Favoritos de bg1159

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 don't think this coyote constituted much a threat to the bison, even the large calves, but they really didn't want him around. A couple of young bulls decided it was their responsibility to flex some muscle and let him know he wasn't welcome.

Took a long, hard look to convince ourselves this was a spider and not poop or a gall. Behold the bolas spider, perfumier and ropemaster.

Here's my trace through Levi (2003):

1. Abdomen with humps
2. Abdomen with only one pair of humps
3. Carapace with median tuburcles smaller than horns
4. Carapace sides with few or no tuburcles
5. North America
6. North America
7. [northeastern US; the only other option in range down the other branch is M. cornigera, but the range is more southerly and the tuburcles look more pronounced to me]

Also, I invite you to gaze lovingly upon the adorable figure 153 at http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/4290852

Oxyporus femoralis. Rock Creek Park, Washington, DC, USA.

"rugose surface of the outer apical areas of the elytra" distinguishes this species:
www.lsuinsects.org/research/speciespages/Staphylinidae/Ox...

Harmonia axyridis feeding on Epiphragma fasciapenne. Must have been scavenging. I can't imagine a little larva like that bringing down a healthy crane fly. Rock Creek Park, Washington, DC, USA.

This (not - so) little guy must've thought he'd hit the jackpot when he somehow found his slimy way from outside into my basement "greenhouse room"! Guess he thought he'd be nice and warm, and get all fat and sassy from munching on my Bromeliads, Orchids, and Cacti, haha! I suppose his sluggy little dreams of "Gastropod Glory" were dashed when I promptly returned him outdoors after his "photo shoot"! : )

This is Pugsley - a Raccoon kit my wife and I raised and rehabilitated back to the wild in the mid-1990's. We found him at curbside, so young his eyes were barely open - attempting to nurse from his road-killed mother. We were so moved by the sad scene and knew we couldn't just leave him like that, so we wrapped him in an old towel and took him home. A friend who was a licensed Wildlife Rehabilitator talked us through the thoroughly enjoyable and heart-warming experience and process of raising this adorable little "rascal" into young adulthood, and returning him to the wild life he was always meant to live. Additional photos show his growth and forays into Nature during his 11 month stay with us - until it was time to wish him luck, and say "goodbye". Peace, "Puggie" - we'll never forget you!

Very dark conditions under heavy forest canopy. Image 1 natural light. Image 2 same insect with flash. Image 3 John and Kendra Abbott extracting DNA sample from this dragonfly as part of Dr. Abbott's ongoing research into this species which was only described new to science in 2011 by Abbott and Hibbitts.

Fox Squirrel, black on belly, face, note black stripe on hing leg. 2017 version, see also 2018 version. Third year for backyard sighting of this color morph... have seen this nowhere else in Michigan.

Check this out. Last year we saw a hummer get caught and eaten by a large mantis. The mantis was sitting on one of the feeders. I never heard of that happening before. We’ve been feeding hummers and have had dense populations of hummers at our feeders for 25 years now, and we had never seen this before last year. We have seen several instances of large female black-and-yellow garden spiders catching and eating hummers, but lots of mantises are around and so far as we've seen, they have never caught a hummer until last year.

Today a mantis caught a hummer and is eating it right now. The mantis with its prey is sitting on the persimmon bush/tree that is right by the feeders.

It looks like it could be the same mantis, but I googled mantis longevity and apparently a year is the maximum lifespan, so this has got to be a new mantis. It is possible, maybe even likely that this is the offspring of the huge female mantis that caught the bird last year, as she was the only big mantis in the area we ever saw. Maybe mantis catch hummers all the time, but we just don’t see them do it, and I think it is a pretty rare behavior. This one couldn’t have learned the behavior from a mother she never saw. Is there an inheritable bird-eating trait in that particular lineage? I guess it's a simpler hypothesis that it's a trait for quicker growth or larger than average size, and that just allows them to include hummers on the menu by late summer.

Been watching the great blue heron and a white egret down by out little lake. The heron was just walking in the water so I asked it to catch a fish. I wound up with some wonderful shots. He proceeded to take it to the shore and left it there. He did not eat it. (?)