The Yucca Insect Community

I am trying something new for this blog post. The last few weeks I have been paying close attention to yucca plants, especially the flowers, and taking many photos of the various insects (and spiders). We have a trio of plants in our front yard in Leavenworth, Kansas, USA, but I also examined plants in Okawville, Illinois, and one wild plant in eastern Missouri.

A tumbling flower beetle (top), and false flower beetle, nibble on pollen inside a yucca flower.

I created an album in my Flickr account here, with captions explaining most interactions and behaviors that I observed and documented. I am hereby directing you there to peruse the photos. I plan to keep adding photos to it, as I have many from last year that I have not yet uploaded even to my computer. Plus, there are a few more from Colorado. I thought I wrote an extensive blog post about yucca moths several years ago, but I can't find it if so.

Please let me know if this redirect is acceptable to you. There are other such communities of insects that might be easier to document this way, but if I receive negative feedback I won't repeat this experiment. Enjoy your summer!

Arachtober, Part XV!

This year marks the fifteenth anniversary of “Arachtober,” an event initiated on the photosharing website Flickr by my good friends Ashley Bradford and Joseph Connors. Since then, it has extended its silky reach to social media, especially Twitter and Instagram, where searching on #Arachtober will bring up stunning images of spiders, scorpions, solifuges, ticks, and mites, oh my.

© Ashley Bradford & Joseph Connors

The banner shown above was hand drawn by Ashley, and digitized by Joseph. They both have acute powers of observation, and are supremely talented photographers who are constantly experimenting. They have inspired literally thousands of others to focus their lenses on our eight-legged friends, and come together as a global community for at least this one month each year.

You should join in the fun! It is a window on an overlooked, seriously maligned group of organisms, illuminated in a positive light by photographers and scientists. I learn something new almost daily thanks to the stories attached to the photos.

I will forever be indebted to Ashley and Joseph for their supportive friendship, and starting something truly unique, valuable, and enduring. More details about the origin of Arachtober can be found in this livescience.com article.

"Arach" is Back!

One of the things I look forward to each autumn is the annual Flickr event known as "Arachtober". It is a Flickr group which slumbers between November and the following September, but remains a tradition among arachnophiles and macro photographers. There are always mesmerizing images posted from all corners of the globe.

Marbled Orbweaver, Kansas

Arachtober manages to recruit several new participants each year through word of mouth, blogs, and sheer curiosity. Not only spiders, but scorpions, ticks, mites, harvestmen, and all other arachnids are eligible for inclusion. Don't forget the artistry of spider webs, too, whether dew-adorned or dry.

Apache Jumping Spider male, Colorado

The only hard and fast rule of Arachtober is that the images you post to the group must not have appeared on your own Flickr photostream previously. Allowed quantity of images per day varies at the discretion of the group administrator.

Banded Garden Spider female, Colorado

Overall, interest in spiders seems to be increasing among the general public, and arachnids are achieving a much higher profile than ever before. This is great news, for there is still a great deal of work to be done to combat myth, superstition, misinformation, and fear.

Wolf spider, Alopecosa sp., Colorado

Please consider contributing to "Arachtober" on Flickr, or find another way to dedicate some time to sharing your spider observations, questions, or images. There are many groups on Facebook devoted to spiders and their identification, for example; and presumably, the same applies to Instagram. There is much you can contribute to our collective knowledge by doing so. Thank you.

Return of "Arachtober!"

Like your favorite horror movie trilogy, sequel, or whatever, Flickr's group "Arachtober" returns with a vengeance(?) this month. It has become an annual treat for arachnophiles and macro photographers, but perhaps a cruel trick on arachnophobes.

Female Philodromus sp. guarding egg sac

This year's edition has special meaning for me because I have been contracted to write a new field guide to U.S. spiders for Princeton University Press. I am also responsible for furnishing images, despite having a small budget for image acquisition. Preceding authors of Princeton guides have set a high standard for image quality, and I feel an obligation to publish the best photos I can get my hands on.

Web of Labyrinth Spider, Metepeira sp.

Arachtober manages to recruit several new participants each year through word of mouth, blogs, and sheer curiosity. Not only spiders, but scorpions, ticks, mites, harvestmen, and all other arachnids are eligible for inclusion. The only hard and fast rule is that the image you post to the group must not have appeared on your own Flickr photostream previously.

Female Southern Black Widow, Latrodectus mactans

Overall, interest in spiders seems to be increasing among the general public. Judging by the many new groups that have been created on Facebook, turnouts at special exhibits like "Eight-legged Encounters," new blogs, and other indications, arachnids are achieving a much higher profile than ever before. This is great news, for there is still a great deal of work to be done to combat myth, superstition, misinformation, and fear.

Male jumping spider, Hentzia palmarum

Please consider contributing to "Arachtober" on Flickr, or find another way to dedicate some time to sharing your spider observations, questions, or images. There is much you can contribute to our collective knowledge by doing so.

"Bug Eric" on Social Media

Are you active on Facebook? Twitter? If so, you might find it easier to connect with me there during the spring, summer, and fall when I am more apt to be out in the field instead of blogging. Here are links to some of my social media pages.

While I do have a private Facebook page where you can "friend" me, I post links, images, and other things entomological to my professional page here. Look for this banner image ("cover photo"), though it changes every so often.

I also started a group page on Facebook called "Arthropods Colorado". That is usually where I will first post recent images that I have taken in the field. This is also a growing community with many other wonderful people posting their images and observations of Colorado insects and arachnids. The Green Fool Grasshopper is our unofficial mascot, adorning the cover photo for the group page. Just ask to be added to the group and I will do so.

I also have a Twitter account, but rarely "tweet," so while you can follow me here, you are unlikely to get too much more than notifications of new blog posts. The banner image for my Twitter page is a pair of beewolves.

Increasingly, my LinkedIn profile is getting more looks, and it is where I update my professional activities. You can view my work history and ask to connect with me here. You will see this mug shot if you are in the right place.

Another place I frequent is perhaps not what you would call a social media website, but a page where people from all over the world post their images of fauna and flora. My account at Project Noah includes "spottings" from Colorado as well as other places where Heidi and I travel to. Yes, the majority of posts are insects or other arthropods, but I also throw in a few birds, mammals, herps (reptiles and amphibians), and wildflowers, too. Please consider joining Project Noah, as many of its "missions" as you care to, and post your own images. Once there, you can "follow" me and I can follow you.

Lastly, while I am not fond of the changes in their format, I still have a Flickr.com account here. I try and post fairly regularly, especially after a trip out of state.

I look forward to seeing you on one or more of the media platforms above; and I thank you for your patience between blog posts. Once summer ends, posts should be more frequent, and the diversity of topics will broaden as well.

When "Arachtober" Attacks!

October is one of my favorite months, made all the sweeter in the last three years because I have participated in the “Arachtober” group on Flickr.

Many folks who photograph insects and other small animals save the spider images they have accrued over the year to share with the Arachtober pool. This is because one of the few rules of the group is that you post only those images that have not appeared on your Flickr photostream previously. It is worth the wait.

Sometimes, participants forget that there are other arachnids besides spiders: mites, ticks, scorpions, whipscorpions, pseudoscorpions, harvestmen, and others. A few members of the group actually find things like ticks to be too disgusting to embrace even in the artistic sense. A few scorpions and “daddy long-legs” pictures will still manage to appear, though.

The biggest challenge to Arachtober’s popularity this year may be the graphic changes brought to Flickr as a whole by its new owner, Yahoo!. Fewer people view my own photostream any more because of the new format that has rendered Flickr just a shadow of its former clean, aesthetic past. The initial outrage demonstrated by the Flickr faithful has either faded, been completely ignored by Yahoo!, or both. The future of photosharing may be Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram, but mobile devices really don’t do quality images justice.

All the same, I invite you not only to follow Arachtober daily, but to participate as well by sharing your own images of all things eight-legged. Thank you.

Spider Sunday: "Arachtober" is B-a-a-a-a-a-ck!

Just like the sequel to your favorite horror movie, the Flickr group ”Arachtober” is back tomorrow to feature still more “scary” spider, scorpions, solifuges, and other arachnids.

The group gets bigger and better every year as more people register (free and easy), putting up at least one arachnid image per day. The only requirement of note is that you post images that you have not previously added to your own Flickr photo stream.

I have been saving up all my 2012 spider images for just this occasion, though I have used some of them in this blog. Here’s a preview of what I’ll be adding to Arachtober in the coming weeks:

Ground spider, Zelotes sp. (family Gnaphosidae)

Funnel-web weaver, family Agelenidae

Spinybacked Orbweaver, Gasteracantha cancriformis

Western Lynx Spider, Oxyopes scalaris

Thin-legged wolf spider, Pardosa sp.

Jumping spider, Habronattus sp.

I look forward to seeing your images over there as well. There are enough arachnid experts that contribute that we can probably identify any of your “mystery” spiders as well. Good luck!

Spider Sunday: Arachtober, 2011

It seems like only yesterday that I announced the annual Flickr photo group ”Arachtober” at my other blog, Sense of Misplaced. Well, it is that time of year again, and this year’s edition of the online event is poised to be the best ever.

One needs to have a Flickr account to join the Arachtober group. Then, you must be approved by the group administrator, though this is usually only a formality. Right now, group members can only post one image of a spider, scorpion, or other arachnid per day. Later in the month the limit will increase. The images you contribute should not be ones posted to your Flickr page in previous months.

The fact that Arachtober falls in the same month as Halloween is no coincidence, but the goal of Arachtober is to celebrate the diversity, beauty, and positive impact of our arachnid friends. It is a perfect antidote to haunted house cobwebs and scary fake spider decorations.

Once again I encourage all my arthropod-loving photographer friends to share their favorite images with an audience of other arachnophiles. Please see the above link to my original post for more information on the origin of the event. Thank you.

It's "Arachtober!"

Please check out this post at my "Sense of Misplaced" blog. Thanks!

Flickr Photostream

I admit I might be cheating a little, but today I am re-directing you to my Flickr Photostream for some eye candy. Each of the new images there includes a little bit of information about the creature depicted, and/or the circumstances under which it was imaged. Hope you enjoy. I'll be back soon with additional posts.