geragotelis's Favorites

This series shows Watshamiella alata watching Sycoscapter cornutus oviposit into a Ficus burkei syconium (fruiting body) for over seven minutes; after the Sycoscapter female departs, the Watshamiella female proceeds to oviposit into the same hole. Compton et al. (2009) described this behaviour for different species of Watshamiella in Uganda and Kenya on Ficus sycomorus and Ficus artocarpoides.
Compton, S.G., Van Noort, S., McLeish, M., Deeble, M. and Stone, V., 2009. Sneaky African fig wasps that oviposit through holes drilled by other species. African Natural History, 5, pp.9-15. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230580629

Extremely odd behavior from a Watersnake and Ribbonsnake... has anyone else observed something similar to this before? Both healthy adults with no visible injuries and both escaped rather quickly under their own power without coaxing.

I originally walked up on this pair around noon but the ribbon snake took off before I could get a picture of the odd behavior so I immediately left and came back about three hours later to find them both in the exact same position. So it’s fair to assume it’s a reoccurring arrangement between the two of them. The minimal research I have done has turned up nothing but I would love to hear from someone more knowledgeable about this sort of thing!

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!

A scrappy expanse of silky refuges and capture webs littered with body parts of previous victims. When preferred prey is entangled, the female spiders emerge from their 'nests' and overpower it by grabbing its extremities. In this case, a wasp https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9319446.
Presumably they inject venom because after a minute or so the prey stops struggling. Then they snip it out of the web and carry it into one of several 'nests' or refuges.
Unwanted prey, often beetles (see https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9319435 ) are also killed but sometimes left in the web, uneaten. Ants, in this case, Maranoplus ( https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9319390 )scavenge around the periphery of the webs, feasting on unwanted beetles or other left-overs.

We saw the snake eagle as it flew up from the ground. It flew in slow circles while it controlled and started to eat the snake. One minute from pic 1 to pic 8 where it started to eat the snake. Total time for this series, three minutes.

Snake at https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/14774517

A female Giant Ichneumon wasp (Megarhyssa macrurus) oviposits into the side of a tree.

I was honored to have this observation selected as observation of the day for June 11, 2020, and again as observation of the week (week of June 21, 2020). It is covered in this blog post: A Trip to Texas Provides a Long Sought Photographic Opportunity - Observation of the Week, 6/21/20.