...even MORE wild Tephritoids, this time all from Oklahoma!🪰 1 fancy orange Paracantha sp✨(Tephritidae) 2 Senopterina foxleei signal fly w/ bonus springtail! 🧐(Platystomatidae) 3 dark Eutreta rotundipennis 🌃(Tephritidae) 4 Callopistromyia annulipes "Peacock Fly" 🦚(Ulidiidae)
not sure?... knowing they're phoretic and sometimes cling to beetles, I was curious if they'd pinch a leg or something, but they never did... more pics: www.inaturalist.org/observations...
as a pretty ignorant dipterist, I only just now found out that all the craziest flies I saw in Colombia last August were all Tephritoids - cool! 1 pointy-eyed Pterocallini - Ulidiidae 2 psychedelic-eyed Paragorgopis - Ulidiidae 3 blue-winged Setellia -Richardiidae 4 antlered Richardia infestans
4 BIG click beetles for your Saturday night: 1 Chalcolepidius sp on tree near a creek, Belize, 2015 2 🔥beautiful Semiotus sp(?) on leaf, Colombia, 2023 3 Chalcolepidius viridipilis on trail sign, Oklahoma, 2021 4 👀Alaus sp "Eyed Click Beetle" w/ mites + pseudoscorpion, OK 2023
I dunno! Worried I'll never find another! (Found this one beneath a damp log in the woods)
!!! initially thought they were an oribatid beetle mite... then freaked out upon taking a few photos - realizing they were BAEUS - a *tiny* (~600µm) parasitic wasp! Lost them after trying to stop lens down for a bit more depth of field! Underneath a log, NE Oklahoma
my first waterbear!! closing out 2023 by hunting for these little guys in lichens/mosses! Crops from Laowa's Aurogon Supermicro 20x at NA 0.15 Found this Macrobiotid in patch of lichen on a rock wall in the woods on December 29th, 2023, Oklahoma. Shot in a petri dish filled with distilled water
funny little ant (Proceratium sp) seen for the first time yesterday under a log in the woods - blind(?), oddly shaped abdomen, carrying around an egg(?)... investigating a tiny hole w/ a podocinid mite at the opening (see last shot) 1st observation of this genus in Oklahoma on iNat/bugguide! 🍾
🪲some fine tortoise beetles found during the Colombia trip: 1 HOT red Spaethiella sublaevis 2 unknown metallic green cassidine 3 wonderfully smooth blue n bream Imatidium thoracicum (PS sorry about not posting more here - can barely make myself post to twitter - and keep forgetting about bsky)
some frog eyes 👁️ from this summer: Lithobates catesbeianus, Oklahoma Acris blanchardi, Oklahoma Pristimantis sp, Colombia 🐸 🫡
