Closer look

So as I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I brought home a couple of things to look at closer. Here they are!

First is the Pygmy Grasshopper (Tetrigidae) I found on a rotten log. This is a new species for me!

It is about 11 mm in length!

Side view!

Its face and eyes were cool up close! It usually is found near water so I guess that means the ravine gets enough water for it. It eats plants, seedlings, mosses, algae and organic muck. Loves the muck! Everything is used by someone, eh! There are about 30 species in 6 genera in the US.

Are these not the coolest little cup fungus? The largest is about 8-10 mm across.

According to BugGuide, most Tube-tailed Thrips (Phlaeothripidae) are spore feeders. However, some species are predaceous on small insects and mites.

In this case, maybe it is a spore feeder since it was on fungus.

Next, a nest of immature thrips were hiding under the bark!

Under the compound scope!

Even closer of the head!

Of course you need to see the tail end at 400X!

This is at 100X. Ok, maybe I get too excited about looking under the microscope. However, truly it is really exciting 🙂

Now on a big scale! A big ole cottonwood! And this concludes the October 15th outing!

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Keep looking!

The more you know, the more you see and the more you see, the more you know.

6 Comments

  1. I’ve never heard of pygmy grasshoppers – very cool! So interesting how the thrips are essentially transparent too.

    1. It was weird about the immature thrips being see-thru because they do not look like it by the naked eye. I also got to see the innards moving too.

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