Just in time for all the exoskeletons and Devils Walkingsticks to head out onto the streets for some trick or treating, there are a few other insects ready for Hallowe’en!
Corn-Stalk Eyed Fly
Steve and Rob’s a-maize-ing Corn-Stalk Eyed Fly (Diopsidae) included pomegranate eyes, carrot pedicel and flagellomeres, corn tassel arista, jalapeno pepper scutellar spines, and corn stalk legs.
Gourd Ant at the ready
Adam and Meagan captured this gourd ant roaming the haunted halls and brought it back for further examination.
A true SCARE-ab Beetle!
The rest of the lab helped with our Scare-ab Beetle (Scarabaeidae) and associated kleptoparasitic Dung flies (Sphaeroceridae).
An assortment of gourds formed the exoskeleton of our beetle, with a turban squash as the head, gooseneck gourd for the horn and front tibia, apple eyes and mandibles, and willow branch antennae with sliced gourd lamellae.
Candy octopi make excellent phoretic mites!
Finally, we have kleptoparasitic flies circling around and riding the scarab waiting to lay their eggs on the glowing dung ball.
Happy Hallowe’en!
Gold, pure gold guys!!!! I miss the insecty craziness!
Thanks Margie, we had a good time as usual! Hope you had a chance to do some carving up there on the Rock!
Awesome as usual guys! Sorry I missed out on this one!
I was googling some anatomical term and stumbled on the stalk eyed fly. My God, the display of unabashed nerdery is truly inspiring and I love it. I thought to myself, “Jesus, this is the sort of thing I would do.” Keep it up.