traveling trash pile
May 24, 2012 13:56:46 #
When you first glance it photo number one, it looks a lot like a ball of bird dung, or perhaps an accumulation of trash from a nest of something or other.
But photo number two is an enlargement of the lower portion of the first photo. In it, you see the formidable cycle-shaped mandibles of the larva of the brown lacewing - a highly successful predator that covers itself in debris that consists of the cast skins of its prey, lichens, bits and pieces of bark, etc. It is well camouflaged and easily 'sneaks" around on small branches, gobbling up the insects it finds, like the immature plant hopper in photo three. If you look closely at photo one, you can just make out the cast skin of a hopper.
If this were a 'Criminal Minds' show, this little guy would be a serial killer and the skins would be his trophies.
:>)
But photo number two is an enlargement of the lower portion of the first photo. In it, you see the formidable cycle-shaped mandibles of the larva of the brown lacewing - a highly successful predator that covers itself in debris that consists of the cast skins of its prey, lichens, bits and pieces of bark, etc. It is well camouflaged and easily 'sneaks" around on small branches, gobbling up the insects it finds, like the immature plant hopper in photo three. If you look closely at photo one, you can just make out the cast skin of a hopper.
If this were a 'Criminal Minds' show, this little guy would be a serial killer and the skins would be his trophies.
:>)
May 24, 2012 14:21:04 #
May 24, 2012 15:36:37 #
i see them all the time,they are at least for me,very hard to get a good pic of.tom
May 24, 2012 22:29:06 #
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