Observations "hiding" in other observations; Share your examples!

springtails, hitchhiking on a velvet ant
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/64201997

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I observed a fly which I thought was stuck on a euphorbia plant. Someone else pointed out it was actually being eaten by a spider :-)

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/72994661

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This isn’t exactly the same thing, since I did it on purpose, but that’s what makes it cool! I saw a small insect flying around, then it landed, so I zoomed in on where I last saw it. And… it wasn’t there. However, I hadn’t seen it fly away. So I decided to take a picture of the general area in case it was still there. I just now looked at the photo again, and found it!

Full photo:

Insect:

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Bombyliidae

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I noticed this fly (on the wing!) photobombed my pic of a blackberry today.

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It’s not a fly however, and reading your username makes this kind of funny :wink:

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LOL! :honeybee:

Teellbee stands for my initials, TLB; not my area of expertise. Not that I have an area of expertise :crazy_face:

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Love this!!! I don’t usually post my chanterelles (i know that’s bad, sorry) but salamanders love hibernating with them in winter, sometimes they are even almost trapped inside the growing folds. It must be like having a little salamander palace all winter or chanterelle blanket. Love these Lil guys and always try and be super careful. My favorite though was once in spring I spotted a textbook shrimp pushing up the leaf litter and grass beneath a live oak. I gently scooped my hand deep under the base of it and carefully lifted it up, expecting a big beautiful bolete or amanita but when I pulled it up there was a ringneck snake curled in a perfect little ball, its bright red and gold belly interlocked with it’s dark back. It didn’t even uncurl itself just sat there like a lil jewel till I put it carefully back in it’s hole.

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When I took this picture of a very small beetle, I thought it had little bits of plant fluff on it. I only realized after looking at the photos on my computer that the “plant fluff” was several teeny tiny mites.

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I am really enjoying this thread. Here’s an example of a foreground photobomb that I didn’t see until I looked at the picture later. I knew there were squirrels around, but there were also branches and other obstacles in the way of my pigeon target, so I didn’t differentiate.

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This discussion is making me look back on a bunch of my observations to see if I missed anything small in them! I know a lot of my tidepooling observations have a bunch of different organisms crowded together in them. Regardless, there are a few that spring to mind.

I found this little creature while I was reviewing pictures I took of these springtails underneath a brick. Turns out it’s possibly a scolopendrellid, or a small relative of both centipedes and millipedes. It also may be the first observation of the family in New England on iNaturalist, at least as of the time of writing, which is exciting.

I’ve also found that audio observations can have evidence of unexpected species. Take for example this recording, which includes a Tennessee Warbler. I believe I was trying to record either the Red-eyed Vireo or the American Redstart, but after a comment from another user, I was alerted to the Tennessee Warbler’s presence.

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I was taking photos of this six spotted beetle, only to come home to see there where two what appear to be beetles mating in the background!

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I did not know this :astonished:! I don’t eat mushrooms, but I love salamanders. I’ll have to start looking for the chanterelles in winter.

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This damselfly came and modeled for me:

Then I zoomed in on the photo:

And in:
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Damselfly obs: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/85303202
Tiny thing obs: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/85303201

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Couple of months ago, was photographing a small planarian; back at home, spotted a pseudoscorpion as well, which is the first time I’ve ever seen one. As a sense of scale, the pseudoscorpion was not much bigger than a full stop

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I was photographing the beech winter foliage on this one…


Didn’t see the deer until I processed the pictures on the computer.

I constantly get bugs photo-bombing my plant pictures, too - too many to share.

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All found in my photos later when reviewing on computer

Insects found on plants I photographed
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/82324380
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/8939787

Insects found on fungi I photographed
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/17397457
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/14115613
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/81472689
springtails

fly on spiderweb of spider I photographed

dragonfly I photographed turned out to be captured by a mantis

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A dragonfly photobombed my picture of a hawk (cropped to show dragonfly a little better):

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Recently, I got a macro clip-on for my phone with integrated LED lights.
The moment it was fully charged I was eager to try it out, so I was looking around in my room for an object to photograph. As it happened, there was a spider sitting on my Epipremnum, so it became my first test object.

Only later I realized something odd…

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I just noticed the pink aphid riding on the Chinese Mantid abdomen. The aphids turned pink from eating the pink guara flowers. Over time, this mantid turned pinkish from eating the pink insects.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/58577754

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