Hey all,

 It has been a while since I updated, I have been busy collecting amphipods for my project. And I had one photo trip before this but I never got the time to upload the photos. I was with a friend In the S’albufera. We were looking for a swarm of a specific type of beetle Polyphylla fullo. Sadly I think I was a bit too late for this event this year and so I found none of these beetles. On the other hand the trip was not a waste, for I found a lot of other great beetles

Coptocephala scopolina

Hydrophilidae: Possibly Hydrophilus piceus soely based on size, but absolutely not a ceartainty.  

Chantaridae: Ancictronycha sp.

Curculionidae

I know that this is faar from sufficient determined, but curculionidae although cool as hell are numerous and difficult to determine without the proper keys to do so.

Zygoptera

Maybe someone can help with determening here.

Zygoptera

Ephemeroptera. But i dont know more about this species and i havent found a good key for this area of europe. The name ephemeroptera always remind me of the girl group ephemera, with this horrible song. And in norwegian ephemeroptera are "døynfluer" or "one day flies" (In real english, mayflies). Hapiily so the band lives up to its name. Happily for me that is. 

Pyrogomrpha coinica or Euchorthippus sp. Not easy to determine from my photos.

Iberellus sp.

Then I came across this juvenile mantis to my great joy. It is the first mantoidea I have found here in Mallorca and it was quite cool to see. It was fairly quick as well. It is however juvenile and this makes it hard to determine. As far as I have found out there are 5 species found here on the Island

Ameles decolor, Ameles picteti, Amleles spallanzania, Mantis religiosa and Iris oratoria.
And I think it can be either one of them. This is not my expertise and hence I would love some help. It was quite happy being photographed and followed me with his eyes all over the place.

So that is what I have from that trip. Soon I can post photos from my trip collecting amphipods as well.

Lunar eclipse

So I was aware of the lunar eclipse when it came up last Wednesday on the 15^th. So what better way of enjoying the day after work than to bring my camera and equipment to the Delta here in Mallorca to enjoy the beach the sunset and the eclipse. The key here is a good tripod, a timer setting for your camera and a long shutter time to capture as much light as possible. Hence you see the movement of the waves as a bit blurry. I like the colour of the light at this time, and the rocks here are mostly limestone, they are painful to walk on, but they give a bit of light.    

Finally the sun went down but the moon was not in sight. Finally we understood we were on the wrong side of some hills to see anything. So jumping in the car (Blanquito) and raced towards Palma. We found some open fields closer to Arenal where the holiday people are busy dancing and drinking. So in the weird setting of hearing horrible dance music we were standing in the pitch black looking at and taking photos of the eclipse. Nerds have more fun. And this is the reason why I only have it from when it is full to when it is reseeding. It appears red because of the longer wavelength of the red colours reaching us at that point. As the eclipse was passing I used shorter shutter time only getting the part of the moon where the earth had passed. That is the two last pictures of the series. I also have here one photo of the full red moon and the black starry night around. If I were a bit further away in the countryside I would have gotten more stars, but hey, cannot win them all. 

Montañas en Mallorca

Hey, another weekend and another excursion to the mountains. More great times in nature with friends, and of course opportunity to photograph more of the wildlife on this island. Had a wonderful time even though the weather was a bit dubious and threatened to get us wet several times. Also on the top of the mountain there was quite a lot of fog and that obstructed the view a bit as my photos will show. It was cold outside and the insects were quite docile and that makes them even better to photograph, so here are some of them. It seemed to be an abundance of Lepidoptera this time. Normally I don’t pay much attention to them. But for once I gave them the benefit of the doubt. And some of them look quite nice.   

Here you can see how the fog was hanging around, at some time I was thinking about how smart it was pressing on for the top. You should always have respect for weather changes in the mountains.

But eventually it gave away to some blue sky and with that, some nice views.

Mostly for the cool colour contrast here but the fecking elytra is so shiny I can see myself in it. That was not my intention; maybe I should have tried another angle.

This Surphidae I found on the top of the mountain it was sitting quiet hoping for the sun to come back.

Macroglossum stellatarum

Macroglossum stellatarumMacroglossum stellatarumMacroglossum stellatarumMacroglossum stellatarum

Macroglossum stellatarum

This species act like a hummingbird normally with a low frequency buzzing, like a far away bomber plane. Here the cold weather had it hiding in the crack of the rocks. It was very easy to handle it then and I took great care not to disturb it too much or too long.

Sphingidae Macroglossum stellatarum

Here is a photo of one taken years ago in the mountains of Spain close to the French border in Navarra.

I also found two other lepidopteras, however my knowledge of these insect is highly limited so here I am hoping for identification help.

Lasiommata megera

Lygaeidae  Spilostethus pandurus This species seems to be in abundance all around the mountains at this time.  Several of these red bullets are buzzing around.  

Fringilla coelebs juv.

This fantastic little guy was sitting in the rocks on the side of the path. At first he looked abandoned but then I could both hear and see concerned parents in the trees, and right after this photo it flew away so apparently just not easily scared. Here I used my macro lens.

Some weeks ago I was Also with some friends in a famous torrent here in Mallorca, Torrent de Pareis. A torrent is a river path that is not always containing water. It depends on the rain. We took my car to Port de Soller and from there we took a bus to Escorca. From there it is a long walk in the Torrente de Pareis to Sa calobra. It was an wonderful trip with amazing landscape.

Even though most of the people from my country think of beaches and cheap drinks when they hear Mallorca, this place has more than that to offer as well.

 

Birds and reptiles

A while ago, a few weeks in fact I was going out with some friends to a area in the mountains of Mallorca, Castell d’ Alarò. Also we visited Lluc, further north on the island. Originally the plan was to go to Formentor, this is even further north on the island, to see the migration of the predatory birds. However the weather that day was far from optimal in that area. The fog was so thick it was hard to see more than a few meters. Hence we traveled further south in search of better weather. Not much sightings of predatory birds but a great trip none the less.

View from up in the mountains close to the monastery in Lluc. I highly religious place this and quite annoying with the groups of praying people scaring away the birds. And the BELLS….. will someone please make them stop?

The top of the mountain they have placed this large cross and found it necessary to guard it with barbed wire. It is not a nice sight in the middle of the mountain and I don’t think it belongs there at all, but it gave a nice and fitting political picture. You can put your own meaning into this picture, whatever you like, but most people who know me knows what I think of this.

Well back to the animals. A lot of the birds we saw were common birds, but it is nice to see them and I always have fun taking photos of animals large and small. The unpredictability is one of the things that make it frustrating and exciting all in one.  

Fringilla coelebs female

These are common birds both in Spain and Norway however migratory at least in Norway. "Coelebs" means bachelor and it got its name because often the males stay put throughout the year and only the females leave. Or the males often arrive after migrating some weeks before the females.

Fringilla coelebs male

We saw several species of swifts and swallows: Apus apus, apus melba, apus pallidus and Delichon urbica

There might have been more, but these we are certain we saw. They are none the less frustratingly fast and difficult to photograph. Hence I have not got a specific photo of the species. I have instead a compilation of photos mostly depicting the landscape and a single bird in the shot, an Apus apus or the common swift.

Muscicapa striata

This is one of my favorite photos from the trip. I think they are a pair working together on the next generation. And what a nice perspective they were posing in, one further away from the other. Most of the time photos I am happy with is 99% luck.

Tarentola mauritanica

  

I was looking down a cliff when I heard some rustling in the leaves quite close to where I was standing. It turned out to be these to geckoes fighting. The darker, larger one has the hind leg of the smaller one in its jaw. Their fight made them completely oblivious to our presence.  

Regulus ignicapilla

This one is similar but not equal to the goldcrest (Regulus regulus) In Norwegian it is called “fuglekonge” or bird king (it is also the smallest bird in Norway…Irony, we have it). This is the fire crest, or in Norwegian “rødtoppfuglekonge”. The white line around the eye is the easiest difference to spot.  

Bombyx mori update

Ok so a few days ago the adult Bombyx mori started to emerge. And seeing as they are unable to fly I rarely get more grateful photo objects. This resulted in a bit of experimenting with surface and other factors. I was using my Canon 60mm macro lens, but altered with different settings, using my ring flash, using a tripod and changing the background. Since they are predominately white I think a black background proved the most beneficial.

Here is the life cycle continued with first the adults hatching from the cocoons (I was not there for this event). Then they found mates and copulation took place (mid photo). The sperm of male Bombyx mori is dimorphic meaning they have two types of sperm Anucleate  apyrene sperm and nuclate eupyrene sperm. One for fertilization action and one seems to be assisting in fertilization (Ken Sahara and Naoko Kawamura, 2002). In the last photo the eggs are placed sticking to the wall of the box and they are placed everywwere in that box.

KEN SAHARA & NAOKO KAWAMURA 2002. Double copulation of a female with sterile diploid and polyploid males recovers fertility in Bombyx mori. Zygote, 10, 23-29.

 

So on to the photo-part of this post.  I started with a black shiny surface with random ridges on and I think it worked well taken from a horizontal angle towards the objects.

It deflected some of the light and it resorted in not being entirely black. Even though they cannot fly they are using their wings a lot and that is what is seen in the last picture, but it gave quite a different effect I think.

From straight up above I tried the same here using a ring flash and as you can see the reflection was quite severe. I made them slightly overexposed to enhance the whiteness of them.

Here I used a black sweater to get the background darker with less reflection. It worked but if I used the ring flash and additional light, the fabric pattern was very visible. I know black velvet cloth is better and will reflect less light. But as I have none of this, my black sweater will do.

Here are my two favorite close-ups of these nice animals. They might be flightless but certainly not without beauty.

Now I will store the eggs for next year and see if I manage to hatch them into new larvae. The adults will be released back to the wild today. Hope to produce some more posts soon I have several in the making stay tuned  



Insects and spiders from trips oh my!

Back in Mallorca, and here the life of insects and bugs alike are thriving. These are pictures from the last two weeks, from sampling for my genus of amphipods (Pseudoniphargus), and trips in the mountains just for fun. The Iberian fauna is showing me some really cool things. To enlarge the picture just click on them. Hope you enjoy

Scytodidae, Scytodes sp., This is also called the spitting spider since it does not hunt by producing a net. Instead it spits treads in a zig-zag pattern at its prey (this one i had in my room. How cool is that?). This was my first encounter with this family and i really hope it will not be my last. 

Gryllidae

Thomisidae, Waiting for a tasty snack.

This one i only got as far as Brachycera with confidence. Here i could use some help..(Gunnar)

This one was taken in a cave searching for amphipods. I should have had my ring flash with me for this one. There were a group of five spiders there all quite large, about as a thumb in size. Identification will be tricky, They were smooth but with strong bristles or seta, maybe a Therididae, or a Aranidae, any thoughts? 

Euscorpius balearicus

This one was dead when found in the pond where we were searching for Amphipoda. It was a large specimen. Come to think of it this cave was really not for the squeamish people. As well as a cranium of a rat, makes up quite a good setting. 

Lycosidae, It is hard to place to genus but I would eliminate Pirata and Throcosa. I think it is Pardosa, but i am far from certain.

Another Thomisidae ready to pounce on anything getting close enough to his flower

Coleoptera; Oedermeridae, My first encounter with this family as well.

Miridae

Araneidae, and i think it is from the genus of Araniella. These are tiny spiders but they are absolutely beautiful.

Dysteridae Nemesia brauni, this one is endemic (link to paper with evidence of endemism.) to the Balearic Islands as well. This one was in a tunnel web under a larger rock where it seemed to be feasting on isopods. Dysteridae are spiders with rather large chelicera and most have only six eyes. 

Lachnaia vicina

Early in the mornign, still with morning dew all over the nice elytra

Lachnaia vicina

Here with the time old question, "what are you looking at?"

Next post will be bug free, as I will have birds and reptiles to show you guys.