Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
The pictures of leaf insects below come from a cool science story in the New York Times about this fabulous family of fantastic mimics (Phylliidae). The story has a lovely twist, as the females look like leaves while the males look like sticks, and for many years scientists thought the sexes were members of different … Continue reading Spot the leaf insects!
It’s pouring down rain in Chicago: a real Midwestern thunderstorm complete with loud thunder and lightning. I hope my ducks are okay except, hey, it’s water, Jake. In the meantime, here’s a “spot the” feature by Mark Sturtevant, and this one I’d rate as “pretty hard.” Mark’s words are indented: Last summer I ‘discovered’ the … Continue reading Spot the grasshoppers!
Did you spot the dragonfly in Robert Seidel’s photo this morning? Here’s the reveal and then a closeup.
Here’s a photo from Robert Seidel, asking us to spot the dragonfly. Click to enlarge the photo; reveal at 11 a.m. Chicago time today. Robert’s note: I believe this is a female emperor dragonfly (Anax imperator), rightly described as “bulky” by the website I used to check – this one was as large as my … Continue reading Spot the dragonfly!
Did you spot the hidden moth in Tony Eales’s photo earlier today? From the comments it looks as if people thought they were supposed to spot the obvious moth on the left, but that wasn’t the hidden one. Here’s the reveal (click photo to enlarge). That wasn’t so easy, was it?
Tony Eales, a researcher in Queensland and regular contributor to “readers’ wildlife photos”, sent a “spot the” picture. I’ll let him tell you what you’re supposed to spot, and there will be a reveal later: I took a wide shot of this moth with a “spot the” in mind but found that on the computer … Continue reading Spot the moth!
Matthew sent this tweet which shows a cryptic antlion—the predatory larva of a neuropteran insect in the family Myrmeleontidae, whose flying adult looks like a lacewing. (The adults are much less well known than these predatory larvae, which I used to keep as pets as a child). This is rated very easy, but we haven’t … Continue reading Spot the antlion!
Did you spot it? First I’ll show the original photo, then Mark’s reveal. Mark’s reveal and notes: Here she is! I also include another picture of her in the hand. The species is Diapheromera femorata.
