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While on our way to our summer cottage, I spotted this fellow hitching a ride with us on the boat. Once we arrived, I picked it up on a stick and since it was perfectly fine just chilling there, I took pictures. Looking at the colors I'd peg this as a Raft Spider (Dolomedes fimbriatus), but the white side stripes were really faint so I'm not completely sure. Can't think of anything else that's big enough in Finland. Also missing a leg.  Here is my thumb for scale. You can also see the faint side stripe on the abdomen.  A front shot with a clear view of the pedipalps with no clubs, making this a female. 
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Jul 25, 2019 15:26
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| # ? May 24, 2024 20:40 |
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It might be a juvenile, the markings don't quite come in until they're mature. So as big as it is, it's still got some growing to do! Which is good news for that missing leg too 
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Jul 25, 2019 15:48
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 This lil guy evolved to look REALLY FAST so predators won't bother but it turns out he's kind of a klutz
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Jul 25, 2019 16:33
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 Found at least five Tanner beetles (Prionus coriarius) by a old dead oak. Have been finding them at this location for the last three years during end of july/early august.
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Jul 26, 2019 02:59
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I was woken up very, very early by all my cats losing their loving minds. It turns out that I had a visitor!   This happens once or twice a year in this house, so I've had plenty of practice safely returning these cuties to the outdoors.  The cats were very disappointed. West-central PA, little brown bat. A population devastated by disease but still hanging in there. https://waterlandlife.org/wildlife-pnhp/species-at-risk-in-pennsylvania/bats/
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Aug 1, 2019 10:48
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As awesome as bats are (and thanks for being a good person and shooing them outside,) you really should look to getting your house sealed up against wherever they’re getting in. And build a bat box! Give them somewhere to live that isn’t your house.
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Aug 1, 2019 13:59
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MrYenko posted:As awesome as bats are (and thanks for being a good person and shooing them outside,) you really should look to getting your house sealed up against wherever they’re getting in. It's been ongoing since my family first moved into this house 30 years ago. We THINK it's the chimney system, but we're not really sure. Sealing up against their visits has been difficult! My coworkers in the area report similar woes. I'm seriously looking into the bat box option. We have enough mosquitoes around to make them very happy. My husband shared this beauty from the Colorado Springs area:  Edit: Guessing huntii? my cat is norris fucked around with this message at 18:18 on Aug 1, 2019 |
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Aug 1, 2019 18:13
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Looks like Bombus huntii, yeah. That one is male.
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Aug 1, 2019 19:07
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It's awfully nice of bumblebees to have such regimented uniforms.
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Aug 1, 2019 23:43
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my cat is norris posted:It's awfully nice of bumblebees to have such regimented uniforms. Some species dress however the hell they want 
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Aug 2, 2019 00:19
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https://i.imgur.com/5iUuvOZ.gifv
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Aug 2, 2019 02:53
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Mak0rz posted:Some species dress however the hell they want 
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Aug 2, 2019 04:06
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my cat is norris posted:This happens once or twice a year in this house, so I've had plenty of practice safely returning these cuties to the outdoors. What are best practices in bat-extraction? I've had a couple of bats get in when I open doors and windows to cool the place off, and they absolutely freak the gently caress out and will not stop flapping around in panicked circles and occasionally divebombing me. I had to lure the last one out with the beam of a high-powered flashlight, but there's clearly a better way to handle these little guys. Edit: hydra turtle is adorable and now I'm putting a giant one in a D&D game, so thanks for that, poverty goat.
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Aug 2, 2019 20:53
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Parsley-eating JERK id please 
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Aug 2, 2019 21:08
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Papilio polyxenes, the Black Swallowtail butterfly.
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Aug 2, 2019 22:06
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poverty goat posted:Parsley-eating JERK id please Your parsley looks an awful lot like celery. Delicious celery.
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Aug 2, 2019 22:14
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Took a quick trip to Elk Island National Park a couple weeks ago and didn't see any bison close enough to photograph, but there were plenty of smaller critters around: The good thing about this being a bad mosquito year is that it's a good dragonfly year! The bushes by the lake were just buzzing with them.  Sad doot 2k19.  An ex-elm sawfly.  I shared a shelter hut at the top of a mountain with this bee during a snowstorm. In July.  Lots of damselflies in the garden!  Any ideas on this thing? It was too small to get a better photo but you get the gist of the body shape.
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Aug 3, 2019 00:15
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Kestral posted:What are best practices in bat-extraction? I've had a couple of bats get in when I open doors and windows to cool the place off, and they absolutely freak the gently caress out and will not stop flapping around in panicked circles and occasionally divebombing me. I had to lure the last one out with the beam of a high-powered flashlight, but there's clearly a better way to handle these little guys. If you can close off the room except for the windows, that's a good start. Multiple open windows will create an airflow that guides the bat. Leaving lights off is also good. I usually just wait for them to land somewhere and then cover them with a Tupperware dish (as pictured). Sturdy cardboard protects against escape and accidental bites. Probably don't do this but my mom will gently bap them out of the air with a racket before the Tupperware trick is utilized. Bats are torpid during the day, so you can isolate them more easily during daylight hours. Worst case? Call an expert.
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Aug 3, 2019 03:42
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Worst worst case is getting bitten, in which case you need to go to the ER and get a rabies shot. Their fangs are so tiny you might not even feel the bite, so look for suspicious puncture pairs. poverty goat posted:Parsley-eating JERK id please
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Aug 3, 2019 03:54
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i like nice words
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Anne Whateley posted:You can even take them in and raise them into butterflies to be sure they aren't eaten first. It's a bit of a project but very cool I just had a second round of Atala butterflies emerge from their chrysalides. I had three successful emergences, but they must’ve all happened at night or while I was at work, because there was no sign of the butterflies. One, then three. It’s a good trend thus far. Butterflies are cool as poo poo. Once-thought-extinct butterflies doubly so.
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Aug 3, 2019 04:14
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Couple of orders of magnitude smaller than the (excellent) photo's you guys have been posting, but there's a new Youtube channel out there that any critter lover should check out... https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBbnbBWJtwsf0jLGUwX5Q3g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS2mdmt4JPw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kux1j1ccsgg
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Aug 3, 2019 07:02
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Zernach posted:While on our way to our summer cottage, I spotted this fellow hitching a ride with us on the boat. Once we arrived, I picked it up on a stick and since it was perfectly fine just chilling there, I took pictures. Argyroneta aquatica, diving bell spider. The hairs trap an air bubble and they hunt and spend most of their time under the water surface. Common in lakes and pond in our part of Europe.
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Aug 3, 2019 13:54
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Check out the eyes in that last picture, that's not a Dictynidae arrangement, that's Pisauridae all the way. There are however what seems like a billion pictures of Dolomedes spiders out there mislabelled as A. aquatica
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Aug 3, 2019 15:03
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https://i.imgur.com/7XzD45B.gifv
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Aug 3, 2019 15:16
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your local butterfly populations thank you for your service
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Aug 3, 2019 15:38
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caterpillars are so dang cute even the sad doots(especially the sad doots)
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Aug 3, 2019 19:45
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Aug 3, 2019 20:00
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Thanks I love him
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Aug 3, 2019 20:12
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That's a Cuban tree frog, an invasive species that is decimating our native frogs.
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Aug 3, 2019 20:59
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Well that was a poignant twist His little face and steepled hands look a bit more sinister now
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Aug 3, 2019 21:01
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OneTwentySix posted:That's a Cuban tree frog, an invasive species that is decimating our native frogs. I was thinking southern toad, but looking at the hind legs, you might be right. Most of the Cubans that we get around there are quite a bit greener and skinnier than that dude, so it threw me. I make sure to murder Cuban tree frogs on sight, but my parents (where the picture came from) have no such doctrine, sadly. Edit: Oh gently caress the feet. Look at the feet, idiot. Definitely a Cuban.
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Aug 3, 2019 21:08
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If the native frogs are sucking and the invasive frogs are thriving, isn't it more sensible to let nature run its course and have some frogs thriving in the post-human hellscape? How is this not just natural selection working as intended? Many native critters were invasive species once when they floated across a sea against all odds on some debris or whatever. Nature isn't actually a fixed system in the absence of human fuckery. I say let's transplant hardier frogs into every ecosystem where the native frogs cant hack it anymore. All nature lacks is a guiding hand putting the right invasive species where they are needed.
poverty goat fucked around with this message at 23:59 on Aug 3, 2019 |
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Aug 3, 2019 23:50
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It isn't natural when it's humans introducing the non-native species. European starlings are a good example. And cane toads. Shifty Nipples fucked around with this message at 00:13 on Aug 4, 2019 |
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Aug 4, 2019 00:10
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It is though. We're a part of nature as much as the storm that pushes the palm fronds across the ocean
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Aug 4, 2019 00:26
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Because invasive species have rippling downstream effects on ecosystems that lead to loss of biodiversity, and loss of biodiversity is bad. Native species aren't struggling because "they can't hack it anymore" but because they're severely impacted by a laundry list of human-caused factors like pollution, disease, introduction/proliferation of invasive species, climate change, environmental degradation, and loss of habitat. "Natural" isn't synonymous with "good."
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Aug 4, 2019 01:12
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poverty goat posted:It is though. We're a part of nature as much as the storm that pushes the palm fronds across the ocean they're part of the natural order, you should just get along fine with them right
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Aug 4, 2019 01:20
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oriental bittersweet is a hardy asian vine that was brought to the US because it's pretty it also grows at a speed approaching Kudzu and the berries are poisonous to a lot of things  it also strangles native trees  the roots grow dozens of meters underground and can cross underneath entire highways to reach the other side if the berries don't get spread there first. the forest near my house is basically impenetrable now because there are so many vines, there's a literal impassable acre of vines holding together dead trees in the center of it, massive oaks strangled to death by ravenous vines and Trees of Heaven but it's okay because it's Natural  the Asian Longhorned Beetle is an asian wood-borer that is accustomed to the soft-barked hard-cored trees in asia, when introduced to the US's hard-barked soft-cored trees, it bores holes straight through the core, killing the entire tree. hundreds of thousands of trees were dying insanely fast in massachusetts until a massive effort was put forth to stop them, if they hadn't, the bastards could have wiped out most of the local tree population in a decade but it's okay because it's Natural Captain Invictus fucked around with this message at 01:33 on Aug 4, 2019 |
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Aug 4, 2019 01:30
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Captain Invictus posted:oriental bittersweet is a hardy asian vine that was brought to the US because it's pretty I loving hate kudzu. You can drive down the interstate in parts of Arkansas and see miles and miles of forest covered in kudzu. And that poo poo won't die.
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Aug 4, 2019 05:45
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At least kudzu is edible. Oriental Bittersweet is poisonous.
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Aug 4, 2019 05:59
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If we spread frogs everywhere, we'd probably wipe out native frogs due to some species being able to carry and spread Chytridiomycosis
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Aug 4, 2019 06:04
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