Sketch of a firefly, ready for take-off. Referenced from the quoted photo by Thomas Shahan. I think I need to simplify my shading when I draw bugs. There's too much going on, and stuff gets lost. #SciArt #Invertebrates #BugSky

Thomas Shahan@tshahan.bsky.social · 4w ago

Photuris sp firefly (beetle in the family Lampyridae) with elytra popped - about to take flight 🪲

Photuris sp firefly (beetle in the family Lampyridae) with elytra popped - about to take flight 🪲

Daily doodle 169, stag beetle based on @tshahan.bsky.social 's photo #dailydrawing #dailydoodle #sketchbook #sciart

in non-salticid news, I found this beautiful stag beetle *just* as I was overheating and getting fed up w/ mosquitoes while hunting today 🙏

Re-visited a limestone gravel path yesterday after a rainy night and got lucky with harmochirine portraits 🕷️ 1 Sooty-faced adult male Habronattus borealis 2 Adult male Pellenattus(?) - first time seeing this guy! 3 Immature male w/ red face 4 Uniformly pale green-eyed female

"tufted" dark morph of the dimorphic jumping spider Maevia inclemens 🤩 Excited to get a portrait (on a light bg highlighting his mohawk) as it's been a while since I've shot a dark morph - I usually only run into the colorful "light" morphs Still hoping to film their courtship display(s) someday

Clockwise from top left: Nectopsyche sp. - White Miller Caddisfly Petrophila jaliscalis - Jalisco Petrophila Cyllopsis gemma - Eastern Gemmed-Satyr Cerastipsocus trifasciatus - Barklouse maybe the depicted salticid is at a low anterior angle: how real jumpers may encounter another face-to-face?

overlaying jumping spiders on insects at 50% opacity... clockwise from top left: salticid/caddisfly salticid/moth salticid/butterfly salticid/barklouse

Camponotus with another ant's head still clamped to her left antenna. Second time I've seen this with this species (Camponotus pennsylvanicus?) this spring! Wild how the mandibles can still be locked so tightly even after the attacker was decapitated!

Not the most colorful Habronattus out there but very handsome in an understated way - Habronattus borealis. One of the more common Habros I'll see around here (NE OK) on rocky shores of creeks and lakes in the summer.

some bee diversity for #wordbeeday ! #savethebees

I see Peckhamia a lot and occasionally think "ooh this one looks a little different" but don't ID them to species because they're apparently difficult to tell apart and the genus needs revision love that they're still kind of a mystery🙇

low posterior angle passes the "looks like an ant" test too ✅

from the side... bold patches of white setae break up the silhouette + create the illusion of a more tucked waist, additional body segment(s?) - maybe even a more isolated, ant-like head? and a darker color around the rear eyes (~where an ants are) makes them look bigger! lateral angle disguise ✅

bit better anterior angle - focused on the "antennae" - v anty 🐜 squinting eyes (and looking at the image small), taking in just values, u can def see the silhouette of an ant like head capsule too anterior angle disguise ✅

Peckhamia sp ant-mimicking jumping spider showing off their odd second pair of legs - thin and dark - help up and out like the geniculate antennae of an ant Woods, NE Oklahoma, in situ, 5-14-26

Thanks for the feedback/suggestions on the spider anatomy design!🙏 Was going to update it today but went on a hike instead - here are some handsome jumpers I found: Hentzia mitrata, Habronattus coecatus, Paraphidippus aurantius, and Habronattus decorus - all in situ w/in about the same 1 acre area!

Salticid anatomy design I've been whittling away at too long - started as an idea for a t-shirt but may be too feature-bloated now... Tear it apart! I need criticism/corrections! What don't you like? What doesn't read well? Anything misleading/mislabeled? Fonts/labels/pointers can all be changed...

grateful for a herp-heavy spring so far! 🙇 1 Rough Greensnake (Opheodrys aestivus) 2 Mississippi Mud Turtle (Kinosternon subrubrum hippocrepis) 3 Lined Snake (Tropidoclonion lineatum) 4 Three-toed Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina triunguis) in situ, NE OK

Sooo... who's going to #Bugshot Guyana this July? (Or wants to join? I hear there are a few spots left!) 🕷️🪲🪳🦋🐜🐝🐞🪰🦟🐛🦂🪱 I may have just impulse-registered myself* & @ibycter.bsky.social! So exciting!!!!!!!! *strictly as a bug-pointer-outer and enjoyer www.bugshot.net/bugshot-guyana

BugShot Guyana — BugShot

Photograph in one of the most biodiverse intense places on Earth! 7 days in the remote jungle with some of the best macro photographers in the world!

bugshot.net

was photographing a turtle yesterday when a Habronattus decorus male hopped on top the turtle and searched around a bit #salticidae #jumpingspiders #arachnology #herpetology

!!! initially thought they were an oribatid beetle mite... then freaked out upon taking a few photos - realizing they were BAEUS - a *tiny* (~600µm) parasitic wasp! Lost them after trying to stop lens down for a bit more depth of field! Underneath a log, NE Oklahoma

name that butt!

squinting my eyes, blurring my vision, just looking at coarse silhouettes and values... comparing Synemosyna formica's 🕷️ first leg to Camponotus subbarbatus' 🐜antennae... both seen around 1PM 4/9/26 woods NE Oklahoma (unsure of plant ID - maybe young Verbesina?)

if you don't fly away, i WILL go to 2x and open up the aperture a little so I can crop 😤

☀️went out looking for Cicindela scutellaris, and found Cicindela scutellaris🙇 🏖️here's a pair on sand, near a river🪲

🕷️four Argiope species🕸️ Argiope flavipalpis(?) (A. levii?), Mozambique Argiope trifasciata, the "Banded Garden Spider", Oklahoma Argiope florida, the "Florida Garden Spider", Florida Argiope aurantia, the "Yellow Garden Spider", Oklahoma

some myriapod portraits with snake vibes 🐍

Microstylum morosum or the "Giant Prairie Robber Fly" living up to their name - what a HUGE fly! 🫡 NE Oklahoma, iphone video (wish it would've locked the color balance while filming!)

Portrait of a fancy globular springtail from a hunt yesterday morning - Ptenothrix marmorata! NE OK, in situ, Fuji xt3 + Laowa 25mm @ 5x f/5.6(?), diffused flash, handheld stack of 12 shots (w/ gaps!), stacked in Zerene Stacker, cropped in Photoshop...