Ziv E. Lieberman
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formicula.bsky.social
Ziv E. Lieberman
@formicula.bsky.social
150 followers 150 following 58 posts
ants. emmets. mires 🞚 systematics🞚evolutionary morphology & anatomy🞚 paleoentomology🞚biogeography🞚3D imaging
PhD candidate at UC Davis || views & statements my own
{they|them} ☄
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formicula.bsky.social
A beautiful Sierra Nevada ensatina (*Ensatina escholtzii platensis*) from Emigrant Gap, CA, with habitat. See also these woodpecker holes - I think the large ones are from a pileated; and some wonderful cheesy slime flux which yielded many adorable nosodendrid beetles.
A close up point of view photograph of a person's hand holding a Sierra Nevada ensatina salamander. The salamander is about as long as one finger and is sitting on the middle two fingers, with its body bent in a hook shape. It is a dark purple-ish brown with irregular bright orange spots on the head, body, legs, and tail. Its eyes are large and bulging, protruding from the sides of the head. The person's hand is dirty and there is a pine needle stuck to their little finger. A photograph of a creek in a mixed coniferous forest. The creek is running from the foreground to the background in the middle of the picture and is slightly curving in its path. The edges of the stream are lined with grasses and herbaceous plants. Many young trees are on the banks including maples and alders. The sun is brightly illuminating the far bank while the foreground is in the shade, and the water is dappled with sunlight through the trees. A photograph of a large tree trunk full of woodpecker holes. The bark has been stripped away in many places and holes of a variety of sizes and shapes are seen on its different surfaces, from small round holes to very large, squared and deep holes. Two other tree trunks without holes flank the large trunk in the center. A macro photograph of a slime flux filling cracks of the bark in a tree trunk. Only the slime flux is in focus. It is a tiny pool of murky, chocolate-brown liquid shining with reflected light in a crevice facing towards the camera.
December 17, 2024 at 1:17 AM
formicula.bsky.social
A wash of red among the green, scarcely visible at first, hints at what grows between the rushes. Kneeling down shows that the entire landscape is carpeted with thriving sundews, catching whatever insects fly or stumble too close.
A photograph of a fen environment with a pine forest in the background. The fore and middle ground are carpeted by rushes and other short plants in a spectrum of dark and bright greens. At the bases of these plants are red sundew plants, which are only visible close up and obscured further away. In the background is a dense forest of tall, dark green lodgepole pines, and there is a swath of tall white flowers near to the forest on the left side of the image. The sky is clear and blue and the sun is shining. A close-up photograph of sundew plants and other small herbaceous plants. The sundews have yellowish-green leaves which are covered in red tentacles, and each tentacle has a droplet of clear liquid at the end. The are growing densely and overlapping each other. The plants are wet and it is clear that there is water just below them. The bright sunlight causes the droplets at the end of each tentacle to sparkle.
December 12, 2024 at 7:33 PM
formicula.bsky.social
What looks like wet meadow is actually spongy peat inundated with water, which pools up when stepped on. Surface water results in small pools and hidden rivulets (2/3)
A top-down view of a fen habitat. The ground is covered with a mix of dark green rushes and brighter green herbaceous plants. A dark green tiny stream of water is flowing through the middle of the image and surrounds an irregularly shaped patch of ground, forming a tiny island. A close-up photograph of a hummock of moss in a small pool. The moss is light green and forms a very rounded hill, and the water in the background is clear and shallow, showing the brown soil beneath it. Green rushes are growing out of the water. The sunlight is bright and is making sparkling reflections on the water. A near ground-level photograph of a wetland. Clear shallow water dominates the ground, showing the rich brown soil and plant roots underneath. Green rushes are growing abundantly out of the water in the foreground, with broader-leaved plants in the background. Three-leaved duckweeds are floating on the surface of the water and accumulating around the stems of emergent plants. A ground-level photograph of a fen habitat on a bright and sunny day. The brownish-white stems and some roots of herbaceous plants form a wall on either side of a tiny stream of shallow water, which is clear and shows the brown soil and fallen bits of plantlife underneath. Toward the top of the image, and in the foreground right corner and the background, are the light yellowish-green leaves of the plants, which are translucent with the sun shining through.
December 12, 2024 at 7:33 PM
formicula.bsky.social
More carnivore habitat, this time from Sagehen Creek Basin in the California Sierra Nevada. This "hanging bog" is a minerotrophic fen, that is, a groundwater-fed peat-forming wetland. Transition from forest can be stark, or more gradual - see these stunted lodgepole pines marking the boundary (1/3)
A of a fen in the foreground, with mixed pine forest in the background. The fen is full of light green, low-lying rushes and grasses, and there is a swath of red near the camera which are sundew plants. The forest is made of tall, dark green lodgepole pines, and some dead gray trees are scattered among the living trees. Fallen logs can be seen at the edge of the forest. The sky is blue and clear and the sun is shining. A photograph showing the transition from pine forest into a fen habitat. The foreground is open, with green rushes and grasses and no trees. Further away is a stand of short, stunted lodgepole pines, while further in the background is a tall, dense, forest of dark green pines. The sky is blue and clear and the sun is shining.
December 12, 2024 at 7:33 PM
formicula.bsky.social
California carnivores, Butterfly Valley Botanical Area in the Plumas National Forest.
𝘋𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘢 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢 emerging and sparkling 𝘋𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘢 𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘢 lining the rills and ponds.
A California pitcher plant standing among other emergent aquatic vegetation under a small conifer sapling. Light is shining through the translucent pitcher. A close up of a California pitcher plant among other vegetation. It is an older plant and has started turning dark yellow. Several California pitcher plants among rushes and other emergent aquatic vegetation. One pitcher plant is in the foreground, with the pitcher facing away. Several others are out of focus at a further distance. The light is shining through the translucent pitchers. A close-up photograph of round-leafed sundew plants at the edge of a pool of water in a bog. The plants are yellowish-green with bright red tentacles. Each tentacle has a silvery droplet at the end, which are sparkling in the bright sunlight.
December 10, 2024 at 7:05 AM