I do love bees, but these are flies (good bee mimics, though) 🐝🪰

--pigment on their eyes & mandibles. Why? My guess is, if you think about it, a transparent eye can't trap light, so to be useful it needs pigment. As for mandibles, they need to be tough enough to bite food (one here is already nibbling its empty eggshell) and melanin hardens (sclerotizes) them.

In case the international network of machines goes down, I think it would be useful to be able to beam pictures of bugs directly into people’s brains. I know I’d sign up for that.

See the photos in today's update post - the spots on the eggs are the compound eyes and mandibles, which are the only pigmented areas on the just-hatched babies.

--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.)

Yep, in many places in southern California (and beyond)

I’m not sure, but yes, I’d also guess it’s part of what’s developing showing through the surface.

Have you seen the documentary, "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill"?

No, they’re a larger Central American species - red-lored/red-fronted Amazons (Amazona autumnalis). The flock also has some lilac-crowned Amazons, and apparently a few hybrids of the two.

There’s an article in The Guardian today about LA’s several established parrot species. One species that’s done well in many colder climates is communal-nesting monk parakeets - they’re a South American species that now thrive in New Jersey, Chicago, Spain - maybe they are what you saw.

Saw the original documentary in the theater. A really nice story.

Excellent round cichlid

I know some leafhoppers/treehoppers produce vibrations that they can hear through the substrate they are on (as do other arthropods like stoneflies, burying & bess beetles, and some jumping spiders). Not sure about the snout, but I admit it does look flute-like 🪈

Can’t wait 🐜

If Gigantiops destructor is in there, which you first showed me, I’m good 🐜👀