them later because right now I have to pack up for summer travels.
Spied this lovely cricket while hiking the White Oak Canyon Trail in Shenandoah National Park yesterday: I realize there’s been a pretty high bugs : rocks ratio on Mountain Beltway of late; I’m just in summer mode, I reckon. And Virginia’s arthropod profligacy keeps bringing me into contact with these extraordinary segmented denizens of the … Read more
It’s a morning for big bugs, evidently. Chris Town found a giant water bug on the other side of the planet, and as I arrived on campus, I found a female patent leather beetle crossing the parking lot. I imaged her a couple of different ways – a macro photo pair with my Canon Elph, … Read more
This weekend, we went backpacking with our friends Seth and Anne, at Dolly Sods in West Virginia. As usual, I took pictures. Not so much of rocks this time, but there were lots of springtime buggies crawling about, and you know how I like to shoot macro photos of small critters… So here you go: … Read more