Weekly update: Brown and Sticky, Yoda on Tour, Gynandromorph Moth

Greetings,

Before we get started, I have a riddle for you: what is brown and sticky that is not a stick?

 It's Sticky! As you can see from the photos above, the cute little looper caterpillar has metamorphosed into a drab, Curve-toothed Geometer moth! Within the day of his emergence, I had united him with his mother in Lepidopteran heaven. Now, as his body dries into a crisp, brittle shell of his former self, only the few weeks until school separate his physical form from that of his decaying mother.

Unlike Sticky, Yoda is doing just fine, if he is a bit deranged. In this video, he is chewing on Lego bricks in his enclosure. I had shined a black light in the area, and soon after, both Yoda and his prey, a bordered plant bug, were probing the studs with their mouth parts, partisan squabbles forgotten in the relentless pursuit of science.

Yoda has also become somewhat of a star, along with Gerald2. Both went on tour Friday at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science. Yoda awed audiences with his messy eating and curious eyes while Gerald2 mainly just ran in circles. I could tell he was stressed from the car ride and all the screaming children, but I told him to man up, and he did. 

 I have also acquired a new pet, who I keep on the trampoline: a trashline orbweaver. She is too small to get a good picture of, but I have tried above. I have also tried to feed her several prey items, but only two have stuck: a garden centipede and a small crab spider. A larger crab spider, an orchard orb weaver, and a cobweb spider have all managed to escape.

 Earlier in the week, I traveled up to Starkville to tour Mississippi State University, and found out that they had an entomology museum. No one, not even the people in the biology department, knew where it was, which is unfortunate as it is the largest insect collection in the state of Mississippi. It houses 1.3 million specimens, including several gynandromorphs like this moth above. If you look closely, the left and right wings have slightly different patterns, and the left and right antennae look different. It is also missing its abdomen. Gynandromorphs are animals that are half male, half female in traits; the abdomen was removed to confirm it. They are very rare and valuable scientific specimens. 

About the middle of the week, I found this caterpillar on a palm plant. Normally, I would dispose of such pests, but this particular specimen had a batch of yellow eggs on its back. Knowing what that entails for the caterpillar, I let it be.

I also found several assassin bugs on the trampoline this week, two of which are pictured here. Note the large, spiky forelegs of the one on the right. That would hurt!

I also took some slow-mos of a twinflagged jumping spider in action.

Sure enough, at the end of the week, I found this on the aforementioned palm plant. The eggs belonged to some sort of parasitic wasp or fly, and the larvae which hatched ate the caterpillar from the inside out, turned into adults, and left the decaying skin behind in search of new hosts. Parasitic insects like them are useful as biological pest control.

Thanks for Reading!

Weekly Update: Gerald2, idiot longhorn beetle, and beautiful Saturniidae moth.

Greetings,

     Last week, I was grieved to convey to you the death of my beloved Gerald.

     This week, I am pleased to the announce the arrival of Gerald2! 

     What's great about Gerald2 is that, unlike Gerald, he's actually a male! The tale of his acquiring is worth telling.

     I was returning from a trip to Memphis, TN, when I received a picture captioned "wish you were here" from my Aunt. It was a male Megaphasma denticrus hanging out on the ceiling of her porch. I eagerly implored her to capture it for me, to which she responded "ask your uncle." I did, but he had only a little time left of his lunch break, so I also called my brother to  help. My cousin dutifully retrieved him, but the battle for Gerald's replacement wasn't over yet. Gerald2 was much feistier than his namesake, and his rather impressive spurs (Fig. 1) and menacing cerci (Fig. 2) drastically reduced the eagerness of my family members to touch him. Sensing that he was in danger, Gerald2 made a dash for the roof, and as my uncle courageously reached up for him, Gerald2 lost his footing and fell on my uncle's shirt. After being knocked to the ground, he still refused to cooperate. Apparently, being stuffed in a plastic bag and being transported via automobile to my house was not his idea of a good time. He took up residence in Gerald's empty cage, and has been entertaining our family since with his sporadic behavior and noisy eating. 

Fig. 1: Painful spurs that could probably draw blood.

Fig. 2: Scary-looking cerci that actually probably
couldn't even dent a wet paper sack.

     I found a large wood-boring beetle at my church's camp grounds (below), and picked it up to show to the children who were running around. They were all very interested and wanted to find their own beetles to keep as pets.

 
     But then, as I was doing the brainless bug a service by moving it out of the way of running feet, the thing bit me! It hurt, and even drew a little blood!

     I had always figured longhorn beetles could bite, but in the past I had goaded smaller specimens to bite me, but with no success. They aren't supposed to be aggressive by nature. Apparently, this guy didn't read the longhorn beetle guidebook. A good look at its wood-shredding jaws shows you how much it could hurt.

    Despite the tremendous pain the bug needlessly afflicted on me, we soon became the best of friends. Like a loyal dog rejoicing at the sight of its returning master, the beetle practically killed itself with excitement every time it saw me through its glass cage (below).

"I'm so very glad you're home!"

      He definitely wasn't trying to get out.

      As for me, I played the role of master very well, providing my dearest pet with an abundance of C₄H₈0₂, an airtight container (to prevent mold), and tissue to keep it from destroying itself as the sweet fragrance of ethyl acetate lulled it to sleep. Permanently.

      It made a fine addition to my collection. 

     The Gerald2 episode was practically repeated on the Friday the 13th. My family was returning from a trip when my Aunt texted me a photo of a beautiful Saturniidae moth, and we veered off toward her abode.

     It turns out to be the Polyphemus moth, Antheraea polyphemus, which I recognized from the 

cover photo of James Castner's Photographic Atlas of Entomology. It is by far the largest moth in my collection—its wings don't even fit on the pinning board—and it is my second largest insect. First place goes to Gerald, obviously.

     Spiky finally decided to pupate. In a few weeks, I will have a beautiful Io Moth, which, although smaller than A. polyphemus, is almost as beautiful.

     Just as I was about to publish this post, my Aunt walked in holding a discarded coffee can with yet another contribution to the naturalist cause. She and her family were unsure of its identity, but knew I would be interested (and were correct): here it is.

    A bagworm moth larva! At first, I erroneously informed my Aunt that it was a larva of some sort, but not a butterfly or moth. I suppose I was thinking of a caddisfly larva, which builds similar structures; however, caddisfly larvae live underwater. If it is a caddisfly larva, then, well, it's probably stone dead by now. Hopefully I will be able to raise it to adulthood (although I've read that adult bagworm moths are ridiculously difficult to identify).

     And that's about it! Yoda is eating well, Sticky is resting peacefully, the idiot longhorn beetle is resting even more peacefully—in other words, all is well in my life. 

Farewell!

More Costa Rican Invertebrates

Hola!

Below are all of the non-Lepidopteran invertebrates I photographed in Costa Rica.

True Bugs:

 These two tiny critters are, believe it or not, stink bugs! Why on earth they mimic dung beetles I have no idea. At first I mistook them for dung beetles, but when startled, they let out an awful stench. They also had the idiosyncratic brown diamond where their wings intercept on the tip of their abdomens. 

 Some variety of leaf footed bug.

 A beautiful (yet annoyingly ubiquitous) leafhopper nymph.

 Two different varieties of plant bug.

 Some type of sharp shooter--species identification is virtually impossible because most good internet identification sites only accept North American submissions. I would need a local dichotomous key to identify most of these insects.

 The pattern on the bottom of this poisoned leaf footed bug is beautiful.

 An ant-mimic plant bug, probably a nymph. Unfortunately, its natural instinct to hide on the opposite side of a leaf and move around a lot preventing me from getting a good photo. It closely resembles a leafcutter ant.

 Freshly hatched nymphs of some true bug, possibly a leaf footed bug or an assassin bug.

This guy looks like an ambush bug, though I am not entirely certain. It could just be a plant bug with over-sized raptorial arms.

Beetles:

 A predacious diving beetle found in a pool.

 An unknown beetle found in the same pool.

 Another completely unknown beetle.

 A longhorned beetle of some type.

 This is a rather large Cotinis mutabilis, or Fig Beetle, probably the only insect in Costa Rica which I was able to positively identify down to the species level. It wasn't hard: just search "big green beetle" and it's the first result. 

 An interesting ground beetle with a metallic green band about the thorax and a metallic gold band about the abdomen.

 Okay, I also have an idea about with this beetle is. It is definitely a member of the genus Callisthenes, and might be C. calidus, the Fiery Hunter, which I have encountered in Mississippi. It's crazy how large the geographic ranges of insects can be!

 A scarab beetle, found in a swimming pool.

Yet another unknown beetle, found dead. 

This beetle (which I think should be called the "Antelope Beetle" due to its antennae) was extraordinarily common, and the locals were very familiar with it. I believe it might be a blister beetle of some sort, which might explain the familiarity: blister beetles can release burning chemicals that cause painful rashes.  

Three longhorn beetles.

 A soldier beetle. These fellers came in droves, at times flying over the villa, at rates of about a score per second, for five minutes or more. They performed this feat regularly. It was quite annoying...

...because they would get poisoned and cluttered the walkways with their carcasses. Above is one in its death throes.

 Another Longhorn Beetle.

Ants:

 What I really want to know is why these leafcutter ants are carrying dead leaves! To me, that seems awfully counterproductive, simply making the desired fungus more difficult to get at. But whatever. Bugs will be bugs.

 A leafcutter ant cutting flower buds for fungal consumption.

 Probably the time I got most excited on the trip was when I saw a real live trapjaw ant! I totally was not expecting it. Unfortunately, few (read "none") of my family members shared my enthusiasm.

 Hi ho! Hi ho! It's off to work they go! Until you blow on them and get their pheromones all mixed up. Then they just run around in circles for a few seconds before continuing. 

 Leafcutter ants carrying off a dead drone.

Grasshoppers and Katydids:

 These were probably the biggest grasshoppers I had ever seen, and they were incredibly common.

A wonderfully odd little katydid.

Praying Mantises and Phasmids: 

 A large walkingstick of unknown species.

A praying mantis, feasting on the moths the lights attracted at night.

Flies:

I only photographed on fly, some type of ant or wasp mimic.

Earwigs:

The ornate golden thorax of this earwig certainly surprised me! I saw it on the ground, studied it closely, and went back to drawing, only to find it crawling on my leg a minute later. I carefully tossed it into a flower bed, where it was probably much more at home anyway.

Spiders:

 Unidentified jumping spiders.

 A discarded tarantula skin found on a mountain trail.

 A rather cute little jumping spider, also found on a mountain trail.

A spitting spider! I have no idea what species, but the bulbous head and characteristic walk shouted it out to me. Unfortunately, I was unable to goad it into spitting on me. 

Solpugids, Scorpions, and Opiliones: 

 We looked down at dinner to see this little guy on the ground, leading to a family freak out! Fortunately, in the chaos it was crushed under heel by a courageous family member.

 Although I never got to see a live Solpugid, I did get to see several dead and dusty ones, like this little guy.

A few of the Opiliones I encountered on a mountain trail. Harvestmen seem to be able to thrive pretty much anywhere!

Millipedes and Centipedes: 

 A millipede.

A jungle centipede. These were ubiquitous on the mountain hike, darting quickly in and out of crevices in the ground and trees.

And that's just a selection! However, I the ones I omitted are not really that good anyway, so I'll limit this post to the above photos. Thanks for reading!

Adios!