alexshepard's Favorites

This is what I'm hoping it is, at least. A troupe of them moved through the trees by our rental right as I was waking up, so low light and low brain power led to this sure-to-be-award-winning-shot. Later on the trip we saw them making the reverse trip at dusk... and I don't think anyone got better pics then either.

This series shows Watshamiella alata watching Sycoscapter cornutus oviposit into a Ficus burkei syconium (fruiting body) for over seven minutes; after the Sycoscapter female departs, the Watshamiella female proceeds to oviposit into the same hole. Compton et al. (2009) described this behaviour for different species of Watshamiella in Uganda and Kenya on Ficus sycomorus and Ficus artocarpoides.
Compton, S.G., Van Noort, S., McLeish, M., Deeble, M. and Stone, V., 2009. Sneaky African fig wasps that oviposit through holes drilled by other species. African Natural History, 5, pp.9-15. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230580629

Found two of these leaftails but one I am about to upload looks a little different. @briang @brentano @sambiology @kimberlietx I am having trouble distinguishing the patterns on this one and the other one. I think they are two different species but I am not sure. This one had a thicker superior appendage. than the other one. This one was also a lot larger than the other one. I am very confused which one is the five-striped or the four-stripe or if they are one in the same. They are leaftails I know that much but what kind is this one?

I was parasitized at La Selva, carried it with me in my scalp for several more weeks of travel in Costa Rica and Venezuela, then extracted it from my scalp when I returned to New York and preserved it.

Diamondback Watersnake
Palo Alto, Clay Co., Mississippi
June 1, 1968

I caught this fairly large Diamondback Watersnake on the night of June 1, 1968 at a farm pond in n.e. Mississippi on the property of a cousin. We took the photos the next day. These are old slides, but the pattern of the snake is visible enough for an ID.

two shots posted

This Rufous-breasted Hermit somehow became trapped inside the Asa Wright dining room overnight. In the morning, when discovered, it was caught with an insect net, examined briefly, then released. It immediately went to some flowers and started feeding. All images of the same bird.

So cool to see the photophores on the bellies of the juveniles of this deepwater, BIOLUMINESCENT species. They can BREATHE AIR and live out of water for hours! The males VOCALIZE using their swim bladder, singing call-and-response tunes! They have THREE genders!

I was waiting for a bus in a village near Bangalore when I saw something like a 2 headed Velvet Ant moving very fast on the ground. Took a closer look and realized it was very beautiful spider !!! The front pair of legs had beautiful velvet like tufts which it held out with pride while moving about.

Now the harsh reality set in. The bus i was waiting for would reach any minute. If i miss it, i would have to wait for at least 3 hours for the next one. With this in mind I quickly got my camera out and started photographing this fast little spider from every angle possible. Initially i thought it was a Salticidae. Eye arrangement which i observed in the zoomed in picture proved me wrong.

This spider was a nightmare to photograph. Continuously moving in an erratic manner and turning away from the direction of the camera. I was on the ground struggling for a satisfactory shot when an audience started gathering around me.

I had to take the Spider in my hand so that it wouldn't escape among the many pairs of legs all around me :-D

I had to answer all the curious questions from the watching audience while holding my breath, trying to get the focus right and frame well.

i had to make sure the spider didn't escape among the bushes in a split second while i was reviewing a shot. (Not answering them would be considered rude and I didn't want that).

After a few minutes of epic struggle with this beautiful creature the bus arrived. The spider was now safely among the grass and I clumsily boarded the bus with my tripod in one hand , camera in the other and a half open bag on my back :-D

The bus journey turned into a Q&A session. The interested students and local people taking a closer look at the pictures, asking all kinda questions, narrating their version of spider stories etc.

This is a high ISO shot, didn't have time to set up the lighting.... Not much info is available about this spider, its behavior, feeding and breeding habits.

Any info would be appreciated.

Spider on Steroids : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feXAaGfrrEg

Close-up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9exsBvhZCCo

Sighted at Cabrillo National Monument, San Diego, California, during 6 March 2016 a "Tidepool Pre-Blitz" event, a preliminary survey and practice run for the upcoming Nation-wide Bioblitz scheduled this coming May. This individual was first encountered exposed in a small pool shortly after low tide. It was observed browsing on submerged algae as can be viewed in a video recorded at the same time and posted to YouTube.

https://youtu.be/j4m86AXGmOA

Technical:
Sony DSC-RX100 Digital Camera

Is it a fish? Is it a slug? Is it a fishy anemone? I do not have a clue what this is!

It is about 30mm long and there were a few of them in the sand - outgoing tide nearly on the turn. Most were buried and only the "fan fin" was showing.

Resting on the wet sand, when the sand collapsed it arched it's face upwards (2nd and third photos) and seem to spawn capsule from somewhere - there are 2 floating in the 4th pic.

Totally hypnotic, by the time my sister-in-law and I carried on the brother had walked 2kms away from us!

I was very surprised that this Golden-crowned Kinglet seemed so unafraid. It was all alone (which is unusual), and called to me from a tree, then let me photograph it on the lawn. After trying to photograph these birds for months, two days in a row I've succeeded.

This selfie was taken BY THE OCTOPUS, who also took a 90-second mostly-dark video of the inside of its den (with a muffled soundtrack of Alison Young and I laughing hysterically). The octopus grabbed my camera with three tentacles, and grabbed rocks with the others. After a determined tug-of-war that snapped the nylon wrist strap, it carried the camera deep into its den and started pressing buttons with its tentacles. Alison braved beak and tentacles to rescue the camera (the octo was still holding it) - is there anything she won't do for Citizen Science? Thank you Alison!

The alternate photo is the last one I took before the battle - you can see the first tentacle snaking towards the shiny camera...