http://www.mlbs.virginia.edu/organism/arion_subfuscus
This example is from the Monongahela National Forest east of Durbin, West Virginia
The Dusky Arion (Arion subfuscus) is native to the Old World, but is now common in many places in the US. A nice little page about it can be read at:
http://www.mlbs.virginia.edu/organism/arion_subfuscus This example is from the Monongahela National Forest east of Durbin, West Virginia
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Okay, birders, help me out here. This little duck was sitting on a log that went from the shore into the water at Lake Buffalo near Durbin, West Virginia. It was the only duck on the lake, just sitting by itself, and never flew so no other field marks beyond what you can see in the photo.
Any guesses? I probably will put up a few more photos from Costa Rica, but mostly moving to some West Virginia shots from in and around the Monongahela National Forest. First up... Usually they are way harder to get a good look at, such as...
The Hacienda Baru is an eco-resort with property that abuts the Firestone Reserve. We went over there for dinner one evening which is always a treat. Inside their butterfly garden I found these two... In a fig tree outside the garden, I found a pretty caterpillar (fig tree is host plant).
What I have been trying to figure out, unsuccessfully, is what is going on here. This is curious. First, there were two or three of the green planthoppers and about a dozen of the black ones on the tree trunk (a natural habitat for such things). But what are the black ones? The only other citations of these black ones I can find list them as "unidentified." And, since these types of insects can secrete a wax from their rears, is the black one attempting to acquire some wax or is this just an accidental position. I once read something about cockroaches stealing wax this way, but can't find that reference right now either. So just an interesting mystery photo for now.
I am still looking into this most beautiful bug. Yes, bug. It is a Hemipteran (true bugs) and more specifically a Homopteran (wax bugs). They are called wax bugs because they pretty much all can secrete some kind of wax for various purposes.
It was found on the Firestone Reverse in conjunction with some other planthoppers that I have not yet been able to identify, so I will post more photos once I figure more out. For now, enjoy a very striking insect. The Alturas Wildlife Sanctuary is located about 7km south of Dominical, Costa Rica. That is not far from the Firestone Reserve, so we headed over there one afternoon to see some animals, hear some stories about how animals end up there, and learn what the Sanctuary does to prepare the animals for a return to the wild. Of note, most of the animals photographed for this blog are ones that can not be released for one reason or another. Amazing place. Their website is: https://alturaswildlifesanctuary.org/ And you can link to their Facebook page and all that from the website. First up is a most beautiful spider monkey Mike has an incredible and affectionate relationship with all the animals, with the end intent always to find a way to integrate them back into the wild. It was time for the sloths to be moved to a different enclosure, so they had to be woken up. A slow process indeed, but they did wake up. And finally, not all the cool animals are there for rehab. The local wildlife was quite impressive on its own.
If a couple thousand pounds of bamboo falls right next to the student dorm, does it make a noise? And yes, it makes a noise. A big, booming, cracking noise as those trunks break.
But on another note, just across the pond from this Warren was doing his high-end GPS work this morning. This year one of the student science projects is to determine how far various species of butterflies travel on the Firestone Reserve. Cool project. Today they set up some of the butterfly traps.
As this is tropicalbats.com, really have to post another pic of such. And normally I do an ID easily and all is good, but... The pic of these two bats I want to look at a bit more later as not all the species markers are clear. For now, pending more thought, I am posting...
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