Category: insects

Spot the damselfly!

July 15, 2023 • 9:00 am

Robert Lang sent this “spot the” photo that he took recently. Can you spot the damselfly? Enlarge the photo by clicking on it. The reveal is at noon Chicago time, and I rate this one “pretty hard.”

Please don’t reveal where it is in the comments, so that each reader can find it for themselves.

Here’s the damselfly!

April 30, 2023 • 12:25 pm

Did you spot the damselfly in the photo below. It’s right there in plain sight, but then again it’s not. The reveal is in the second photo:

I’ve circled it, so here it is. I can’t see the wings: perhaps they’re too clear to see or this is a newly emerged adult and hasn’t yet expanded its wings

Spot the damselfly!

April 30, 2023 • 7:30 am

Matthew found this tweet from Marianne Denton with a hidden damselfly in it. Can you spot it? This is pretty damn hard.  PLEASE don’t reveal the location in the comments; just say “found it” if you found it.

I’ve put an enlarged version of the photo at bottom; click once or twice to make it big.

The reveal will be at noon Chicago time.

Click to enlarge and look for the insect:

Readers’ wildlife photos: special “spot the moths” version

January 29, 2022 • 9:00 am

Have an hour to spare to find some cryptic insects? Today we have a “spot the moths” series from Mark Sturtevant. It has two hidden species, one per photo. I’ve put Mark’s reveals below the fold.  Click on the two photos below to enlarge them, and the narrative from Mark is indented.

I rate both pictures as “extraordinarily difficult,” so take your time finding them. I doubt that you’ll find both! This also shows how amazingly cryptic moths can be, and of course they tend to land in places that give them camouflage.

Can your readers find the moths in the two pictures? They are both pretty much in plain view and fairly large. Da Rool, however, must be to please not reveal the locations so that other readers can have a go. Have at it, people!

JAC: BE SURE TO ENLARGE THE PHOTOS TO THEIR MAXIMUM SIZE (click twice in succession), or you’ll fail miserably.

Photo (and speciesI 2:

Click “continue reading” below for the Big Reveals, but first try to see the moths!

Continue reading “Readers’ wildlife photos: special “spot the moths” version” →

Spot the caterpillar!

March 16, 2021 • 8:45 am

Here’s a tweet containing a photo that itself contains a caterpillar. Can you spot it? I’ll put the enlarged photo below:

I can’t be sure about this—the mimicry is fantastic—but I’ve circled the putative caterpillar in the reveal below. Click on “read more”: Continue reading “Spot the caterpillar!” →

Here are the leaf mimics!

December 7, 2020 • 3:00 pm

Did you spot all nine leaf insects in today’s photo from the New York Times taken by Hsin-hsiung Chen? Here’s the reveal (click photo to enlarge):

If you can’t see them, it’s a clue that sharp-sighted birds, who hunt these using vision, can’t easily see them either.