I have to research a bit, but the name andalusicus suggests it’s not only native, but maybe endemic to Andalucía. :-)
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Congratulations to an amazing critter!
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Cool! I’ve always wanted to see a pseudoscorpion! I wish critters like this were present in my backyard. The coolest thing I’ve found all year was either a brown unidentified mantis, a locust, or a little clown grasshopper.
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I recognized the same fire salamander after a few days thanks to the pattern of the spots.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/247666043
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/249655691
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I finally saw a muskrat (I think). Good to see Gerald’s kin!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/252509918
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Mine this week is the Sea Daffodil,
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/252511348, considered vulnerable in Greece.
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Yes, these are awsome; and always a very nice plant to find.
I did a double take the first time a saw them,
I was in Croatia in the middle of summer. We went on the beach and settled ourselves. I look around and think to myself; why would anyone plant those narcissuses over there?; immediatelly followed by; wait its summer and we’re on the sand dune beach;
I was unfamiliary with Pacratius before, but the impression was such it was my profile picture for a while
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Yeah, somehow strange and beautiful plants!
My family and I went to Fern Canyon in northwestern California on Tuesday, and were the last visitors out before State Park rangers closed the site ahead of this week’s bomb cyclone. It was my first time to Fern Canyon in a very long time, and my first time altogether as an iNaturalist. So I picked up a number of lifers.
Highlights include this rough-skinned newt:
This snail-eating beetle:
And a bunch of random fungi, including the following:
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Other favorites are the european field pansy and the
scarlet pimpernel
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I love snail eating beetles!
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I thought it was an assassin bug at first!
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This is butterfly season in Austin, my pollinator garden’s had a lot of visitors, and this was my favorite recent visitor, a mallow scrub-hairstreak, 102nd butterfly species on the list. It was flitting around my pollinator garden, it’s great when new species come and visit your yard for a bit.
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Either the first iNaturalist sighting of Rhodoneura lunula north of southwestern Brazil (I’m in Costa Rica), or an undescribed species of Rhodoneura as far as I can tell.
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Last week I saw this awesome moth, Protambulyx strigilis, in a building hall. But, bad news. I came back to the site a few days later, and I found its wings teared off on the floor!!!
I thought I had posted already about my first live scombrids underwater. A few weeks ago, I saw some cero mackerels (and a jack I believe was a blue runner) chasing a huge bank of redear herrings in an ocean inlet where I live. Very dramatic scene! The blue runner caught a herring and had its jaw distended like, for a few seconds.
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At least where I am I don’t think there are any native ones. I think I’ve heard of some native ones maybe occurring further south of me, but I’m not certain about that.
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I have two things to share this week, one of the last weeks in my little garden as we prepare to move.
(Important to note that I read a comment this week noting the size limitations on iNaturalist and realized I had to crop photos with my new phone. I cannot recall who mentioned it but I am so grateful.)
The first was this spider, which I think I have seen numerous times but this time I was able to get both sides and with my new (to me) phone capture a little hook under the belly in one photo. I was positively beaming at this comment from the Identifier: “the little spike under the belly in pic 2 shows this is an inseminated female argyra. Nice pic set has caught all the keys.”
Behold, Leucauge argyria!
The second thing is not a new species but a new “aha!” moment. Almost all of my knowledge is experiential, from spending hours observing. I have learned to watch ants and use them frequently to track smaller creatures, such as aphids, or early instars they tend, such as hoppers. Recently I have made numerous Observations of adult Vanduzea on Solanum erianthum in the garden. This week I have also been observing as the ants attend the Vanduzea nymphs, which is just… cool. Given the nymphs’ coloration, tiny size, and placement on the plant, they would be almost invisible to my weak eyes without the ants giving away their location.
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I just got back from visiting my sisters for Thanksgiving. They live in Washington (state), as I used to, so I already know a lot of the species there, but there are still new ones to discover. I think I may have set a personal best for number of observations within a week. Mushrooms, in particular, are abundant this time of year; having already observed the Amethyst Deceiver in the eastern US, I was pleased to come across its west coast segregate.
My favorite, though, was on the shore of Case Inlet. When I saw the red spots on the rocks, I hoped that it might be the red foram. But no; according to the taxon page, the red foram is a denizen of tropical coral reefs – no way would it ever be seen in frigid Puget Sound. Encrusting bryozoans, then? There are several species in the Pacific Northwest; but those have visible lattice-like exoskeletons. The final ID was “rusty rock,” an encrusting red alga:
As seen on the observation page, this is the observation nearest the headwaters of the Puget Sound system. It is also uncommonly observed, with only 289 observations globally, despite its global distribution and tolerance for a wide range of temperature, salinity, and light conditions.
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