springtail city

macro and bird photography blog // all photos by me unless otherwise specified // NO AI ALLOWED

[collemblogging]

angelically backlit Drosophila

[collemblogging]

a truly stunning Black Horsefly, Tabanus atratus. she was very polite and posed well for photos.

[malloracle]

what is the this

[inkbears]

i assume it is the stabber. for stabbing you

[collemblogging]

@malloracle Those are her antennae!

This is the stabber.

[bhramarii]

anniversary

[dogpuppy]

[revretch]

These aren't just any scarabs--these are bess beetles! They live together in big families in logs, and make sounds to communicate with each other. They have eight known "words"!

Skip to 4:48 in the video to hear them talk!

[collemblogging]

Not a bess beetle or a scarab. Carabid, likely Scarites subterraneus (big headed ground beetle)

[collemblogging]

One of two Eastern Carpenter Bees (Xylocopa virginica) rescued from a pool. I turned my back on them for a minute and they immediately started fighting

[revretch]

Fun tidbit: Male solitary bees are often very territorial and extremely aggressive, and will deliberately body slam other insects towards pools of water in an attempt to drown them.

You may have just rescued them so they could continue their epic duel.

[grubarchived]

male x. virginica have a white face like this

img source

so these are both females and they're just fighting for more obscure reasons

also x. virginica are not really solitary, they're semi-social! the females frequently live in groups of 3-5, with one primary female who does most of the foraging and egg laying, several secondaries who maintain and guard the nest and do some egg laying, and a few tertiary females who just chill until the next year and then maybe become a primary.

the males kind of attach themselves to a nest area and spend their time hovering menacingly, chasing away intruders, and fighting other males for their spot

[friend-crow]

BLM has published a plan to maximize logging in Oregon forests, including old growth forests, without due regard to wildlife (including endangered species) and waterways. They're claiming it will help prevent forest fires, though that seems to be contrary to current science, including that published by the forest service (you can find a list of sources here). This is in response to Trump's executive orders 14223, Addressing the Threat to National Security From Imports of Timber, Lumber, and Their Derivative Products and 14225, Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production.

We have 30 days to submit comments if we want to prevent this. This article has suggestions for what you can say, and how:

BLM Announces Plan to Fell Oregon's Last Great Forests

One billion board feet per year... 30 days to make your voice heard.

You can read more about it here:

Trump Admin Announces Old-Growth Clearcutting Plan for Western Oregon - Oregon Wild

Conservationists say proposal to “maximize” logging across nearly 2 million acres of Western Oregon BLM lands would devastate fish, wildlife

If you live in Oregon and you love our forests, please submit a comment before March 23rd.

If you don't live here, it would be super helpful if you could reblog to spread the word.

[collemblogging]

Happy Valentine's Day! 🩷 from this Sensillanura springtail on a vibrant bed of pink fungus

[hawkpartys]

Lepidocyrtus fimicolus

photographing this springtail felt like fighting for my life because it was too small. how small you may ask?

too damn small

[collemblogging]

baby black vulture (and her parents) I found living in a collapsed house last summer

[collemblogging]

holacanthellae.

I would kill to see holacanthella don't even joke with me. They are simply just the most magnificent springtails in the world. I know everyone knows and loves them but it's so well deserved. Unbelievable giants.

A deep unshakeable fear of mine is that by the time I've saved up enough to travel to New Zealand their habitats will have been entirely eradicated. Invertebrates are so soreley neglected as protected species and the habitats of these springtails are rare and delicate, only found in specific old-growth indigenous hardwood forests. These exist very patchily in small pockets bounded by new landscape or developments. It is entirely reasonable to imagine the gap closing on these in the next 20 years, and it makes me ill to think about.

(Photos via Andy Murray)

[collemblogging]

have you ever seen a bristletail? Ik they aren’t collembola but they r still super cool. They’re about the same evolutionary age as springtails too (early-mid Devonian) They are called aracheognatha scientifically. Everyone just calls them silverfish and that makes me sad because they arent

yes! my photos of them have never come out well because they tend to bolt as soon as they're exposed, sadly. here's one I saw in Madera Canyon, AZ last year. their little eyes are so cute

[collemblogging]

A poduromorph rainbow!

[collemblogging]

The Yellow-shouldered Drone Fly (Eristalis stipator), a commendable honeybee mimic. Hover flies of the tribe Erstalini are known as "Rat-tailed Maggots" in their youth, owing to their... unique appearance. All hover flies act as vital pollinators for many plant species!

[atlanticflyway]

European Stonechat (Saxicola rubicola) in Galway, Ireland. The most special bird I didn't know I needed to see.

[collemblogging]

you wouldn't believe what thing I keep finding out there (Vitronura giselae)

[collemblogging]

a truly stunning Black Horsefly, Tabanus atratus. she was very polite and posed well for photos.

[hawkpartys]

So there's this currently undescribed Globular Springtail(genus Katianna specifically) species that I regularly photograph that's been informally classified by springtail identifiers on iNaturalist and it's important to me that you all know that they've apparently nicknamed it "mountain dew"

[hawkpartys]

update: found an ourple one