The 5-legged variety. Body length 10 mm.
Phyllopalpus pulchellus - Red-headed Bush Cricket. 8 mm long (not counting appendages).
According to BugGuide, this sp is "found in vegetation near streams and marshes, about a meter above the ground". With the Raritan close to 30' above flood stage, this guy was undoubtedly flushed from its former home, ending up in my backyard a few hundred meters away. I noticed several unusual bugs showing up here & suspected it was because of the hurricane, but didn't expect to confirm it so easily!
Also didn't expect to ID this guy so easily: had no clue, beyond long-horned orthoptera, but a BugGuide search on "red black cricket" produced an instant match.
Central Park birds are amazingly tame. Didn't get a worthwhile shot of the Varied Thrush (tho I did get to see the bird -- finally, on my 4th try), so I'm posting this one instead.
This female built her nest just a couple of meters off the main trail at Monteverde. Digiscoped thru the guide's spotting scope. The guides we had in the Monteverde area were all fantastic.
5.5 mm. Found in car while parked for a pit stop at the Wawa convenience store after a trip around the landfill (grassland, adjacent salt marsh, and of course garbage). No longer unIDed; many thanks to Charlie@LincsBeetles for the genus ID. O. melanopus looks like the only only on BugGuide that's in range & matches in appearance. It feeds on grasses, so landfill habitat makes sense. Nonnative, a pest of crops.
Pink millipedes: Polydesmus sp.
Round millipedes: Brachyiulus sp.
Sowbugs (a terrestrial crustacean, in a completely different subphylum of Arthropoda): Philoscia muscorum
Under bark of a decaying black birch branch.
Pink millipedes: Polydesmus sp.
Round millipedes: Brachyiulus sp.
Sowbugs (a terrestrial crustacean, in a completely different subphylum of Arthropoda): Philoscia muscorum
Under bark of a decaying black birch branch.
Pink millipedes: Polydesmus sp.
Round millipedes: Brachyiulus sp.
Sowbugs (a terrestrial crustacean, in a completely different subphylum of Arthropoda): Philoscia muscorum
Under bark of a decaying black birch branch.
unidentified mushroom; cap 3 cm across
Lowland tropical rainforest floor, 1 cm across each. Probably a rapidly rotting log under there. At this site we frequently saw elongated mounds in the ground that were all that remained of trees in various stages of decay.
The male is vibrating his wings at the female. But I think the companion shot may show the female ovipositing, which means he's a little late.
I think Drosophila quinaria species group, possibly Drosophila falleni. On a small mushroom growing on hardwood mulch.
This small (~5-7 cm) fungus, growing from the exposed root of a living Japanese Maple, was oozing red droplets. Thanks to Colin Purrington for ID help and to Eric in SF for the final ID: probably Inonotus dryadeus, which attacks living trees (normally oak, but can also grow on maple).
The fruiting body is pretty puny, so let's hope it isn't thriving & doesn't hasten the death of the tree too much. The same tree root was sporting a Ganoderma last year, so it's definitely having problems...
The iridescent blue was just incredible.
A wood stork comes in for a landing at the nesting colony on Isla de Pajaros.
One of only a couple of looks at this Pacific mountain valley species. This pair was busy building a nest in a utility pole crossbrace.
The truism about biodiversity in the tropics is that rare species are common and common species rare. This is one of those rare exceptions: a species that is widespread and abundant.
This handsome character is common at middle elevations, as well as all the way up into the paramo here.
Not a great shot, but it was the only one I got.
