Category Archives: Photo Journal
Favorite photos from 2021
I finally got around uploading my favorites of last year, trimmed them down to about 80 photos which are in most part from a few weeks in Ecuador the beginning of the year, as always detailed insect macrophotography and spiders make the bulk of the gallery.
Almost all macros that year were taken with the new Laowa 50mm on either my Olympus EPL5 or EM5, and for a change, bird photography was done back with my Canon 70-300 5.6 IS adapted to M4/3 which turned out unexpectedly great, this shall be the theme of a coming post.
Be sure to check them at the main site for a better viewing experience
2021
Cupiennius wandering spider
Andean cock of the rock
Lichen stick bug
Green eyed katydid
Harvestman preying on a plant hopper
Wasp parasited by entomopathogenic fungus
Army ants attacking a rival species
Pustulous-looking harvestman
Stick bug close-up
Army ants guarding their prey cache of larva and pupae
Diaphorolepis shadow snake
Harvestman guarding eggs, with embryos visible
Anaptomecus hunstman spider
A harvestman glowing in UV light
Unidentified coccoon with resin lattice
Mating lichen stick bugs
Habitat shot of Mindo’s cloud forest
Teal and blue glitter weevil
Cupiennius wandering spider
Acanthocteninae wandering spider
Cupiennius found post moult with blueish legs
False eye pattern on a butterfly wing
Yellow harvestman portrait
Huntsman spider guarding an eggsac
Harvestman preying on a green planthopper
Rainfrog vocalizing with inflated vocal sac
Ghost spider with prey
Details of a millipede
Harvestman foraging on the leaflitter
Mindo cloud forest
White fronted capuchin
Micro orchid flowers
A juvenile crab spider hanging on a web
Lichen camouflaged stick bug on a fern leaf
Harvestman guarding eggs underneath a leaf
Hackled orb weaver, a venomless spider
Portrait of a harvestman
Recently hatched young harvestmen
Spiny devil katydid
Portrait of a horned darkling beetle
Chrysso spider with spiderlings
Red and blue flea beetle
Flurescence of a harvestman on a tree trunk
Side portrait of a rainfrog
Harvestman carrying Chloropidae fly pupae parasites
Plated millipede exploring the forest floor
A spined katydid nymph with blue spikes
Frontal portrait of a unusually patterned rainfrog
Cobweb spider opening her eggsac
A katydid finishing it’s moult process
Red and black millipede on the leaflitter
Yellow fungi growing on a tree trunk
White necked jacobin in flight
Tawny bellied hermit in flight
Campbell’s toadheaded viper
White mushrooms on a rotting branch
A juvenile anolis on the same leaf as a planthopper
White mushroom on the forest floor
Gagrellinae harvestman preying on a planthopper
Paratropis, a primitive spider
A puprle fungus beetle
Cupiennius wandering spider found post moult
Mushroom with a water droplet over it
A metallic blue leaf beetle
A young Anolis
Portrait of a young amblypygi
Portrait of a green glass frog
Micro orchid found in Mindo Valley
Stingless bee hive found on the forest floor
Portrait of an army ant major soldier
Portrait of a stick bug
Crab spider feeding on a wild bee
Fluorescence of a crab spider eating a stingless bee
Brazilian porcupine
Metallic orchid bee
A jumping spider feeding on a dengue mosquito
Green jumping spider
A jararaca pit viper over water
Carnivorous Utricularia from Itatiaia
I haven’t given much attention to plants here before, but these are granted to get interest even from bug-people like me. Utricularia (Lentibulariaceae, commonly named bladderwort) is the fastest and most diverse genus of carnivorous plants so far with more than 200 species, a lot of them have big and colorful flowers and for the average person this is all the credit they get, I found it’s common to be met with surprise when you tell someone they’re carnivorous plants, looking nothing like flytraps of pitchers.
Part of the lack public knowledge about this is due their traps being hidden underwater or damp soil, they’re rootless aquatic plants depending on small creatures like zooplankton to capture nutrients in poor substrate, the traps are modified leaves looking like small pitchers, prepared to suck prey inside by pumping out water and causing decompression inside.… Continue reading
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Site update
New gallery added, the field studio, containing photos of live creatures on a shadowless white background, as the standard for the Meet your Neighbours project.
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Fluorescent harvestmen
Discocyrtus species on UV
ISO400 | 8s | f/11 @ 34mm / Canon 450D, Canon 18-55 5.6 IS
The colors of this photo have not been altered, this is the result of the glowing caparace of a harvestmen under a ultraviolet flashlight. During the 8 seconds of exposure with the camera on a tripod it’s body remained motionless, while the entire movement of the second pair of legs acting as antennae got registered continuously.
Harvestmen are often mistaken as spiders, but despite having a similar overall shape (the general opinion, though I disagree), they belong to an entire different order, they are also arachnids but placed under Opiliones, which is the same taxonomic level of difference between a spider and a scorpion, for instance.… Continue reading
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Invisible barklouse
Not so difficult to spot this camouflated barklouse (Psocoptera) among the lichen, is it? It might even sound dumb to be calling this one invisible:
Camouflated Psocoptera at 2:1
Canon Xsi, ISO 200 | f/11 | 1/200 on a 28mm reversed, stack of 2 shots.
Except… how about now, without the help of magnification? The natural view to the naked eye:
Canon Xsi, ISO 200 | f/18 | 1/200 @35mm on a 18-55 5.6 IS… Continue reading
Acanthoponera queen
Last week I went into my usual rainforest spot and came across a very nice finding, a queen of the pretty uncommon Acanthoponera genus, you can find the full story on the Meet your Neighbours page.
Acanthoponera mucronata queen
Canon XSi, ISO400 | f/11 | 1/200 @28mm on a reversed Soligor 28-35mm
One flash on camera and one held at the left. Stack of 3 shots.
Acanthoponera mucronata queen
Canon XSi, ISO800 | f/18 | 1/200 @45mm on 18-55mm 5.6 IS +22 diopter (Raynox msn-202)
Despite the Acanthoponera being a first timer for me, looking through my archive I see in the past I had come across at least one ant of this same subfamily in the area, another predator, a worker of Heteroponera flava, I remember this one was seen during the day (as well as another one in a different region) on a rotten log on the ground, as opposed to the nocturnal sighting of the Acanthoponera.… Continue reading
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Tagged ant queen, brazil, rainforest, rare insect
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Lycosidae & Pompilidae aka the wolf and the hawk
Pepsis species vs wolf spider
ISO400 | f/22 | 1/200 @55mm, under the sun with fill flash
I find parasitic wasps the most challenging ones to get their pictures taken, they are not social so you can’t find a bunch sitting in a nest like we are used for most. They are solitary, and when looking around for hosts they barely sit still, always walking and frenetically scanning the ground with their antennae. Pepsis is a genus with about 130 species from the Americas, these wasps belongs to the Pompilidae family bearing some of the biggest wasps in the world. They are specialized in spider hunting, hence the famous tarantula hawk nickname for some of the species.… Continue reading
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Tagged Insects, macrophotography, parasitic wasp, parasitism, rainforest
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Helicina, a stranger on land
Helicina species
Canon XSi | EF-S 18-55mm 5.6 IS +22 diopter | ISO400 | f/18 | 1/200 @35mm
Not an easy one to come by! If you are used to the terrestrial snails anatomy you will easily notice something unusual about this one.
The eyes – placed directly in the head instead of the tip of the tentacles, other differences but not seem in the picture is that it also has an operculum and it doesn’t belong to the Pulmonata order like the common land snails, instead it’s placed under Archaeogastropoda alongside mainly with marine molluscs.
What does this means? That this is pratically a terrestrial sea snail!… Continue reading
Larvae living on jelly
A gooey looking transparent insect, when I encontered it last year I thought it could be the larva of a either a fly or a neuroptera, after a bit of research it turns to be the larva of a crane fly, prior tipulid and now placed in it’s own family, Limoniidae.
The majority of species in this family have aquatic larvae, and only three recent papers makes observations of larvae living in terrestrial habitat surrounded by a mass of jelly. These observations were all very similar and on species of the same genus, Geranomyia, in Costa Rica and the Fiji, I believe this one is also Geranomyia.… Continue reading