Yasuni national park part VII

Images of undisturbed subjects in their natural environment. All subject types.

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pbertner
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Yasuni national park part VII

Post by pbertner »

1. Map frog (Hypsiboas geographicus):

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2. Glass frog (Vitreorana ritae):

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3. Backlit ovipositing katydid:

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4. An inquisitive anole:

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5. Scorpion under UV light:

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6. Cryptic lichen katydid:

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7. Mating clearwing butterflies (Cithaerias sp.).
Transparency in the clear- or glasswings is thought to confuse would-be predators. A paper in Nature Communications from 2015 https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms7909
illustrates the novel way in which random nano-sculpturing of the scales allows for the passage of light with little reflectance over essentially all viewing angles, a pretty remarkable feat.

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8. Moss masquerading stick insect:

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9. Camouflaged stick insect:

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10. Baby leaf-nosed bat (Phyllostomidae):

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Thanks for looking and commenting,
Paul

Beatsy
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Post by Beatsy »

Another lovely set - all fascinating. Thanks.

Ref: your comment about the Clearwing butterflies. I photographed one at a butterfly house (just handheld macro) and assumed the transparency was due to the absence of scales. Are the wings actually covered in scales like a normal butterfly wings? Even more amazing if they are :shock:

Edit: just read the paper you linked (assumed it would be behind a paywall at first, so I didn't follow it). The transparent regions just contain "nano hairs" not scales with "nano-pillars" in the membrane to aid transparency of the membrane over a wide viewing angle. That makes more sense (and still pretty amazing).
Last edited by Beatsy on Thu Jan 18, 2018 7:11 am, edited 1 time in total.

MarkSturtevant
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Post by MarkSturtevant »

Beautiful! I did not know that clearwings had scales.
Mark Sturtevant
Dept. of Still Waters

Ken Ramos
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Post by Ken Ramos »

Since I prowl around in lichens quite a bit, I really enjoyed the lichen katydid, though all of them were quite interesting. There are numerous things that hide out in lichens, most are quite small however, spiders are quite common, even large ones.

razashaikh
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Post by razashaikh »

Stunning set of pictures.

ChrisR
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Post by ChrisR »

Always a pleasure to see Paul's images.
The anti-reflection wing is fascinating. I wonder if those half-micron columns will become a resolution test target ;)
Chris R

pbertner
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Post by pbertner »

Thanks everyone, much appreciated.

Beatsy - thanks for the correction.

Ken - fortunately in the tropics the lichens provide a nice haven for a variety of even quite large insects.

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Beatsy
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Post by Beatsy »

Wow! Those critters in the latest lichen shots are very well hidden. At the point of writing this, I still haven't found what's hiding in the second shot. Brilliant!

Ken Ramos
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Post by Ken Ramos »

If you're an insect and you can manage it, what better place to camouflage yourself and to hide but in a lichen. I have one spider here, about the size of a half dollar coin, that does a pretty good job in hiding itself among the lichens. You would not notice it until you had placed your hand on it. Somewhat aggressive but will turn and run if you persist in prodding at it.

Smokedaddy
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Post by Smokedaddy »

Excellent!

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