Blue Vervain (and those nestled within)
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red-winged blackbirds in the meadow
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bitter aloe adorned with the webs of a dome spider (Cyrtophora moluccensis)
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Submissions aren’t working on mobile :( but! I wanted to share some photos- I once had the absolute pleasure of watching a Magnolia Jumped raise her babies in the garden outside my aunt’s place. It was incredible to see these go from eggs, to weird orbs with dots, to tiny visible spiders…
After they left I would still find her around the same area of the bush, enjoying the summer.
A MOTHER. Wow I love her and her one million tiny babies so much. Hope they all lived (are living?) excellent spider lives...
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"The mortality rate of caterpillars is staggering. Some experts believe it hovers around 99% for many species. They are nature's hotdogs and seemingly everyone wants a bite. Birds and other insects are especially voracious predators."
NATURE'S HOTDOGS
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my Armadillo officinalis “Spain” colony is thriving, although they are very slow-growing. one of the few isopods that spends much of its time conglobated and not clinging to cover objects
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Greater bee fly, Bombylius major, Bombyliidae
Photos by nadjabaum
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Fireflies photograph in trees with long time exposure.
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animals that are poisonous but not venomous are so funny they’re like “you can eat me and I can’t stop you. just know we’re both going to die”
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Green mantidfly, Zeugomantispa minut, Mantispidae, Neuroptera
Adult mantidflies are generalist predators that will eat just about any arthropod they can subdue with their raptorial forelimbs. Larvae of mantidflies in the subfamily Mantispinae, on the other hand, have a more interesting lifestyle. After hatching, the larvae seek out female spiders whose bodies they board and hide on until the spider lays an egg sac. The larva then leaves the spider’s body and enters the egg sac where it proceeds to feed on the eggs with mandibles modified for piercing and sucking. It then pupates inside the egg sac before emerging as an adult.
Mantidfly larva on female spider:
Photo 1 by misspt, 2-3 by mmmmbugs, 4 by bbull, 5-6 (laying eggs) by joseph92, 7-8 by treegrow, 9 by flecksy, 10 (for scale) by lnoctis, and 11 (larva of related species) by kim_fleming
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Crested caracara / caracara quebrantahuesos (Caracara cheriway), Pima County, Arizona.
The name caracara is probably imitative of the bird's call. The Spanish common name quebrantahuesos is literally bone breaker.
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