bugs

playing w/ my ditch pickle today

a swamp eel (Monopterus sp.) taking a gulp of air. Insanely adaptable and probably Florida's single highest impact invasive fish, but I can't lie they're also extremely cute

Acronicta fallax at the sheet last night. Aptly named the green marvel cause I sure was marveling at that green

A pretty little cockroach (iNat suggests Euphyllodromia sp.) in Costa Rica. Only around 30 of the 4,600 or so species of cockroaches enter homes. Most are detritivores, important members of nature's cleanup crew. This one had cool chevron patterns and compound eyes like polished glass. 🐙🌿 #insects

A comparison image of three similar juvenile boxfish species 🐡🐡🐡

sharing my peach with them

Misgurnus anguillicaudatus, Weather Loach, introduced to and quite widespread in much of the US. This small tributary-of-a-tributary creek of the Hackensack River had probably hundreds of <1" young-of-year loaches in the muck and weeds

Schooling Sacramento pikeminnow, despite being minnows they reach impressive size (4+ft) and are top predators in the ecosystems they inhabit. Really bold fish too which is always welcome for photography.

🌸 thicket bean 🌿 Phaseolus polystachios only native Phaseolus in eastern north america 🫘 #nativeplants #flowerreport #bloomscrolling #bloomsky

New fave weevil just dropped - an NC native! 🤗 This stunning insect is a sesbania clown weevil. Numerous were feeding on the leguminous host in a field; grower was happy they were eating the weed 😆 Thanks to Dominic Reisig for collecting them! #Coleoptera #Curculionidae #Eudiagogus maryae #weevil

Forbidden strawberry... A Giant Velvet Mite found during #BugShot Arizona #inverts (Dinothrombium sp.) Portal, AZ

Hotel had a complimentary Gibbium aequinoctiale in the bathtub

This spectacular little fish, Rasbora jacobsoni, is endemic to central Sumatra — and right now, there are only a few iNaturalist observations of it! 📷 fishtse on iNaturalist 📍 Indonesia 🔗: www.inaturalist.org/observations... #ObservationOfTheDay

Hemaris thysbe and diffinis

going off in the garden right now (Lobelia inflata, Clinopodium vulgare, Monarda fistulosa, Ratibida pinnata)

male florida flagfish (Jordanella floridae) on a nest in my outdoor tub. This species seems to shift between active nest guarding and egg scattering based on environmental factors. This guy has clearly been successful so far though as theres several age classes of fry flitting around the tub

New favorite arachnid just dropped. We set up a Wind Scorpion in a habitat and she went to town digging. These animals dig burrows to get out of the desert heat, maintain humidity, and hide from predators. I think she's adorable. (Solifugid) Southwestern Research Station, Portal, AZ

It’s been a warm summer and setting new mops may help kick the breeding season in high gear for Pachypanchax patriciae

Aplocheilus panchax looking good outside, he's currently paired with a female in a tub

mint collection, Pycnanthemum tenuifolium, incanum, virginianum, muticum

Whatever. Triple scarab death barrage.

the lovely baby animal Papilio polyxenes caterpillar munching away at unripe Zizia aurea fruits

LOOK at this stunner of an Orangespotted Sunfish! Caught and released from a floodplain lake off the Minnesota River. Yes, freshwater fishes can be quite colorful too!

Gratuitous #nongame pics taken on our study lake this week. #buffalo #gar

A new study shows that a grape-only diet isn't sustainable for the invasive spotted lanternfly, w/ development and reproduction severely limited. The findings suggest that eliminating spotted lanternflies' preferred host, tree of heaven, near vineyards could be a key tactic to minimize their impact.

vicious blood-stained predator

A crocodile fish #gili #giliislands #lombok #diving #scuba #trawangan #diveandstay #giliair #pets #ocean #sealife #marinelife #padi #fish #crocodile

🌻 yellow coneflower 🌿 Ratibida pinnata the common name 'coneflower' is shared by plants in four different genera in the sunflower/aster/daisy family Asteraceae #nativeplants #flowerreport #bloomscrolling #bloomsky

beasts from the sheet (Phengodes sp. male, Automeris io, Orchesella villosa, Leuconycta diphteroides)

School of catfish #gili #giliislands #lombok #diving #scuba #trawangan #diveandstay #giliair #pets #ocean #sealife #marinelife #padi #fish #catfish

🦀 #invertebrates

I see some people posting their strawberry moon photos from last night, so here is my humble contribution. Micrathena clypeata, sometimes referred to as the strawberry spider, is seen here spinning her moon-like egg sac. This is one of the photos from WildSumaco that I am most proud of.

As a power user and donor, I've met multiple staff members and talk to them every now and then. I don't think this whole program was something they pursued maliciously, it was just a terrible solution for a problem they misdiagnosed. I believe they can be convinced to take a different path.

Even if iNat seems dispensable to you due to your abundance of local resources, it's the only thing people like me have. They're now taking feedback from the community so this is our chance to steer them in a better direction. I don't want the platform to die, I want it to do better.

I get that people are deeply annoyed by iNat right now, but despite its deep flaws, I hope people can see that a better iNat, both the site functionality and the community, is worth fighting for. Here's my personal perspective.

I think ppl are being way too hasty and dogmatic abt the inat thing but I think the way this feature is gonna shake out you're going to need curators to go through each description with such a fine toothed comb that you may as well just have it be user made in the first place

"Estimated globally for the period 1851–2016, the modern extinction rate for freshwater fishes stands at 33.47 extinctions per million species-years (E/MSY), more than 100 times greater than the natural background extinction rate of 0.33 E/MSY". 🌍

I found a baby clownfish in the sea. I let it go back to where it was—so the story never began.

Incredible tricks with Proteinaceous Food

Here is a large Goliath Tigerfish specimen from the main Congo River at Kinsangani that some fishmen had caught and were butchering for sale locally. The dentition of these fish is amazing, and the fish's jaws were still moving when I photographed them!

Saw one of the greatest freshwater fishes of all time this morning in Tanzania. The Goliath tigerfish is a formidable predator with some of the largest teeth that you will ever see. There was a local fisherman selling them door to door

As of now, there are only 16 observations of this cockroach species — Caloblatta tricolor — recorded on iNaturalist! 📷 mason_s on iNaturalist 📍 Panama 🔗: www.inaturalist.org/observations... #ObservationOfTheDay

Juniper Hairstreak (Callophrys gryneus), Travis County, Texas #insects #inverts #butterflies #macro

Weather's been cold and crappy for late may into june and I'm thinking fondly of warmer places... The ever iconic Keel-billed Toucan and Collared Aracari from Costa Rica's atlantic slope rainforest

Come take a hike on Antpitta Trail they said... 🐌 👀 Antpitta is right behind the biological station at Wildsumaco, Home of untold wonders, like these Giant South American Snails— and most of the other stuff I post on here. It is a real privilege to live in the same time on earth as these guys.

Leucospis chalcid wasp, a parasitoid of the egg cases of another favorite of mine, resin bees. Weird chonky thing. 🖤

a smattering of tiger moths from the sheet (Apantesis probably phalerata, Spilosoma virginica, Estigmene acrea, Pyrrharctia isabella)

The subtle sproing of a sea spider #Invertebrates