artificialfauna's Favorites

Two live collected specimens showing the variation in aperture colouration. Hundreds of this species congregate in the shallow, intertidal sand flats of North-West Tasmania to breed. These specimens were highly selected among them.

Mimetes stokoei

Mimetes stokoei thought to be probably extinct and hadn^t been seen for over 30 years. It popped up after a hot fire in 2000. The entire population went up in smoke in March 2011...

Extremely rare endemic. Location obscured on purpose. Specific site known only to experts. See link for great story: https://baynature.org/article/ivory-billed-woodpecker-rare-wildflowers-now-unlikely-symbol-success-era-extinction/

Crocosmia fucata - one of the gems of Namakwaland

been aware of this Kamiesberg endemic since 1987, so truly awesome to actually come upon a whole new population of this wonderful sp as my first sighting! To 1.7m tall, in its usual damp habitat, upper south slopes. Three separate patches, each with at least 40 plts, no evident threats or predation; previously only known from two subpops, one of which has not been revisited or surveyed for many decades

My cuz Pete and I got bored from the tedious effort of removing dozens of these cuddly little bloodsuckers from an otherwise happy and healthy Wood Turtle (Glyptemys insculpta) study population in scenic Sussex County, NJ - so we decided to take a break, and have a few laughs with our "recently-evicted" parasitic pals!

I've never met biting leeches elsewhere in Siberia. In this taigous and mountainous place, with quite harsh climate, they were especially unexpected. These were unusual in that respect that their bites were very painful, unlike bites of regular blood-sucking leaches which secret some anaesthetics. Also these huge creatures bate through the trousers! Each time I entered water they attacked after 4-5 minutes. I wonder if these were some endemic species or and invasion of some European species. The pattern seems to differ from 'regular' medical leaches.

very tough finding ID resources for these guys, but I feel pretty good about this distinct and beautiful leech. There were many present in the pond, attracted to the vibrations by my foot in the water.

Large reddish brown terrestrial leech. Found in peat in a penguin rookery on Snares main island. 7-9cm long extended, 2-3cm wide (possibly just fed). Round sucker on under surface. Papillae, red-brown with yellow colouration. Coolest thing I have ever seen.