Several readers sent in photos of animals today. The first is by our anonymous correspondent in Idaho who has been following a brood of two eaglets. As you can see below, they’re about ready to fledge, carefully watched by their proud parents. It’s a fantastic photograph (click all photos to enlarge).
Matthew Cobb called my attention to a tweet by Bug Girl calling attention to the caterpillar of Harris’ Three-spot (Harrisimemna trisignata), a beautiful moth (at bottom). According to the photos, by Colin Hutton, the caterpillar is cryptic, mimicking bird droppings. The curious thing is that each time the caterpillar molts, it retains the head from the previous molts as part of its camouflage:
Hutton has some really nice insect pictures on his website.
Here’s the adult, from Bug Guide:
Finally, reader Dermot C called my attention to a National Geographic post describing the discovery of a new, hot-pink slug, ( Triboniophorus aff. graeffei) from Australia, where it’s endemic to Mount Kaputar, in New South Wales. The 20-cm (8-inch) slugs resemble the candy lipstick I used to get at Halloween, or maybe Gene Simmons’s tongue:
- Photo by Michael Murphy, NPWS
The article notes:
A volcanic eruption 17 million years ago on Mount Kaputar kept a small, four-square-mile (ten-square-kilometer) area lush and wet even as much of the rest of Australia turned to desert. This changing environment marooned the plants and animals living on Mount Kaputar from their nearest neighbors for millions of years, making the area a unique haven for species such as the pink slug.
Because the pink slugs live in beds of red eucalyptus leaves, [Ranger Michael] Murphy suspects their color could potentially serve as camouflage, helping the animals blend in to their leafy habitat.
“However, [the slugs] also spend a lot of their time high on tree trunks nowhere near fallen leaves, so it is possible that the color is just a quirk of evolution. I think if you are isolated on a remote mountaintop, you can pretty much be whatever color you like,” Murphy noted.
And here’s where the things live: Mount Kaputar:
“A volcanic eruption 17 million years ago on Mount Kaputar kept a small, four-square-mile (ten-square-kilometer) area lush and wet…”
Uh, what?
When a mass of moist air is forced to rise as it encounters a mountain range, the moisture tends to condense because the air temperature decreases at higher altitude. So mountain ranges tend to get more rain than the surrounding plains.
Oops; this was supposed to be a reply to Reginald Selkirk.
Actually, the slugs look like chili peppers to me….
b&
Red Hot Chili Peppers?
Perhaps. Could be Flaming Lips, too, I suppose.
…not that I know anything about either band other than their names….
b&
I follow the Decorah Eagles and the MNBound eagles on webcam. It’s fascinating watching them grow up.
That caterpillar is just staying ahead of the game…
…also very headstrong; always heads in the right direction
here’s a link you may like
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21829200.400-a-biological-basis-for-free-will.html
The caterpillar is saying “If this was ever an insect, it has long since been digested by a fungus. Do not eat!”
The slug has a faint midrib and vein pattern like a eucalypt leaf on its back, is that an evolved part of the camouflage or a retained ancestral feature? (I presume it’s not segmented muscles, unless the ‘slug’ is actually a chordate: a living-fossil tree-Pikaia)
Those young eagles have already fledged, by the looks. They’re about ready to take wing.
Looking at that slug’s coloration, I have to wonder if it’s at all toxic.
Fascinating the asy7mmetricality of the slugs – breathing hole on the right.