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/
Our youngest kid got married yesterday, a destination wedding at the express window of our County Registrar and Recorder. It took about fifteen minutes, and everyone in the office clapped for them. It was honestly delightful. Hands down the best wedding I ever attended. Plus we had cupcakes after.
November 27, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Our youngest kid got married yesterday, a destination wedding at the express window of our County Registrar and Recorder. It took about fifteen minutes, and everyone in the office clapped for them. It was honestly delightful. Hands down the best wedding I ever attended. Plus we had cupcakes after.
Here's a nice frog to start the week. I think it's Hylarana nicobariensis, sometimes called a cricket frog, from Borneo. Check out its toes - see the little tubercles/bumps on the underside? Not sure of their purpose, but maybe they help hold on to slippery surfaces like wet leaves and rocks. 🐸🌿
November 24, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Here's a nice frog to start the week. I think it's Hylarana nicobariensis, sometimes called a cricket frog, from Borneo. Check out its toes - see the little tubercles/bumps on the underside? Not sure of their purpose, but maybe they help hold on to slippery surfaces like wet leaves and rocks. 🐸🌿
Sunday Surfing in the photo archives - here's a giant shield bug (family Tessaratomidae) from Malaysian Borneo awhile back. These are larger than the typical stink bugs we see here in the U.S. They can spray a defensive chemical that not only smells unpleasant, but can damage skin. 🐙🌿 #Bugsky
November 23, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Sunday Surfing in the photo archives - here's a giant shield bug (family Tessaratomidae) from Malaysian Borneo awhile back. These are larger than the typical stink bugs we see here in the U.S. They can spray a defensive chemical that not only smells unpleasant, but can damage skin. 🐙🌿 #Bugsky
--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.
November 20, 2025 at 5:45 PM
--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.
#Bugsky 🐙🌿 Who wants another baby earwig update? Everyone? Thought so. The babies are now two days old and slightly darker than when they hatched. Mama is guarding them and will stay on the job until their second molt. Btw, in the earlier post, the newly-hatched babies only had--
November 20, 2025 at 5:45 PM
#Bugsky 🐙🌿 Who wants another baby earwig update? Everyone? Thought so. The babies are now two days old and slightly darker than when they hatched. Mama is guarding them and will stay on the job until their second molt. Btw, in the earlier post, the newly-hatched babies only had--
--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
