Giant Jumping Spider, 48 Baby Cockroaches, and Cool Mantidfly.

Hello!

It's been a minute since I last posted, and a lot has happened. Well, OK, only one thing happened: I got hit by a freight train named "school." Because of that, I'll have to pull a praeteritio and not discuss the discovery of about five Polyphemus moth cocoons, my acquisition of a toad bug, my friendly pet assassin bugs, and much more. So, over the past few months, here are the highlights:

GIANT JUMPING SPIDER

I have always found it odd how negatively people respond to the words "jumping" and "spider" in the same sentence. To me, it screams "I'm cute! Pet me!" This Phidippus otiosus was the largest jumper I had ever seen. At about a centimeter and a half, it is pretty magnificent (and cute).

Here is a slow-mo of it jumping.

"PREHISTORIC" ARTHROPOD

The firefly larvae, colloquially known as the trilobite beetle due to its resemblance to the extinct creatures, is really quite neat. They have tiny, noodle-like heads which they hide in their thorax area and use to get deep inside of the shells of the snails they disembowel for breakfast.

Flexing his muscles.

 GIANT COCKROACHES

Some people are OK with jumping spiders but still possess an irrational fear of cockroaches. However, you must admit that these little fellas are darlings. I got about fifty of them from my science teacher, whose roaches were accidentally purchased gravid. I brought them home, all prepared to become the proud father of forty eight.

Could only get so many of them together.

SO CUTE!

You can see the antennae moving so quickly!

If you notice, the orangish boarder of the cockroach mimics that of the firefly larvae. It makes me wonder what function it serves; both are ground-dwelling critters that hide in leaves. Leave any ideas in the comments!

 Immediately, I took the opportunity to add some variance to Yoda's diet. 

Crunchy on the outside, gooey on the inside.

The legs were twitching when I took the picture.

 COOL MANTIDFLY

I caught an Anasaitis canosa (Twin Flagged Jumping Spider) and it laid eggs and THIS came out. 

Evidence for the hopeful monster theory? (The idea that one day a lizard laid an egg and out hopped a bird.) Not quite. Some mantidfly species are parasites of jumping spiders; this one just happens to be one of them. They such the blood out of the adults until they lay eggs, then they get in the eggs and eat them. Really neat little creatures! The big eyes do add some element of cuteness, but not as much as the cockroaches.

See you next time!

Update: Opiliones Chemical Power, the Death of Hulk, and Brutal, Unprovoked Stick Insect Attack

Hello,
Much has transpired since my last post exactly a month ago.
First, a bit of foreshadowing. This is Stubby, a quadruped Anisomorpha buprestoides (two stripped walkingstick) I found in the wild (A. buprestoides specimens are not usually quadrupeds). More on these horrible two stripped walkingsticks later.

I have also been doing some photography with my iPhone; here are some closeups of a couple of dragonflies. 

I found a black-and-yellow garden spider (Argiope aurantia) in our backyard and gave it a katydid. I also picked it up and let it crawl around on my hands, which it bit repeatedly and fruitlessly, but was unable to get a picture of that.

The bagworm moth my Aunt and Uncle gave me finally emerged--I came home from school to a unproportionally loud buzzing sound coming from such a small moth!

Now to the meat of this post: mantises. You'll notice the first subject of the title is "Opiliones Chemical Power." This is because I tried to feed a Leiobunum flavum to Hulk, and this is what resulted.

This happened several times, with Hulk grabbing the harvestman, moving in to bite, and then drawing back. Many Opiliones possess chemical defenses; I would imagine that is what is happening here. However, it was not enough to keep Hulk from striking again and again, each time letting it go almost immediately, except...

...when the harvestman decided to abandon ship. Opiliones never were considered champion fighters.

Now to the second part of the title. 

A couple of days ago, Hulk died. She laid her eggs (ootheca), and, her purpose completed, slipped away. Here are some pictures of her in her weakened state, along with the hope of a new generation represented in the ootheca.

Moving on.

A teacher generously donated a hundred head of superworms with which to feed my mantises. Both Hulk and Yoda loved them (RIP Hulk), and here is a video of Hulk munching away on one. Why include such a gory scene, you might ask. Notice the behavior of the other superworms, which crowded around Hulk's dripping raptorial forearms, trying to get a bite out of their deceased friend. Not to worry; sweet karma awaits them immediately after Hulk finishes up with superworm number 1.

On the note of goriness, notice the similarities between this picture of Yoda devouring a Plusiinae inchworm and Francisco Goya's Saturn Devouring His Son.

By Francisco Goya, 

Public Domain,

wikimedia commons

Odd, isn't it? Or maybe I'm just making this up.

And now we get to the last part of the title: "Brutal, Unprovoked Stick Insect Attack." Yesterday evening, as dusk faded into dreary darkness, I was strolling along in my own backyard, minding my own business, when a vicious monster spewed acid into my face. Fortunately, I was able to escape with my wallet and my life, but it was a close call. The authorities are out looking for the suspect: such unprovoked attacks are unacceptable. Here is the video that I took as the horrible monster ambushed me and tried to take my life, all while I was totally minding my own business. 

The family of the assailant, who was a two striped walkingstick (the same as Stubby), has tried to justify the insect's unjustifiable behavior. The stick, they say, was used to provoke the poor lady into attacking me. Obviously that is not true: the stick was employed only in self defense. Also, they have asked why I was videoing instead of running, and the simple answer is, I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt and not offend her by being wary. I know you'll believe me.

See you next time.

Update: Family Reunion, Giant Green Monster

Hello!

     As I spoiled in the last post, Gerald2 died whilst I was in El Salvador. He is now resting peacefully beside Gerald1 in my school's insect collection.
     On the vein of morbidness, I also enacted a long-awaited family reunion yesterday:

The bottom specimen is Sticky. The top specimen is his mother. Together at last!

As you can see, Spiky is also doing very well--he emerged from his pupa as a full-grown male Io moth.

Shhhh--he's sleeping.

Right now, I am helping Spiky to "spread his wings" and move up in the world: on the twenty-third he should be dry enough to move to the school's collection.

Since I can't seem to escape the subject of Lepidopterans, here is a magnificent Manduca rustica (the rustic sphinx moth) that I found on some tennis courts. Its wingspan is 12 cm--the longest I've heard of in a sphinx moth. 

The other day, my two-year-old niece found a bug for me. She led the way in that weird teeter-tottering run of hers, and I followed closely behind. Tiny, adept hands opened the door to the back porch and she pointed toward a chair. "There, Nate!"

She had found an adult Carolina mantis, Stagmomantis carolina. Within minutes, "Hulk" (so dubbed because of the size difference from Yoda) was in Gerald2's old cage at home. Its then-occupant, a pupating tobacco hornworm, found itself relegated to a smaller container. It was not long until I realized that my brother had botched the insect-naming game badly yet again--"Hulk" was a female. As with the "Geralds," the name stuck anyway. 

Before we get into more specifics about Hulk, let me introduce to you Chris (an intentionally gender-neutral name). Chris is a very unfortunate cicada. When Chris was emerging from Chris's larval exoskeleton, Chris was attacked and brutally murdered by a party of wild, Amazonian fire ants. My brother stumbled across the gruesome sight when it was too late for poor Chris. Chris will forever be a freak of nature, frozen in a moment of pivotal time. Other insects do not understand Chris. They have never seen anything like Chris, and so they refuse to accept Chris into their society. Keep that in mind.

Chris says "Hello."

Back to Hulk. Hulk showed keen awareness in her surroundings and was very wary of the titanic figures which lumbered about across her kaleidoscopic field of vision. Hulk quickly impaled, decapitated, and devoured every insect foolish enough to cross her path. She only ever faced one insect that scared the living daylights out of her: that insect was Chris.

Poor, lonely Chris. Poor, frightened Hulk.

Hulk also was not very fond of my fingers intruding on her personal space. She flashed her eyespots and struck again and again, and finally her valiant efforts paid off and I retreated in disgrace. 

Here is a slow-mo of her striking:

Yoda, however, was not about to be one-upped by anyone. Just to prove that size matters not, he absolutely demolished this poor katydid:

Yoda has even began to eat out of my hand--he is quite domesticated. 

Hulk is not.

This morning, I awoke to find an empty cage. Frantically, I scanned the room: the closet, the walls, the fan, the shelves, the cage, the bed, the cage, the shelves, my desk, the cage... then I chanced to look up.

Yo.

It took some effort getting her back into the cage, but we got 'er done.

Salvadorian Arthropods

Hola!

Just got back from a missions trip to El Salvador (that's why I did not post at my regular time last week). I got to see a lot of cool bugs while delivering school supplies to children, doing street corner concerts, and visiting local churches. I will share a few of the pictures here:

JULY 28

The very first insect I saw was this leather-winged beetle, which has an impressive eyespot. It was reminiscent of the Eye of Sauron from the Lord of the Rings. 

I noticed several people from the group stooping over the ground, apparently playing with some insect. Intrigued, I ambled over to check it out and asked them what it was. "A cute caterpillar!" came their response. I looked closely, and, indeed, it was a cute, fuzzy caterpillar! Fortunately, they didn't touch it with their fingers--the fuzz is made of hundreds of tiny venomous stingers--and we were able to move it out of harms way, after snapping a quick photo.

We also got to see this fuzzy friend. Looks like a tussock moth of some sort, but identifying those fuzzy caterpillars is next to impossible, unless you want to be sitting in front of a database screen scrolling through pictures for two and a half hours. 

This small green beetle looks very similar to this Mississippi species of Calligrapha (below). It closely resembles C. pantherina, the sida leafbeetle, but the glare prevents a definite identification.

The first of many wasps we would see (and experience) on our trip. Fortunately, this gal was only interested in drilling holes in wood for her eggs. Others were interested in drilling holes in our skin for their venom, or so it seemed. Several people were stung throughout the remainder of the trip.

 An interesting yellow moth--I would love to know what species it is. I imagine it would look cool mounted.

A baby harvestman. The volcanic garden we visited was swarming with the little boogers. Couldn't get any to walk on me, though. 

A walking stick I found on the way to the restaurant we dined at. It drew quite a crowd, especially when it threw up on my hand. Back into the bushes it flew!

JULY 29

We visited a local school bearing treasures galore. The kids loved it. In addition to wrapping and taping hundreds of pencils, glue sticks, erasers, pins, and assorted school supplies, I got the chance to see a few interesting critters.

 Upon stepping out of the bus, I noticed several large, black ants scurrying about. Bending over, I recognized them as one of my favorite insects, trapjaw ants. I got to see several other specimens, which I did not photograph, throughout the rest of the trip.

Organizing school supplies.

We then went out to a covered outdoor theater, where team members and locals performed songs, taught lessons, and distributed goodies to the children. While all this was going on, I began scouring the broad, concrete beams for signs of invertebrate life. My search was quickly rewarded by several jumping spiders. I am not sure of the above spider's genus and species, but I am fairly certain the second one is a Platycryptus or Menemerus spp., probably Menemerus. It had an orange band around its eyes, typical of adolescents.

JULY 30

We traveled to a hundred and seventeen year old lava flow--miles and miles of beautiful black volcanic rock. However, what most attracted my attention was not the nature grandeur of the bleak panorama--it was the occasional flowering stalk of life, emerging frailly yet boldly from deep, dark crevices. And even then it was not the plants, or weeds, themselves which attracted my attention: it was the prospect of finding creatures amidst their flimsy foliage. Dozens of brilliant butterflies skipped gaily past, seemingly oblivious to the absolute bleakness of their surroundings, focusing only on the verdant patches of life. Small plant beetles flirted to and fro, seemingly indecisive as to which pencil thin stalk was best. Unfortunately, however, the coleopteran and lepidopteran passers by proved much to quick for my flimsy iPhone camera, and I had to satisfy my thirst for photos by peeking under rocks. Sure enough, the first rock I remove reveals  this beautiful huntsman spider. Notice the blue spot on it's second forward leg. Blue is one of the rarest colors in nature, especially in the insect world, so its definitely worth mentioning.

And now it's time for another hide and seek game--try to find the bug in the following image taken at the lava flow:

Here it is! Some species of tiger beetle.

We then left the lava flow and went to an archaeological site, whose walkways were crawling with spiders and moths. Here is one of the more common moths, which has an interesting, boxy look.

A Leucauge spider. These were everywhere.

A pretty, yellow jumping spider (sorry I didn't get a better picture).

And here is a lovely little ant-mimic jumping spider. It almost fooled me at first!

As we were walking along, more and more people became interested in what I was looking at. Pretty soon, several people began helping me to search. Without their sharp eyes, I would have missed out on a lot of these critters like this spiny orb weaver below. 

 Another orb weaver, probably a longjaw.

 A Colonus spp. jumping spider.

The above insect looks like an assassin bug to me, although it could just as easily be a leaf footed bug or a stink bug or a number of other Hemipterans.

 A cute, cuddly, red-and-black caterpillar! This stinging monsters were ubiquitous, crawling up and down trees, trudging determinedly toward our feet. 

 A bunch of minuscule social wasps that everyone seemed to be afraid of.

 An interesting planthopper. We saw several of these in different locations.

 A green lynx spider, either with prey or with ridiculously large pedipalps.

 One of the eighty gazillion species of orbweavers that I do not know.

A honeybee!

 Yet another arana saltarina.

 Leaf cutter ants busily attacking a crumpled piece of tissue.

 An assassin bug. I love the colors!

 Saw this giant hopper up close. Maybe a lubber? It was more than two inches long, and its wing stubs make me think it is just a juvenile! Wouldn't want to be around when that thing molted!

 A beautiful malachite butterfly a friend found for me.

 Assumedly a trashline orbweaver.

 Another fuzzy caterpillar.

 A spiny orbweaver, probably Gasteracantha spp. It is mimicking bird droppings, which is probably a fairly effective tactic.

 A two-legged huntsman spider, at least from this view. 

 One of those odd, boxy moths again.

 Assassin bug nymphs, freshly hatched. Great to see they look almost exactly the same as the ones in Mississippi!

  Another tiger beetle, looks like the same species as before; however, this one was in a ground layer of weeds next to a large edifice. Awesome how adaptable God made them!

A hairy, scary huntsman spider.

An even scarier earwig.

AUGUST 1

A Menemerus spp. jumping spider.

A beautiful beetle, presumably a leaf beetle of some sort.

A not so great picture of a beautiful butterfly.

An angry looking wasp chowing down on some grub (probably an actual grub of some type; geddit?).

And, to finish it all off, a pretty maroon moth photographed by Roberta Holzberger 

That's all for now! I'll have to update you on my pets later, but I'll go ahead and tell you the sad, sad news: Gerald2 died!

Adios, y Dios los bendiga!