Oct 312010
 

Just in time for all the exoskeletons and Devils Walkingsticks to head out onto the streets for some trick or treating, there are a few other insects ready for Hallowe’en!

Corn-Stalk Eyed Fly Jack-o-Lantern Insect Pumpkin Diptera

Corn-Stalk Eyed Fly

Corn-Stalk Eyed Fly Diptera Pumpkin Jack-o-Lantern

Steve and Rob’s a-maize-ing Corn-Stalk Eyed Fly (Diopsidae) included pomegranate eyes, carrot pedicel and flagellomeres, corn tassel arista, jalapeno pepper scutellar spines, and corn stalk legs.

Gourd Ant Hymenoptera Pumpkin Jack-o-Lantern

Gourd Ant at the ready

Gourd Ant Hymenoptera Pumpkin Jack-o-Lantern

Adam and Meagan captured this gourd ant roaming the haunted halls and brought it back for further examination.

A true SCAREb Beetle Coleoptera Insect Pumpkin Jack-o-Lantern

A true SCARE-ab Beetle!

The rest of the lab helped with our Scare-ab Beetle (Scarabaeidae) and associated kleptoparasitic Dung flies (Sphaeroceridae).

A true SCARE-ab Beetle Coleoptera Insect Pumpkin Jack-o-Lantern

A true SCARE-ab Beetle Coleoptera Insect Pumpkin Jack-o-Lantern

An assortment of gourds formed the exoskeleton of our beetle, with a turban squash as the head, gooseneck gourd for the horn and front tibia, apple eyes and mandibles, and willow branch antennae with sliced gourd lamellae.

A true SCARE-ab Beetle Coleoptera Insect Pumpkin Jack-o-Lantern

Candy octopi make excellent phoretic mites!

A true SCARE-ab Beetle Coleoptera Insect Pumpkin Jack-o-Lantern

Finally, we have kleptoparasitic flies circling around and riding the scarab waiting to lay their eggs on the glowing dung ball.

A true SCARE-ab Beetle Coleoptera Insect Pumpkin Jack-o-Lantern

Happy Hallowe’en!

  7 Responses to “Ent-O-Lantern 2010 Part 1”

  1. Gold, pure gold guys!!!! I miss the insecty craziness!

  2. Awesome as usual guys! Sorry I missed out on this one!

  3. I was googling some anatomical term and stumbled on the stalk eyed fly. My God, the display of unabashed nerdery is truly inspiring and I love it. I thought to myself, “Jesus, this is the sort of thing I would do.” Keep it up.

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