Sorry there wasn’t a bug of the day yesterday, I ran out of steam and couldn’t get an image edited before I fell asleep! Here’s today’s:
What’s this you say? A graphical representation of a fly? Well today I’m looking for one of the families that this fly could be based on the head morphology (I’m giving you a break since the wing veination isn’t really visible). I’ll give 5 points to each correct family name (scientific or common). Have fun, and spelling counts!
Today’s bug of the day is a little easier I think, so I’ll give 5 BioPoints for the family name, 2 for the common family name, and I’ll put a total of 20 BioPoints up for grabs to anyone who can come up with a creative/evolutionary solution to why these insects look the way they do (these will be split between people if there are multiple good answers). Good luck, and I’ll award points and provide the answers in a week or so when I get back to Canada!
Alright, because I’m tired and I need to get to bed, today’s bug of the day challenge is a little different than those that came before! Today, 15 BioPoints are up for grabs for the first person to correctly guess the colour of this nymphal grasshopper from El Copal Reserve in Costa Rica. I’ll post the answer and the full-coloured photo after I return to Canada!
Each day I’m away in Costa Rica I’ll be highlighting an insect I came across, and challenging each of you to come up with the identification! Coveted BioPoints will be awarded to the first person to post the correct family name (5), common family name (2), and if you know the subfamily, you’ll get an additional 15! I’ll provide the answers and award points after I get back to Canada, so make sure to check back in to see how you did! Remember BioPoints can be redeemed for framed photos when you get a total of 200!
Each day I’m away in Costa Rica I’ll be highlighting an insect I came across, and challenging each of you to come up with the identification! Coveted BioPoints will be awarded to the first person to post the correct family name (5), common family name (2), and if you know the subfamily, you’ll get an additional 15! I’ll provide the answers and award points after I get back to Canada, so make sure to check back in to see how you did! Remember BioPoints can be redeemed for framed photos when you get a total of 200!
Welcome to a new feature for the blog, Bug of the Day! Each day I’m away in Costa Rica I’ll be highlighting an insect I came across, and challenging each of you to come up with the identification! Coveted BioPoints will be awarded to the first person to post the correct family name (5), common family name (2), and if you know the subfamily, you’ll get an additional 15! I’ll provide the answers and award points after I get back to Canada, so make sure to check back in to see how you did! Remember BioPoints can be redeemed for framed photos when you get a total of 200! See you tomorrow!
Welcome to a new feature for the blog, Bug of the Day! Each day I’m away in Costa Rica I’ll be highlighting an insect I came across, and challenging each of you to come up with the identification! Coveted BioPoints will be awarded to the first person to post the correct family name (5), common family name (2), and if you know the subfamily, you’ll get an additional 15! I’ll provide the answers and award points after I get back to Canada, so make sure to check back in to see how you did! Remember BioPoints can be redeemed for framed photos when you get a total of 200! See you tomorrow!
This morning, undergraduate worker and entomologist-in-training Stephen Luk brought in a special little creature that he found in his backyard (click to enlarge):
Neat, but what is it you ask? It’s a hammerhead flatworm (Bipaliidae) which he found under some bark. Although I’m not 100% confident about what species it is, I’m fairly certain it is the introduced Bipalium adventitium. These little carnivores are predators of another introduced invertebrate, earthworms. Dindal (1970) reported that once Bipalium latches onto its prey, it sucks away with its pharynx (mouth-like structure) and liquefies large sections of the earthworms integument before ingesting its victim section by section.
This individual was about a 1.5 cm long and constantly on the move, making for a tricky photo shoot! The first image was taken with only the Nikon 105mm VR lens and SB-800 speedlight, but to gain some added magnification I shot the remaining images with extension tubes. Generally when I’m shooting macro subjects with limited depth of field, I strive to have the eyes in focus to allow the viewer to “connect” with the subject. But what about a creature that doesn’t have eyes in the traditional sense? Well, I went for what I believe are light-sensing sensilli (larger crop of above photo):
It took quite a few tries to get a good shot with the small depth of field provided by the extension tubes, but it was worth the effort to see such a special little invert up close and personal!
I took a short break this morning to clear my head and get back into this photography thing, so I headed over to the University of Guelph Arboretum and went looking for flies. It became readily apparent that not picking up a camera for 8 months was going to make it a learning process all over again! And the first lesson? Charge your flash batteries! One shot into the day and I realize my SB-800 is dead in the water. Crap… luckily my shooting buddy also uses Nikon equipment, so while he was shooting I was collecting, and vice versa. Problems solved right? Well, lesson 2 quickly became apparent; check your settings! I had switched to shooting JPEG this winter for a family function! Crap… a quick switch back to RAW format with hope those first few shots were ok and won’t need much editing (JPEG files don’t handle heavy editing well) and back to work I go.
Well, at least something worked out! (Click to enlarge)
The rest of the morning was spent finding the body control and breathing necessary for macro work, and by lunch time I was feeling almost back into the swing of things! I definitely need to make the time to go out more regularly this summer, and remember, check, double check, and triple check your equipment each time you go out!
