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Back at Rock Disk Park in Marana
Most of the park is now under water. The Santa Cruz River broke out its bed and is still feeding the new pond. I guess we'll have out very own Salton See soon. Butterflies are still very active and...
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November morning at the Santa Cruz River in Marana, Arizona
Even after the first chilly November nights, when the temps dropped into the low thirties, there is still insect live along places that have water. I walked the dogs along the Santa Cruz River today,...
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Bug eats Bug
Together with Robyn Waayers and Eric Eaton, I am administering a Facebook group about local (SW US and NW Mexico) insects. As winter is slowing the stream of submissions down, I suggested weekly themes...
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Fascinating Flies
This blog is another collage of my posts to our Facebook group SW US Insects and Arachnids. Robyn Waayer chose the theme for this week. I was surprised how many very divers contributions I was able to...
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Aposematic colors
Reminding predators that they taste bad or are armed with venom or toxin, many insects sport bright colors and patterns: aposematic or warning colors.Convergent Lady Beetle (Hippodamia convergens)on...
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Grasshoppers and relations
Panther-spotted Grasshopper (Poecilotettix pantherinus) subsp. santaclausiSo I wanted to start our new theme with a little bit of holiday cheer (to the SW Insect facebook group but my Grasshopper Santa...
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Desert Snow 2015
The new year is starting out cold here in Arizona. On the last day of 2014 a storm blew in from the northwest and it rained nearly all day.On New Year's day we woke up to sunshine and snow on all the...
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Photos of the year 2014
In 2014 I developed a fondness for shots with diffuse, non-flash lighting. I also moved away from field guide like documentation of local species to more interesting shots.Diffuse lighting is...
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Jumping Bugs
Most land insects get around by walking and many by flying. Active flying is usually long-distance and more or less direction controlled and it depends on specialized extremities, with aerodynamic...
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Camouflage and Hiding in plain sight
Most insects are small and delicious. So their constant problem is how not to be eaten. In our SW Facebook group we already explored aposematic colors in this context. This week it's the opposite...
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All about Mantids
This blog is the sum of my contributions to our SW Insect group on Facebook for the week-long theme 'Mantodea'As usual, we looked at species diversity, biological cycle, physiology, behavior, and...
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Spring is coming early to Arizona
This year we finally had winter rains as they used to be: dreary 2 day stretches of cloudy skies, continuous gentle rain and foggy mornings. Mostly this seemed to happen on the weekends of out-door art...
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Batesian and Muellerian Mimicry
Some defenseless arthropods that would make great prey have evolved to resemble other species that are toxic, bad tasting or heavily armed. One precondition must be that the models are not just foul...
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A new True Bug species for our back yard
Leptoglossus brevirostris Well, not really new. Leptoglossus brevirostris was described by Barber in 1918. But new to me, and there was only one BugGuide entry so far, and that one was from...
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Aquatic Arthropods in Arizona
Of course, arid Arizona does not seem to be the very best place to look for aquatic life in any form. But we do have a few riparian areas left, some permanent creeks and cienegas, some artificial...
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Mating behaviors among bugs
While sorting the slides for my first ever public talk, a presentation about insects in our local forest in Westphalia, Germany, I found that about 75% of my more interesting photos showed insects in...
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Parental Care among Arthropods
You may think that insects are not really good at it while many arachnids are better. But, as long as the offspring survives it’s probably just exactly the amount of care that’s necessary. In many...
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Arthropods as builders
Construction projects of the arthropod world: They may be shelters, nurseries, traps for prey, or 'greenhouses' for farming, storage facilities, even floating devices - Arthropods can produce the most...
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Parasitism among arthropods
Insects, like all of us, live in a world of limited resources and try to claim their share. If another organism tries to also use the same, already claimed and often processed resource, we call it...
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Cottonwood Gall Aphids (Pemphigus populitranversus)
Madera creek is gurgling, Canyon Tree Frogs are croaking, dusky capped Flycatchers are adding their soft whistle and the Cottonwood trees at Proctor Road at Madera Canyon are lush with fresh leaves....
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