I was walking around the garden with a coffee this morning trying to wake myself up a bit. I walked past this harvestman on the wall a few times and finally decided to get the camera as I haven’t recorded many harvestmen yet and they’re on my hit list. I took a quick photo and went inside to look it up. It was only when I uploaded it to the computer that I realised that it was a species I’ve wanted to find ever since I saw a photo of one. You can probably see why from the amazing eye spikes. It was my turn to take the kids to school though and I didn’t have time to take more photos before we had to go. I dropped the kids off in record time and luckily it was still there when I got back. There are 286 iNat records in the UK and only about 1100 on NBN atlas and this one was just sitting on the wall outside my back door
Wow, that looks amazing! Really glad you grabbed your camera to get a photo and shared it here in the forum.
If only my quick photos turned out so good.
Those photos were the last of about 50 that I took in the end. This camera has a great focus magnifier feature but it doesn’t work with this manual macro lens so I’ve been struggling to get the focus just right.
Oooh, those are some nice photos! I love those spikes on the eye tubercle.
My favorite I found is probably Pelegrina galathea (which I managed to find nearby P. proterva, surprisingly):
Tiger beetles are often really flighty and hard to approach. Great job on the photo!
I definitely saw some of these in War of the Worlds.
Seeing a Eurasian spoonbill was pretty cool! I saw roseates as a kid, so it was neat to see this one.
That’s a gorgeous-looking moth!
A cockroach! But not just any cockroach – an Australian one, Periplaneta australasiae.
Spotted at the Niagara Falls (Canada) Butterfly Conservatory, crawling about the rocks.
And on the same visit:
A leaf katydid from Guatemala, Chloroscirtus forcipatus (still needs one more IDer).
It’s not often I get such international ‘catches’ without leaving my home region!
This swarm of Eastern Subterranean Termites (Reticulitermes flavipes) was a lifer! [ID could be wrong, but any termite species is a lifer for me.]
The swarm of termites departing the nest for their nuptial flights sparked a flurry of bird activity to take advantage of the sudden food resource.
Note the termite wings sticking out of the beak of this Chipping Sparrow.
This week had more lifers than usual for me, including, earlier today, the algal leaf spot pathogen, Cephaleuros virescens. If I pick a favorite, though, it would be one from the beginning of the week:
South American skullcap
Apologies to the scientific types, the ruler is in inches. Still, it shows how tiny this plant and its flowers are – I never would have seen it if I hadn’t been crouched down inspecting the lawn closely.
Whatever species this entoloma is. I got it to section, at least - E. Sect. staurospora. These spores are so wild
Saw a new for me bee this week https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/212802296
My favorite find this week is Ariadna bicolor. I see these guys all the time, but I can never get them out of their webs nor photograph them, until yesterday!
Not that big of one, but maybe I’ll get lucky soon!
After a very dull mothing season I’ve finally got some joy in the form of this fresh Poplar hawkmoth gracing the moth trap this morning (with a miniscule light brown apple moth for comparison). Hopefully many more nights can have the same incredible species as this.
My favourite new little creature this past week was this tiny (just about 1mm long) wasp.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/212553455
Wow that’s a wasp! At first glance I would’ve guessed that’s a beetle. Cool find.