Esporles and other areas

Last Sunday I had a great day with some colleagues, and later in the day we went for a walk I am not the only insect/bug nut around here so we brought the camera to have a look. As I have said I is still quite early in the season but I still found some cool subjects. Viewers’ discretion is advised. It is springtime and that can only mean one thing...well several things, but this as well.

Locusta migratoria; a lot of reasearch is done on this Migratory locust.  Here we see the male and female. Female is the larger one. 

Carabidae and probably also a Carabus. With a little help and expert consult:

Carabus (Macrothorax) morbillosus

Esporles is as I mentioned where I work. It is a little town in a valley with a "torrente" meaning a river with only water when it rains. The geology of Mallorca is porous so when the rain comes it runs down and collects very fast into these rivers. It is also surrounded with mountains for walking in and discovering cool things. After work then a group of us took a trip walking up one of these mountains. It has a statue of Jesus on top (welcome to Spain) with one arm disproportionately larger than the other.  Further up there is a small monastery. This is the view we were rewarded on the top of the mountain.   

On the trip I was looking under every rock and looking on every bit of old wood I could come across. I found at least two different species of Isopoda. Another day I will find time to photograph them. One was from the genus Armadillidium. Those are the ones that roll up to an almost perfect ball. Also we found this Diplopoda which I am sure is a Julidae as the family, but I need more literature (keep coming back to that) before I can determine with some certainty. Diplopoda or millipedes belong to the Myriopoda and these are determined by the two paired legs per segment. Some of these secrete hydrogen cyanide as a defense mechanism. This has in some cases backfired as some monkeys rub them on their fur as a mosquito repellent roll-on. A great example of adaptation.   

Diplopoda Julidae

And this one I am kicking myself for not flipping over and make sure but I think this is a Tenebrionidae  after some expert advice. And perhaps it is in the genus Blaps and it might also be the species gigas.

   That is all for now, But I surely will be bringing more posts in the near future. I will soon go for a trip home to Norway so I cannot promise anything for next two weeks. On the other hand I will surely have new material from the trip so stay tuned.

S'estaca

So lately I have been on some great walks around Mallorca with some great people, mostly on the north-west side of the island. First place is a small grouping of houses heading down into a small rocky beach. This place is called S'estaca.

A couple of kilometers from the town of Valldemossa, there is a little side-road down to port de Valldemossa. Further down we parked the car and continued on foot.

After a long walk, with a couple of sidetracks, also passing a mansion owned apparently by Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, we ended up in a great little beach with rocks that will cut like knives. The water was filled with jellyfish, but they did not stop us from trying the nice, clear, salty, Mediterranean water. On the expedition I did not come across a lot of insects and other creatures, but the season is rather early still, and I like a challenge. Although we did not have quantity, I did discover quality. Here are two of the most interesting discoveries for me.   

Scutigeridae 

 
These are common to find under almost every rock i have turned over here. They are exceptionally fast hence the bad quality. And they are often found in bathrooms as well. They feed mostly on Diptera, but will take any animal of appropriate size. As members of the Chilopoda and with possession of formidable chelicera, apparently they can bite. I had some in my hand and did not get bitten but i do not doubt the statement so careful guys.

Buprestidae (Jewel beetle) and likely to be Chalcophora mariana Given apperance and habitat.

You really can understand why they are called Jewel beetles, with their metallic glimmer and colouring. It is found also in Norway as the "furubraktbille", but it is a red listing. Here it is more common.  

Sometimes it is hard to get to the places where great insects roam. (Truthfully it landed on the leg of one of my expedition companions, thanks’ Leo). BTW; i have more of a tan now hehe.

It was a great day. Thanks to all who joined.

Salticidae special

Last Friday I was walking in the small town here where I work called Esporles. And as I was walking I noticed that there were a lot of Saltisidae in the wall trying to attract mates by the look of things. Some of them had quite enlarged pedipalps, This is where they store the sperm when they are ready to mate. I went back later with my camera to see what I could find. All of these are Salticidae, or jumping spiders. This is because they don’t hunt by web, but by jumping to attack the prey. They often have quite small abdomens/ophistosoma as well as strong legs for jumping. They have wonderful eyesight and have no problem detecting a huge camera lens in front of them. Curiosity sometimes helps a cameraman here as they will investigate. And especially the flash they seem to react to. But they are very small no more than 5 mm most of them. One, the last one here was above one cm and that is why it was the best photo object at this time. It also helped that it stayed in the sun for better lighting. All pictures were taken with my Canon D400 camera and a canon 60mm macro lens. I have had it for some years and i still love this lens. When it comes to determenig these ones i really need some litterature and more time. At least it should be possible to determine them to genus.

Aranea

Hi,
I promised a post about a great group of animals that weirdly enough I find fascinating, exciting and beautiful. From their homes (some of them) shining in the morning sun, or from their stricking colours, to their movement, and the sheer diversity it is hard not to like these wonderful hunters. For most of them are hunters, with perhaps the one or two exceptions. And as far as diversity goes spiders have also as well as beetles conquer a great deal of different habitats around the world. Even some species of spiders have concurred the air, at least when they are young they will use a great length of tread to get airborne and spread to new possible habitats. Their way of living and their way of surviving is equally diversified. There are currently over 42000 valid species of spiders in the world.  From them only about 20 or so species are considered dangerous to us humans. So there is a bit of an unfair view of these amazing creatures. 

As promised here are some of the spiders I have encountered. Some are old photos and some are more recent.

Salticidae from Spain

Thomisidae think the genus here is Xysticus but species name evades me at present time. It was taken along the shore on Sotra. An island close to Bergen.

Segestriidae; Segestria senoculata. This spider has only six eyes (Different numbers of eyes occur but eight is the norm). It is sometimes referred to as the snake spider for the drawings on the abdomen/ophistosoma. This photo was taken Close to Aboretet at Milde, a few minutes outside of Bergen

Lycosidae; This photo was taken at Kvamskogen about an hour away from my city of Bergen. I do not dare to take it to genus since I have no accurate picture of the prosoma (the front body of the spider). So in this case I will leave it at family.

This one is a bit difficult. Right now I am not sure even to family. If someone would care to take a stab at this one, go for it. Taken in Spain close to Madrid Thanks' to Petterkopp for determening the family to Oxyopidae.

Another Thomisidae, this time in Spain munching on a unfortunate beetle.

Tetragnathidae From Spain

Aranidae; Argiope but not sure about the species name here. This photo was also taken in Spain

This Photo was taken in a fast moment and i have little to go on to determine this one. It had a ground thunnel like net and i think it has only six eyes as well so it might be another type of Segestriidae. But here i am far from certain.

Lycosidae from Spain. Notice the small ball it is carrying from the back. This is a bag of eggs it protect untill it haches. Sometimes they protect their young also after hatching carrrying them arround on the abdomen.

This one was also encountered close to Madrid and The spesific shape of the abdomen is quite caracteristic. In german littearture this might be reffered to as "Höker" or horns. Might say he is a horny critter. It is possible it is this species Araneus gemmoides.

There are so much more to these great animals than just hairy legs and screams. And even if that won't help you can always spend some time procrastinating/playing with a spider on your computer.

Coleoptera

This is one of my favorite orders of insect if not thee favorite one. And here are some of my past photos of them. I have mainly traveled in Spain and in Norway the last years and hence that is their origin. They are an amazing group to work with and you have everything from the easily identifiable to the very hard ones where you have to dissect the genitalia to be able to confirm the species. It is a huge and diverse group and it is amongst the three largest orders of insects we know today. They have concurred an array of different habitats all over this world. I myself worked with Carabidae and Staphilynidae from the mountain areas in Norway, then as a re-sampling project of this article (Ottesen, 1996). I am not the only one interested in these fascinating creatures (went a little David Attenborough there). In addition to being one of the most studied groups of insects it is also collected by people all over the world, and for huge sums of money. This has in some cases become a problem for the survival of some species (New, 2007).  

NEW, T. 2007. Beetles and conservation. In: NEW, T. R. (ed.) Beetle Conservation. Springer Netherlands.

OTTESEN, P. S. 1996. Niche Segregation of Terrestrial Alpine Beetles (Coleoptera) in Relation to Environmental Gradients and Phenology. Journal of Biogeography, 23, 353-369.

Family Cleridae, genus Trichodes but lacking species right now

 Carabus coreaceus

 Carabidae; Cicindela rupestris

 Cantharidae; Chantaris nigra

 Cerambycidae; Rhagium inquisitor

 This is just to show that looking for beetles takes you to some beautifull places. A sunny day and your camera surrounded by life. Does not get to much better than that,

 Family; Meloidae,After spending some time searching in various litterature i finally found a good match. This appears to be Physomeloe corallifer, a blister beetle endemic to The Iberian penninsula.

Scarabidae From Spain, i sadly at present time do not have a good key for this family.

That is all for now. I will post a similar post on my other pet group of animals...the spiders, and then whatever i feel like talking about

La luna

Hey so I realize that this is a while ago but I was up on March 19^th to get photos of the largest view of the moon in 19 years. Thought it would be a nice treat for most of the people in Norway I know who surely had overcast weather hehe.  

Moon facts:

The moon is on average 384 000 km from the earth.
It has a diameter of about 3476 km.
It completes an orbit of the earth in 27,3 days and travells in about 3700 km an hour. (That's fast)

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/planets/moonpage.html

S'albufera..... and by the way welcome

Hi, and welcome to my blogg page this is the first of hopefully

manny entries in this blogg. I will focus on phography in which i am an amature.

But i will also have other types of entries along the way. I have spent now a

bit more than two months here in Palma and i will start the thread by posting

some pictures from yesterdays trip to "S'albufera national parc".

http://www.mallorcaweb.net/salbufera/

It is a great place to see waterbirds and at this time a lot of migrating

birds as well. This was more of a fun trip with a big group so it was only a

limited time for photos. But it was great fun,and we finished of a hot day at the beach with a swim in the ocean and a glass of wine.

For this one i need a bit more time for identification But it ceartanly was a lot of them and most of them were conducting in quite lewd behaviour. This just inn.....Oxcythyrea funesta

                                         Knoppsothøne Fulica cristata Focha Cornuda
                                        This is a rare species and a wierd one at that, but beautiful 

                                          Gråhegre Ardea cinerea Garza real 

                                          Rødhodeand Netta rufina Pato colorado m and f

                                          Sandlo Charadrius hiaticula Chorlitejo grande

                                         Not entierly sure on this one but i think it is a Natrix maura, or the european watersnake 

                                        
                                         Stokkand Anas platyrhynchos Ánade azulón

                                    Stylteløper Himantopus himantopus Cigûeñuela común                                          

                                         Here are several different types. What i know is these. There is another duck there but i fail to see what it is for sure

                                         

                                         Skjestork Platea leucorodia Espátula común

                                         Storskarv Phalacrocorax aristotelis Cormorán moñudo

                                         Sothøne Fulica atra Focha Común

                                         Stylteløper Himantopus himantopus Cigûeñuela común   

                                         Stokkand Anas platyrhynchos Ánade azulón

                                         Skjeand Anas clypeata Pato cucharo



                                       Had lunch at the beach, need i remind you what the date is. Mallorca is nice this time of the year.

So that is it for this time. I will upload some more pictures shortly. Some new others older just to show some people what i look at. As i have said this is my first entry so not all will be perfect. Feel free to come with constructive critisism. with emphasis on constructive.