Tom Astle
@tjalamont.bsky.social
Writer & nature photographer, especially macro photography of arthropods. Desert Tortoise conservation advocate. Fan of California, Montana, the rest of the planet. Photo website: https://www.tomastlephotography.com/
--in which you can better see the eyes and mandibles on the new babies, plus see both structures clearly showing through the shells on the still-unhatched eggs. (Btw, mama earwig was close by in a burrow. She didn't want to come out into the light, so I carefully replaced the rock.)
November 18, 2025 at 6:35 PM
--in which you can better see the eyes and mandibles on the new babies, plus see both structures clearly showing through the shells on the still-unhatched eggs. (Btw, mama earwig was close by in a burrow. She didn't want to come out into the light, so I carefully replaced the rock.)
#Bugsky 🐙🌿 Earwig Egg Update! Yesterday I took a photo of earwig eggs, and when I lifted the rock today, they were hatching. The new babies are transparent except for their compound eyes and mandibles; those were the orange spots you could see on the eggs yesterday. Check out this cropped photo--
November 18, 2025 at 6:35 PM
#Bugsky 🐙🌿 Earwig Egg Update! Yesterday I took a photo of earwig eggs, and when I lifted the rock today, they were hatching. The new babies are transparent except for their compound eyes and mandibles; those were the orange spots you could see on the eggs yesterday. Check out this cropped photo--
A cluster of, I think, earwig eggs (although I didn't see the mother, who typically would be guarding them). What I especially like are the micro-droplets of condensation; each egg is at most 1 mm., so the droplets are incredibly small. Shot at 2X, ten handheld images stacked. 🐙🌿📷 #Bugsky 🥚
November 17, 2025 at 6:51 PM
A cluster of, I think, earwig eggs (although I didn't see the mother, who typically would be guarding them). What I especially like are the micro-droplets of condensation; each egg is at most 1 mm., so the droplets are incredibly small. Shot at 2X, ten handheld images stacked. 🐙🌿📷 #Bugsky 🥚
You could go to the tropics to see wild parrots, or you could go to, say, Pasadena 🦜🦜🦜
November 17, 2025 at 3:23 AM
You could go to the tropics to see wild parrots, or you could go to, say, Pasadena 🦜🦜🦜
We've had a couple of days of rain here in the Los Angeles area. This morning I found a young Monarch caterpillar (I think second-to-last instar) during a break in the weather. 🐙🌿 #Bugsky
November 16, 2025 at 5:45 PM
We've had a couple of days of rain here in the Los Angeles area. This morning I found a young Monarch caterpillar (I think second-to-last instar) during a break in the weather. 🐙🌿 #Bugsky
Here is your Saturday Snoot. This colorful little cartoon-looking critter is a planthopper nymph, about 1 cm. long, from Costa Rica. I do not know the function of the marvelous snoot. (Per iNat, family Dictyopharidae, possibly Lappida sp.) #Bugsky 🐙🌿👃
November 15, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Here is your Saturday Snoot. This colorful little cartoon-looking critter is a planthopper nymph, about 1 cm. long, from Costa Rica. I do not know the function of the marvelous snoot. (Per iNat, family Dictyopharidae, possibly Lappida sp.) #Bugsky 🐙🌿👃
Back atcha - there’s always room for Jell-O
November 14, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Back atcha - there’s always room for Jell-O
If you ever see a mantis, spider, or other predatory bug with prey (like this mantis with a bee), look closer and you may spot tiny jackal flies, aka freeloader flies (family Milichiidae), gleaning food while carefully avoiding becoming part of the meal themselves. (Two are visible here). #Bugsky 🐙🌿
November 12, 2025 at 9:41 PM
If you ever see a mantis, spider, or other predatory bug with prey (like this mantis with a bee), look closer and you may spot tiny jackal flies, aka freeloader flies (family Milichiidae), gleaning food while carefully avoiding becoming part of the meal themselves. (Two are visible here). #Bugsky 🐙🌿
A closer look at Ms. Mantis (Stagmomantis limbata, native here in SoCal) from today. Adults can be green or brown, but that doesn't adequately describe how much they vary. "Brown" can tend toward yellow, orange, or even pink, and "green" can be grayish, deep shamrock, or mint-pastel. #Bugsky 🐙🌿
November 12, 2025 at 7:02 PM
A closer look at Ms. Mantis (Stagmomantis limbata, native here in SoCal) from today. Adults can be green or brown, but that doesn't adequately describe how much they vary. "Brown" can tend toward yellow, orange, or even pink, and "green" can be grayish, deep shamrock, or mint-pastel. #Bugsky 🐙🌿
Rescued another Ms. Mantis off the side of the house and placed her in happier hunting grounds. Hopefully the three I’ve seen recently will all lay egg cases so next year I’ll have a good crop of mantis babies. 🐙🌿
November 12, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Rescued another Ms. Mantis off the side of the house and placed her in happier hunting grounds. Hopefully the three I’ve seen recently will all lay egg cases so next year I’ll have a good crop of mantis babies. 🐙🌿
An extremely small spider, 1 mm. at most, suspended over a fall-color-turning redbud leaf in my yard. Not sure, but I'd guess it's a recently-hatched brown widow spiderling (Latrodectus geometricus), based on the marking on the abdomen. 🐙🌿🍁🕷️ #Bugsky
November 11, 2025 at 6:25 PM
An extremely small spider, 1 mm. at most, suspended over a fall-color-turning redbud leaf in my yard. Not sure, but I'd guess it's a recently-hatched brown widow spiderling (Latrodectus geometricus), based on the marking on the abdomen. 🐙🌿🍁🕷️ #Bugsky
Ms. Mantis on my front porch just now. This time of year the adult females sometimes wander to find new spots to lay their egg cases - I relocated her to a flowering shrub where she can fatten up on bees and stay hidden from birds. She’s a native species here (Stagmomantis limbata). 🐙🌿 #Bugsky
November 9, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Ms. Mantis on my front porch just now. This time of year the adult females sometimes wander to find new spots to lay their egg cases - I relocated her to a flowering shrub where she can fatten up on bees and stay hidden from birds. She’s a native species here (Stagmomantis limbata). 🐙🌿 #Bugsky
Here's one from the archives of a tiny and quite fuzzy longhorn beetle (Lophopogonius crinitus) that I found in my backyard. It's the only species in its genus. I haven't seen one since, which isn't surprising given that they're virtually invisible on bark. 🐙🌿📷 #Bugsky
November 8, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Here's one from the archives of a tiny and quite fuzzy longhorn beetle (Lophopogonius crinitus) that I found in my backyard. It's the only species in its genus. I haven't seen one since, which isn't surprising given that they're virtually invisible on bark. 🐙🌿📷 #Bugsky
A beautiful beetle from July in Arizona, Pasimachus sp., I'd guess P. viridans. It's a ground beetle, family Carabidae; those in this genus are sometimes called "warrior beetles," I'd guess in honor of the impressive bitey bits. They're fast-running predators of other less-fast bugs. 🐙🌿 #Bugsky
November 6, 2025 at 1:15 AM
A beautiful beetle from July in Arizona, Pasimachus sp., I'd guess P. viridans. It's a ground beetle, family Carabidae; those in this genus are sometimes called "warrior beetles," I'd guess in honor of the impressive bitey bits. They're fast-running predators of other less-fast bugs. 🐙🌿 #Bugsky
A chunk of sun dog just now as I was driving home 🌈🌞🐕
November 4, 2025 at 12:13 AM
A chunk of sun dog just now as I was driving home 🌈🌞🐕
Green Lynx Spider (Peucetia viridans), N Carolina. These spiders are ambush predators that don't catch prey in a web - but look closely and you'll see that she's spun a silk scaffold to help her cling to the leaf (an especially good idea given that she's on a carnivorous pitcher plant). 🐙🌿 #bugsky
November 2, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Green Lynx Spider (Peucetia viridans), N Carolina. These spiders are ambush predators that don't catch prey in a web - but look closely and you'll see that she's spun a silk scaffold to help her cling to the leaf (an especially good idea given that she's on a carnivorous pitcher plant). 🐙🌿 #bugsky
In this shot, if you zoom in you can see one of her little fangs. After I took a few pictures, I relocated her a couple of feet away to a dark corner under the house siding - the pumpkin, while excellent thematically, wasn't going to be there much longer, so she needed a safer long-term home.
October 31, 2025 at 4:10 PM
In this shot, if you zoom in you can see one of her little fangs. After I took a few pictures, I relocated her a couple of feet away to a dark corner under the house siding - the pumpkin, while excellent thematically, wasn't going to be there much longer, so she needed a safer long-term home.
For the last day of #Arachtober, here's a favorite from a few years ago. It's not a posed shot. We'd put a decorative pumpkin by our front door a couple of weeks earlier, and the day before Halloween, I found that a black widow spider had made her home in the hollow space under the pumpkin. 🕷️🎃 🐙🌿
October 31, 2025 at 4:10 PM
For the last day of #Arachtober, here's a favorite from a few years ago. It's not a posed shot. We'd put a decorative pumpkin by our front door a couple of weeks earlier, and the day before Halloween, I found that a black widow spider had made her home in the hollow space under the pumpkin. 🕷️🎃 🐙🌿
White-lined Sphinx Moth (Hyles lineata), at night in the Arizona desert. These common, fast, fuzzy-faced, hummingbird-like moths are found all over North and Central America, in many different habitats, and can be seen hovering in front of flowers almost any time of day or night. 🐙🌿 #Bugsky
October 29, 2025 at 5:04 PM
White-lined Sphinx Moth (Hyles lineata), at night in the Arizona desert. These common, fast, fuzzy-faced, hummingbird-like moths are found all over North and Central America, in many different habitats, and can be seen hovering in front of flowers almost any time of day or night. 🐙🌿 #Bugsky
Arachnid eating another arachnid - this tiny (3 mm.) jumping spider, a female Anasaitis canalis in Costa Rica, is munching on a pseudoscorpion (if you zoom in, you can see one of its claws hanging down). Pseudoscorpions look like super-tiny regular scorpions, but have no tail. 🐙🌿 #Arachtober
October 27, 2025 at 10:51 PM
Arachnid eating another arachnid - this tiny (3 mm.) jumping spider, a female Anasaitis canalis in Costa Rica, is munching on a pseudoscorpion (if you zoom in, you can see one of its claws hanging down). Pseudoscorpions look like super-tiny regular scorpions, but have no tail. 🐙🌿 #Arachtober