Category: Cricket

Spider Hawk or Spider Wasp (family: Pompilidae)

6/9/2017

These wasps, known variously as spider hawks or spider wasps or for some tarantula hawks, are very neat animals. They capture large insects or spiders by stinging and paralyzing them, then place the victim in a hole in the ground, and lay an egg on it. The egg hatches and the larvae gets to eat some fresh food before morphing into an adult wasp and digging itself out of the ground.

Here is one dragging what looks like a tree cricket or larval katydid to it's hole near the top of the Firestone Center property.

Spider wasp dragging prey into its hole

And now your fun fact of the day. The Schmidt Pain Index goes from 0 (bite does not break skin) to 4 (really, really ouchie) and rates quite a number of insect bites as to how painful they are. This wasp rates a 4, as painful as anything pretty much can be.

And lastly, a short video from Borneo where I explain these spiders in a little more detail.

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Egg-eating cricket from Clearwater Cave, Borneo

2/10/2015

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Working on figuring out the photo problem. Hopefully there will be a photo attached to this post of a cricket.

Someone somewhere playing cricket. A random stock photo from the Weebly library (Creative Commons).

So, it is possible to add a photo, but the "upload a photo from your computer" button still does not work. I am going to try a different method to get a photo from my computer.

Aha! This is my test picture. An egg-eating cricket (Rhapidophora oophaga) from Clearwater Cave, Mulu National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia, Island of Borneo.

And so it IS possible to get a photo of mine up, but a bit more work to drag it around. So now I have a workaround, and my many critics have a new photo to howl about. I'll see about putting some more up soon. That is, after I make sure this post goes up.

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Huntsman spiders, Sarawak, Borneo, Malaysia

5/10/2014

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A huntsman spider sitting on it's egg sac.

A huntsman spider eating a cricket

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Borneo,Gunung Mulu National Park, Lagangs Cave

4/24/2014

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I took a few photos in Lagangs Cave. Might be some more to come, but I am short of time right now to put up more than this bit...

Don McFarlane in decorated passage.

A cricket in Lagangs Cave.

Funky stalactite in Lagangs Cave

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Borneo caving

4/21/2014

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As promised, some pics of Borneo caving. To start things off, stuff from Gunung Mulu National Park.

A stalagmite that can't find a decent symmetry in Langs Cave.

A large cricket from Langs Cave

Ceiling formations in Langs Cave

Langs Cave is a pretty place

Big calcite formation in Langs Cave

But more fun was had in Wind/Clearwater Cave and that will be for tomorrow

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Aquatic cricket in Charles Brewer Cave, Venezuela.

8/22/2013

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The aquatic cricket, Hydrolutos breweri...presented in three pics.

The cricket underwater! This thing is fully adapted for aquatic feeding. How cool is that!

Hydrolutos female.

Hydrolutos male

This cricket has been properly noted as a unique species here:

http://cabinetoffreshwatercuriosities.com/2011/09/06/the-venezuelan-cave-cricket-hydrolutos-breweri/

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Firestone Center for Restoration Ecology

5/28/2013

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I have way too many pictures from the FCRE, so am going to have a run at putting a number of them on the blog. All of the blog pics coming up were taken during the 2013 field season and are extremely current. There are even MORE pictures of the place, and some information about it with links at: http://www.tropicalbats.com/costa-rica.html
The FCRE pics are in the first obvious link, while the second link to the Hacienda Baru has pictures that were taken on the property right next door.

Many if not most of the animal photos have not yet been worked out to species, although I will add that information as I have time to go through the field guides and do a proper search to get them figured out as close as possible. And now a set of photos...

Always a favorite, what I call the zebra hopper is actually the nymph of the giant grasshopper Tropidacris cristata, one of the largest grasshoppers in the neotropics.

Katydids after an evening rain.

Close up of an Amblypygid, commonly known as tail-less whip scorpions.

There are plenty of stick insects around, but they tend to be hard to figure out.

A beautiful orb weaver, which I hope to have a species on soon. NEW This is the Golden Silk Orb Weaver (Nephila clavipes)

These tiny honey bees have built a hive inside a cement block wall on one of the buildings. The honey from these bees is considered the finest in Costa Rica, and quite expensive to buy.

Vine snakes are quite common, but can be tricky to find. This one is quite small, and only a few millimeters in diameter. NEW It is called Oliver's Parrot Snake (Leptophis nebulosus)

And finally, since this is tropicalbats.com, BATS!

Three pygmy fruit-eating bats (Artibeus phaeotis) in a tent they have made for themselves by chewing the ribs of a big leaf until it droops down into a shelter from the rain and predators.

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Meet Chester

9/2/2012

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Chester the bush cricket.

Chester is a katydid, by American vernacular, and a bush cricket by European wordage. He was spotted in my home office here in Oslo and rescued to the gardens where he might actually find things to eat.

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