Brendan Lan
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brendanlan.bsky.social
Brendan Lan
@brendanlan.bsky.social
410 followers 260 following 88 posts
PhD student in the Sönke lab at Duke University | Vision, behavior, sensation | Arachnids, beetles, crabs, all the arthropods | He/him
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brendanlan.bsky.social
Getting to live in a place with green tree frogs again has increased my mood by at least 10% each day
a closeup of a a sleepy green tree frog pressed up against a reed another closeup of a different green tree frog pressed up against a reed
November 14, 2025 at 3:37 PM
brendanlan.bsky.social
love how absolutely audacious larger jumping spiders are with their prey. this is Phidippus whitmani I think. look at the twinkle in her eye!!
a jumping spider eating a cricket about twice its size on a mostly dark background. shot on a glass table
November 9, 2025 at 11:00 PM
brendanlan.bsky.social
Probably the most beautiful roach I've ever seen in real life - a flower roach (Eucorydia aenea)! This is a male, generally more iridescent than the females. Turns out, at least as adults, they love beetle jelly!
mostly dorsal view of an iridescent blue roach on a reflective glass background eating some jelly side view of an iridescent blue roach on a reflective glass background eating some jelly a blue iridescent blue roach on my finger
October 29, 2025 at 3:06 PM
brendanlan.bsky.social
A drop dead gorgeous roach! Look at that iridescence! 💙🧡
August 15, 2025 at 1:27 AM
brendanlan.bsky.social
National Moth Week starting off with a bang!! Found a live female imperial moth on the way into work and a dead male luna moth when I got there! First saturniids of the year for me :)
A live imperial moth perched on a black metal fence. The moth has a yellow base with brownish patterning and blackish specks. Looks a lot like a yellowed leaf A dead luna moth male ventral side up in my hand. The moth is pale green with a fuzzy white body A selfie with the imperial moth on my finger as I moved it from the fence to a tree.
July 28, 2025 at 6:11 PM
brendanlan.bsky.social
An endangered golden birdwing 黃裳鳳蝶 (Troides aeacus kaguya) along with a nearby chrysalis from southern Taiwan!

This one looked to me like it had just emerged and was finishing up drying its wings. Beautiful and huge in person!
A closeup of a golden birdwing butterfly wings showing contrasting yellows, whites, and blacks A closeup of the head of a golden birdwing butterfly showing some red coloration on the head A closeup of a golden birdwing chrysalis showing some wicked spinature
June 30, 2025 at 5:47 PM
brendanlan.bsky.social
Excited to find one of these! This is an adult male Phileurus truncatus (called 'triceratops beetles' tho I argue Strategus deserves that name), an oddly carnivorous rhinoceros beetle! A first for me!! 🪲🪲🪲
June 24, 2025 at 3:29 AM
brendanlan.bsky.social
FINALLY found one of these after weeks of searching - Caddo agilis! One of the weirdest Opiliones out there. Looking like a bobtail squid on 8 legs 🐙

#invertefest
A closeup of a baby, presumed newborn, harvestman with giant eyes in a small petri dish. Mostly a lateral view A closeup of a baby, presumed newborn, harvestman with giant eyes in a small petri dish. Mostly a dorsal/posterior view
April 29, 2025 at 1:04 PM
brendanlan.bsky.social
March 27, 2025 at 1:29 PM
brendanlan.bsky.social
why hasn't anyone told me how cool pencilfish are?! My partner and I got a few for a tank and they are SO COOL. slanted (oblique?) swimming and dark-induced pattern change!

bioone.org/journals/zoo...
brown pencilfish swimming at about a 45 degree angle with a lateral stripe in the daytime brown pencilfish swimming at about a 45 degree angle with longitudinal stripes going down their body and their lateral stripe reduced at nighttime
March 27, 2025 at 1:25 PM
brendanlan.bsky.social
some Fun Finds™️ from a beach near Boston w/ my partner
Some sort of sheath tunicates colony on kelp An encrusting bryozoan on some kelp A snail with a funky hairdo - calcified algae? Coral? Dunno. Maybe an egg sac of some snail?
March 25, 2025 at 7:07 PM
brendanlan.bsky.social
the salamander 'migrations' (actually a wild sex party but the media censors that part) were glorious this weekend!
a closeup of a spotted salamander side profile a closeup of an eastern newt in its terrestrial phase (?) hanging on some dead twigs/branches a particularly large, likely gravid spotted salamander next to my hand for reference. it is longer than the length of my hand from middle finger to bottom of palm a closeup of a Jefferson's salamander with a missing left eye
March 19, 2025 at 12:38 AM
brendanlan.bsky.social
on the hunt for boreids - no dice

these guys were cute though ♥️
a globular springtail standing on some snow a more typical rectangular springtail (Entomobryomorpha) standing on snow
February 23, 2025 at 2:03 AM
brendanlan.bsky.social
funky little twig spider (Poltys) with some sclerotized spots on the posterior end of its abdomen. love these guys sm
a lateral view of a twig spider (Poltys) sitting in its prey capture web a posterior view of a twig spider (Poltys) sitting in its prey capture web
February 18, 2025 at 4:58 PM
brendanlan.bsky.social
happy lunar new year! 🐍

here's an Atayal slug-eating snake (泰雅钝头蛇)

trying to focus on 🐍 instead of 😞 today
A photo of the eye of an Atayal slug-eating snake poking out through some leaf fronds A photo of the Atayal slug-eating snake face-on under some fern leaves A photo of the backend of the Atayal slug-eating snake wrapped around some leaves
January 29, 2025 at 9:53 PM
brendanlan.bsky.social
two-tailed spiders - Hersilia sp. characterized (at least to me lol) by those loooooong spinnerettes and spindly legs

these were pretty active in northern Taiwan even in the cooler months of February/March

take a look at how cryptic they are against their backgrounds!
a face-on shot of a two-tailed spider showing its four median eyes that face forward. it's got four more eyes that can't be seen here. the spider is preying upon a millipede that's coiled up around its fangs. the third pair of legs of the two-tailed spider seem to be helping to hold up the millipede and keeping it in place. a mostly dorsal view of a female two-tailed spider. this one is mostly pale green-ish and, accordingly, is sat on some lichen covered tree bark. the pale green is broken up by black stripes throughout the body and legs as well as some lichen-like shapes on the abdomen. a dorsal view of an adult male two-tailed spider. this one is a pale orange/tan and is accordingly sat on pale tannish tree bark. this one also has some striping on the legs, though it is less pronounced. you can tell its a male due to the very visible emboli - the weird structures at the ends of the pedipalps (stubby looking 'legs' directly in front of its face. female spiders do not have emboli at the tips of their pedipalps.
January 24, 2025 at 12:20 AM
brendanlan.bsky.social
an appreciation post for some of the funkiest little lepidopterans

very out of my depth with these, so ID's appreciated! all from northern Taiwan

check out the bird-dung mimic 🐦...
the dorsal view of a really weird, stout and quite bumpy caterpillar (I think) sitting on a leaf. there are some spines coming off of some of the bumps that don't look fun. the body is dark brown/black and bordered with yellow. it is wider in the middle than either end a spunky looking caterpillar from the dorsal view. it's pretty stout and rectangular with many projections coming from different points of its body. off of these projections there are 10 or so very itchy looking spines. the main body of the caterpillar is light green with a longitudinal blackish stripe down the middle. two projections are red, two are orange, four are yellowish and the rest are pale green. a lot going on... a suuuuuper weird caterpillar (and prob my fav of these) from the side that i think might be a limacodid. this one is also stout - kind of semicircle shaped. it has a marbled white and black pattern throughout its whole body that really mimics bird poop quite well. it didn't smell though hahah another funky caterpillar from a sort of diagonal, posterior(?) view. this one's whole body is pale green with many hairy looking projections coming off of its dorsum. a few of the projections are tipped yellow. it simultaneously looks itchy to touch and like a sweet gummy
January 18, 2025 at 8:26 PM
brendanlan.bsky.social
one of the WEIRDEST spiders out there - Miagrammopes sp.

species in this genus have 4-6 eyes, stubby legs 2 and 3, have no venom (along with the rest of the family), hunt weird, and look WEIRD

check out @nickybay.bsky.social's work for much better pics :)

#scicomm #spider #stick
a spider hanging upside down on a single web line, holding red prey. the spider is tannish with stubby legs 2 & 3 and long legs 1 & 4. The same species of spider (a different individual) hanging on the intersection of a letter 'Y' shaped web with its two front legs on the 'forks' of the 'Y' shape. This is a lateral/dorsal view where you can see the really odd eyes, 2 on each side of its head making 4 total.
January 17, 2025 at 3:49 AM
brendanlan.bsky.social
this was weird - a giant red-headed centipede chowing down (or trying to) on a snail

never seen any 'pedes go after gastropods before but i mean they're yum enough for France so why not
a closeup of the head and front legs of a Scolopendra mutilans (Asian red-headed centipede) curled up around a snail trying to eat it. one forcipule (analogous to a fang in spiders) can be seen trying to pierce the outside of the snail shell. the snail is secreting mucus in the form of a bunch of bubbles as a defensive tactic a full-body photo of the same centipede from the side profile
January 12, 2025 at 7:10 AM
brendanlan.bsky.social
surprised to find a couple brumating alligator lizards - I’d say 3rd coolest lizards in the Central Valley
a curled up alligator lizard on the palm of my left hand. the individual has its limbs in kinda wonky ways because it’s pretty cold, but it slithered away back under its log pretty easily another alligator lizard sluggishly walking across my hand. watching these move in the winter is amusing because they’re so incredibly fast in the summer
January 11, 2025 at 9:45 PM
brendanlan.bsky.social
Chitoria chrysolora (台灣小紫蛺蝶), just a little guy! one of the wild caterpillars with a heavily armed head - similar to the dragon's head caterpillar or the Japanese emperor caterpillar that made the rounds on the internet a while back

#caterpillar #nature #macro #scicomm #Taiwan
a closeup of caterpillar reaching out a little to the right of the camera. its body is green and its head is red. the head is adorned with two horns that have some blunt projections and hairs all over a view of the backside of the horns on the caterpillar, showing off the dorsal side of the caterpillar. the back of the horns are less red a full-body dorsal view of the caterpillar after it has been disturbed by me with my camera. the head is facing down so that the horns are projected outward. this is probably its 'defense mode'
January 8, 2025 at 4:01 AM
brendanlan.bsky.social
the iridescence on this guy blew me away... a beautiful male lichen huntsman (Pandercetes) that was oddly out during the day
a flat huntsman spider pressed against the trunk of a tree showing off its cryptic patterning and coloration. lateral view a frontal view of the same huntsman showing how odd it looks from the front due to its dramatic flattening. the femurs of the front two pairs of legs shine iridescent purple from this angle a dorsal view of the same spider, showing more of the cryptic patterning - including two little heart shapes on its abdomen
January 6, 2025 at 4:18 PM
brendanlan.bsky.social
a smooth-coated otter off the coast of Singapore! some fishermen were throwing in pieces of fish for these guys
a distinguished smooth-coated otter floating in the ocean preparing to gnaw on a fish head that it's holding in its front paws The same otter is gnawing at the fish head, with lots of the fish flesh exposed Another shot of the other gnawing at the fish head Another shot of the otter gnawing at the fish head, basically from the same position as the other photos
January 5, 2025 at 3:19 PM
brendanlan.bsky.social
can’t believe I haven’t posted an amblypygid yet… here’s a Paraphrynus species from south FL. the literature only lists P. raptator from the state, but these (and every other Floridian Paraphrynus I’ve seen) seem to conform much more to P. cubensis.
A mother Paraphrynus cubensis whipspider carrying her babies (1st instar). The background is black and she’s hanging on the underside of a piece of cork bark. She was paired in captivity by me a few years back Dorsal view of the same Paraphrynus cubensis mother carrying 1st instar babies Another dorsal view of the Paraphrynus cubensis mother with her babies
January 4, 2025 at 4:18 AM
brendanlan.bsky.social
happy new year! my fav find from this year was def these undescribed Asianopis in Taiwan! found something like 12+ in one night.
a posterior view of an ogre-faced spider in hunting mode. the photo is focused on the back two legs which are hanging onto a strong 'frameline'. the net is out of focus in the background as well as a thick branch that it is aiming at. a photo of the side/front view of an ogre-faced spider in its hunting position against a black background. the spider is positioned almost upside down facing a vertical tree trunk mostly off-screen. the face of the ogre-faced spider is visible. a dorsal view of the body of an ogre-faced spider showing the mottled cryptic coloration & patterning. a photo of an ogre-faced spider hunting against a black background. some framelines coming from the net are visible and the spider is facing down.
December 31, 2024 at 5:33 PM