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OneTwentySix posted:
That looks like a Tulip Tree Silkworm, the T-shaped eyespots and the little circles pattern on the hindwing trailing is pretty distinctive. Thought it might be a female Promethea, but upon further examination, that is a male. Male Promethea are black, whereas the females look very much like a tulip tree silkworm. Apparently Tulip Tree silkworms and Promethea can hybridize as well. If you can get them to hold still, Polyphemus have fairly large circular clear-bits in the center of their eyespots, but if they are flying around, they all look mostly big and brown and mothy. Slo-Tek fucked around with this message at Apr 17, 2012 around 04:41 |
| # ? Apr 17, 2012 04:25 |
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| # ? May 26, 2013 06:48 |
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InEscape posted:Tadpole catch a success! We have a few swimming around merrily now. The pictures I got probably aren't great for ID - they were too small and my camera's macro setting is a joke. I'll take more pictures as they start to change and become more identifiable: At first I wasn't sure what they were beyond Hylids, but then I looked at your species list, and there was only one, so they're Pacific tree frog tadpoles. JD posted:I've tried raising a few and they all died when they get to the froglet stage and I try to switch them to eating crickets Try dusted fruit flies next time; the crickets might have been too big. Springtails might also be a good idea, though they're probably not necessary. I raised up some spring peepers and wood frog tadpoles back in college, and they did really well on fruit flies. Slo-Tek posted:That looks like a Tulip Tree Silkworm, the T-shaped eyespots and the little circles pattern on the hindwing trailing is pretty distinctive. Thought it might be a female Promethea, but upon further examination, that is a male. Male Promethea are black, whereas the females look very much like a tulip tree silkworm. If you can get them to hold still, Polyphemus also have fairly large circular clear-bits in the center of their eyespots, but if they are flying around, they all look mostly big and brown and mothy. Yeah, probably shouldn't have tried IDing it; just went with what I've found before without thinking that it could be other things in SC. The damned thing wouldn't stand still, so I was amazed that I got the one shot. I took something like fifteen shots of that guy, and that was the least blurry one. It was still neat to see; I love the big moths. OneTwentySix fucked around with this message at Apr 17, 2012 around 04:53 |
| # ? Apr 17, 2012 04:50 |
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OneTwentySix posted:A mantisfly? You got it. Nice example of parallel evolution. Those guys aren't closely related to mantises at all, they're lacewings.
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| # ? Apr 17, 2012 06:19 |
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 Saw this big guy when I was out with my friend walking his dog. Dude was huge, I'd guess at least an inch or two long. He was moving -quick-, I got lucky when he stood still and posed for this shot. Anyone know what species he'd be? Found in NE Arkansas.
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| # ? Apr 17, 2012 06:35 |
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If I had to hazard a guess I'd say it's a Blister Beetle from the family Meloidae, maybe in the Lytta genus.
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| # ? Apr 17, 2012 07:06 |
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T1g4h posted:
That right there is a Fiery Searcher. One of the Calosoma Caterpillar Hunter ground beetles. Per the name, they are tremendously aggressive and active hunters both as larvae and adults. Even though they are ground beetles, they are not shy about climbing trees to eat caterpillars. They are beautiful, but release a fairly foul odor if you mess with them. They are also interesting because they live for like 3 years as adults, which is fairly unusual in a beetle. Slo-Tek fucked around with this message at Apr 17, 2012 around 07:20 |
| # ? Apr 17, 2012 07:10 |
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Strongylocentrotus posted:It's possible that the other one came down from the nest and is tucked away nearby. Fledgling robins leave their nests about 5 days to a week before they're capable of full flight, and they spend those days bopping around on the ground under mom and dad's care until they build up enough wing muscle to take to the air. Your missing chick may be hanging out in a nearby shrub/grassy area/etc. while mom and dad do double duty taking care of the chick in the nest and the chick who is already down. Closer to "fully feathered lump." No bare spots but the feathers that were there seemed pretty downy. He was getting some good hops in, though.
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| # ? Apr 17, 2012 12:32 |
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OneTwentySix posted:
That's pretty depressing.  Those poor skinny snakes and absent newts.
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| # ? Apr 17, 2012 14:19 |
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I had some voyeuristic visitors peering in my window the past few days. (Northeast Georgia.) This white moth showed up in the middle of the day and chilled on the window before flying off. My mother, who is on the superstitious side, said it was some sort of omen.   Then this little dude hung around on my front door window all day and graciously posed for a series of lousy shots.  'Sup?    
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| # ? Apr 17, 2012 18:00 |
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The Red Queen posted:Closer to "fully feathered lump." No bare spots but the feathers that were there seemed pretty downy. He was getting some good hops in, though. That's good news. No bare spots + hopping means the little dude is just about (or already) able to leave the nest, so the second chick is likely alive and well somewhere nearby. You can try spying on mom and dad robin; if chick #2 is still around, they'll be visiting it on occasion to stuff food into its mouth.
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| # ? Apr 17, 2012 18:15 |
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It has been a rainy day, so it is a perfect day to have a visit from my friend the green woodpecker. Useless factoid: that's why they're sometimes called "pleupleu" here in France. The picture looks slightly messy, because I had to zoom it a bit. My point and shoot is a bit limited for this exercise. 
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| # ? Apr 17, 2012 19:41 |
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These were covering the lawn yesterday, I was having fun running around snapping pictures all afternoon. Caught this guy (gal?) on some lilac outside our front door. Love those striped antennae! And although this one is dead (I found it on the bike path, I think maybe he got run over or something) the pattern was so striking I had to grab a picture. Anyone care to identify? Probably 3/8" diameter, maybe a foot long. 
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| # ? Apr 17, 2012 19:48 |
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The butterfly looks like a Red Admiral, Vanessa atalanta. They're found in temperate zones all around the Northern hemisphere, and have been introduced to Hawaii and New Zealand. The ones you see now are adults that have wintered in that stage and are looking kind of faded and beat up. The generation that hatches later in the season are brighter and more colorful.
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| # ? Apr 17, 2012 20:02 |
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I walked out to bring in the trash bin and almost stepped on a stick that turned out to not be a stick. After the initial freak out I got some closer photos because it seemed to just be chilling.    It seemed perfectly content in the grass and wasn't worried at all until I came back from moving the trash bin and that time it adopted the position in the last photo so I just left it alone. It hung out in my sage plant for a while before going who knows where. I'm guessing it is a young Eastern Garter Snake, does that seem right? It is funny how ingrained the response to almost stepping on a snake is. I had already dashed back a good 10 feet before I really thought "hey, a snake". Shifty Pony fucked around with this message at Apr 17, 2012 around 23:03 |
| # ? Apr 17, 2012 23:01 |
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Bad Munki posted:These were covering the lawn yesterday, I was having fun running around snapping pictures all afternoon. Caught this guy (gal?) on some lilac outside our front door. Love those striped antennae! Juvenile black rat snake?
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| # ? Apr 17, 2012 23:01 |
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The weather was nice today, so I decided to go out and take some more critter photos. I found another bee-mimic fly on the holly: not sure of the exact species.  And I learned that there are quite a few tiny jumping spiders living in the corner of the yard. I've actually never seen (or noticed) jumping spiders this small before: they're about the size of a tick or a gnat, and far smaller than the gigantic black ants that live in the same part of the yard. Whenever an ant would approach, this little guy would startle and leap away. However, the most interesting critter that I spotted today was this:  I noticed something twitching in a pile of sticks and found this very pretty wasp pacing up and down a twig. She would feel rapidly about with her antenna (hence the motion blur) and vibrate her wings as she walked.   I recorded a video along with the photos and as I did she started arching her abdomen and jamming her ovipositor into the bark. (Note: the video is a bit noisy because a jet flew over right as I was taking it. I live near a military base )I assume that she was laying her eggs there? Or was she just probing to see if it would be a good egg-laying site? I would appreciate if anyone could ID this wasp as well.
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| # ? Apr 18, 2012 02:54 |
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Looks like a black and white ichneumon to me! I love ichneumons and their funny harmless butts.
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| # ? Apr 18, 2012 03:24 |
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Thanks! Reading the wikipedia article on Ichneumonidae, it seems that she was searching for, and then injecting her eggs into, some host larva from a different wasp species.
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| # ? Apr 18, 2012 04:08 |
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BlueFlowerRedSky posted:
Some jumping spiders can be pretty specialised as far as what they will attack and eat. Here's a photo (not mine) of an ant mimic jumping spider that likes eating ants  tariq aziz fucked around with this message at Apr 18, 2012 around 06:09 |
| # ? Apr 18, 2012 04:58 |
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Bad Munki posted:And although this one is dead (I found it on the bike path, I think maybe he got run over or something) the pattern was so striking I had to grab a picture. Anyone care to identify? Probably 3/8" diameter, maybe a foot long. Not my video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVevkHXzy3Y
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| # ? Apr 18, 2012 05:30 |
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BlueFlowerRedSky posted:The weather was nice today, so I decided to go out and take some more critter photos. This is some kind of hoverfly, family Syrphidae, maybe subfamily Syrphinae. There are really a lot of them that looks like that! The Red Queen posted:Looks like a black and white ichneumon to me! I love ichneumons and their funny harmless butts. Guess you have never been stung by an Ophion?
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| # ? Apr 18, 2012 06:16 |
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I took my 7-year-old cousin out tromping through the woods last weekend to flip some logs and see what we could find - didn't come up with anything unusual or uncommon, but the kid was beside herself with fascination at seeing ant colonies in rotting logs, centipedes, and a myriad of spiders. Thanks to everyone in this thread and the last, I was able to ID most of what we saw and answer her questions. It was awesome 
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| # ? Apr 18, 2012 06:50 |
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axolotl farmer posted:
I guess not! All the ones around here have been the kind I can safely move out of the house when they're blundering into the ceiling lights. Now I'm wondering if any were the stingy kind and I just lucked out.
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| # ? Apr 18, 2012 12:11 |
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The ophionine Ichneumonids are the large pale yellow one that are attracted to lights. The females have a short stinger and will use it if they are handled. They're not aggressive in any way, though.
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| # ? Apr 18, 2012 16:47 |
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A 5' gator showed up at work. Oh, the perils of putting in water features near a coastal river 
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| # ? Apr 18, 2012 17:00 |
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I was stoned at work the other night, and I nearly lost my mind when a speck of dust kept hopping out of the way of my broom whenever I tried to sweep it up. My eyes adjusted when I knelt down to pick it up by hand: It was a little jumping spider. As we looked at eachother, the older couple I work with came into the cafeteria, wondering what the hell I was staring at. I tried to explain about the jumper, and how awesome they are, but they didn't seem very amused. "If you like him so much, you might as well name him." "Jimmy. Little Jimmy the Jumping Spider." I ushered him underneath the vending machine so nobody would step on him, and left him to stalk ants or whatever he was after.
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| # ? Apr 18, 2012 20:32 |
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The past two or three days I've been noticing insects like the one in the (bad) pictures. Sorry I only have my phone right now. They're about half an inch long and buzz loudly when they fly. They don't see to be scared of me, none of them have made any escape attempts when I went in for a kill. This one was just buzzing in my bathroom and I mounted it on some masking tape to get some pictures. It seemed to become aggressive once its wings were stuck to the tape (honestly who wouldn't be, I felt bad doing it ) When I squish them there is a good bit of yellow liquid inside them. Does anyone know what this is? I live in south eastern PA and this past weekend temps hit the mid 80s and that's when I started seeing them inside my apartment. Here's a bigger picture.
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| # ? Apr 19, 2012 01:42 |
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You've got Carpenter Ants. Notify your landlord.
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| # ? Apr 19, 2012 01:47 |
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Captain Invictus posted:You've got Carpenter Ants.  Thanks for the tip. Do they do much besides damage wood?
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| # ? Apr 19, 2012 01:51 |
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Not sure what's going on with this Robin's nose. I've tried to do some research on it, but I didn't get anywhere with it. edit: Probably just some dry grass stuck in his nose! DSC_0097.jpg by MrDespair, on Flickr Here he was a few days later.  DSC_0644.jpg by MrDespair, on Flickr Mr. Despair fucked around with this message at Apr 19, 2012 around 03:31 |
| # ? Apr 19, 2012 03:25 |
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Wildtortilla posted:
They will go after food if they can get to it, and they especially like anything sweet. Other than that they aren't anything to be afraid of unless you seek out and disturb the nest. Calling the owner should get you some brownie points because they can do serious damage to wood if they are not caught early (which hopefully you just did). They don't eat it, they just nest in it. edit: For the robin could it just be a bit of dried grass or something that got stuck, or did it seem to be really part of the robin? Shifty Pony fucked around with this message at Apr 19, 2012 around 03:32 |
| # ? Apr 19, 2012 03:28 |
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Caught this dude chowing down on some freshly killed rabbit. I was surprised how close it let me get. I was probably 10 feet away.  
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| # ? Apr 19, 2012 04:00 |
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That's a tough act to follow. Here is a boring bug: 
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| # ? Apr 19, 2012 04:50 |
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What the hell is that beautiful thing? 
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| # ? Apr 19, 2012 05:42 |
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I think that bug is pretty, and not boring at all. 
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| # ? Apr 19, 2012 05:43 |
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straylightunity posted:What the hell is that beautiful thing? I live in Australia, so whatever it is, rest assured it is actively plotting to kill you and your family.
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| # ? Apr 19, 2012 05:58 |
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The Worst Muslim posted:I live in Australia, so whatever it is, rest assured it is actively plotting to kill you and your family. Pretty sure it's a Hibiscus Harlequin Bug, which I only know because a classmate of mine is doing dissertation research on 'em.
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| # ? Apr 19, 2012 06:13 |
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Yeah, that bug is pretty loving stellar.
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| # ? Apr 19, 2012 07:07 |
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Female Promethea moth. Sorry about the less-than-sharpess on this one, but it shows the interesting range of colors. femalepromethea1 by RReiheld, on Flickr Queen's hypothesis confirmed, fat bottom girls do make the rockin' world go round.  prometheafemale2 by RReiheld, on Flickr
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| # ? Apr 19, 2012 21:23 |
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| # ? May 26, 2013 06:48 |
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Slo-Tek posted:Female Promethea moth. Sorry about the less-than-sharpess on this one, but it shows the interesting range of colors. Are you sure that's female?
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| # ? Apr 19, 2012 21:53 |
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