Urban Coyote

There is a small pack of coyotes running around at the field station where I work in downtown Austin, Texas. They are occasionally taking down a lone deer and move around the entire 82 acre facility. I setup some cameras in areas where I could tell they were actively moving about and have been successful in getting a few images. They are beautiful animals who have really adapted to live among humans. In addition to coyotes, I've gotten numerous raccoons, armadillos, opossums, red fox, white-tailed deer and even a porcupine!

BugShot 2011: Improve your insect photography with John Abbott, Thomas Shahan, and Alex Wild

I am pleased to announce BugShot, a first-of-a-kind weekend workshop for arthropod photography. The event is a photography course and weekend retreat scheduled for Labor Day Weekend 2011 (September 2-5) at the Shaw Nature Reserve outside of St. Louis, Missouri. We have chosen a long weekend and a central location to make the event as accessible as possible and have limited enrollment to 35 to keep the participant/instructor ratio manageable.

Depending on how the event unfolds, we may make BugShot an annual event similar to the famous Ant & Bee Courses, with rotating instructors and locations.

[download announcement] | [register online]

Who should attend?

• Entomologists who aspire to improve their photographic skills for work or pleasure
• Photographers who wish to learn arthropod- specific techniques
• Naturalists & gardeners who enjoy the little things outdoors
• Bug bloggers & bugguide.netters who’d like to spice up their online imagery
• Anyone looking for an excuse to hang out at the beautiful Shaw Nature Reserve for a long weekend

Attendees are assumed to have an understanding of simple camera functions, including shutter speed & aperture, and should be able to operate the basic functions of their equipment. The course is geared towards SLR equipment, but most topics will also be applicable to digicams that offer manual control of important functions.

We are offering up to three registration fee waivers to current students, please email (alwild [at] myrmecos.net) for details.

Who are the instructors?

We have arranged an instructor list that spans a diversity of photographic styles.

• John Abbott, of Texas, loves to photograph insects, especially in action
• Thomas Shahan, of Oklahoma, is a master of close-up arthropod portraiture
• Alex Wild, of Illinois, is an ant photographer extraordinaire

What will you learn at BugShot?

• Macro-& microphotography equipment
• Digital asset management & workflow
• Composition
• Lighting & flash
• Working with live insects
• Special techniques: focus-stacking, time-lapse & video
• Field sessions in prairie, woodland & aquatic habitats
• Evening photo-sharing presentations
• and more!

click to register for BugShot 2011

New Texas Spiketail Dragonfly

I just described a new species of dragonfly in the genus Cordulegaster. The common name for this family of dragonflies is Spiketails because the females typically have long ovipositors making it look like they have a spiked tail. The formal description of the species should be in print in a couple of months, but here are some pictures. It seems to have a strong association with Pitcher Plant bogs and is now known in five counties in Texas and just over the border in western Louisiana. I will be describing the larva soon. This species probably remained undiscovered because of its very early flight season (March-April) and restricted habitat of pitcher plant bogs. I'm hoping to learn more about its natural history this spring.


Male perched on a dead pitcher plant.


Male.


Female

Larva.


Exuviae or shed skin.

Bugs in the House

I had the opportunity today to visit an apartment complex here in Austin that is infested with bed bugs. These are very difficult to get rid of and this is a very heavy infestation. Your mom really meant it when she said, "Don't let the bed bugs bite!"


There were many simply crawling on the walls.


Others were of course hiding out in the folds of the mattress.


The dark stains in the two images above  are dried blood and fecal material from the bugs. You can seem some in the fold of this mattress (same ones photographed above).


They like to get in tight spaces. Above you can see where they get between the slats of this bed. Below are closeups of the activity. Notice the dried fecal pellets and all the eggs (elongated white structures).

Scorpionflies Everywhere

I look forward to seeing scorpionflies every fall, but this year they were particularly abundant here in Austin. I was able to escape the lab and photograph both males and females in flight and perching. It was interesting to watch as males defended and fought over a dead grasshopper. They would release pheromones that in turn attracted females.

Lowland Tapir

While visiting friends in Florida, Kendra and I had the opportunity to go to Lion Country Safari. They have a pair of Lowland (South American) Tapirs there. They really enjoy playing in the water to keep cool on a hot day!

Bats, Bats and more Bats

Kendra and I had the opportunity to join Liz Braun de Torrez from Boston University this last Saturday night. Liz is working on her Ph.D. and focussing on bats that are feeding on insects in Pecan groves. We had fun photographing four different species, Red Bat, Cave Myotis, Evening Bat, and Eastern Pipistrelle. Here is an example of each bat.