thirty_legs's Favorites

It was feeding on some decaying organic matter (most probably an insect dead body). It was continuously waving its wings on both sides. This fly looked beautiful and gorgeous against the backdrop of this green leaf under a shady place. It was found in an area of plantation of mixed trees in the outskirt of Kolkata megacity.

I found these 3 centipedes under one of our foam garden box that had been in situ for the past 6 months. I assess them to be a species in the genus, Lithobius, as they have 18 segments and 15 pairs of legs, except for the missing legs. Lithobius is a large genus of centipedes in the family Lithobiidae, commonly called Stone Centipedes, Common Centipedes or Brown Centipedes. Stone Centipedes are found under stones or bark, in soil and decaying matter. They feed on insects and other small invertebrates. The eggs are deposited singly in soil. The lifespan can be over 3 years.

Reddish-brown crab. Never seen a shell so textured so I’m not sure if it’s due to age or species. Some friends suggested a type of box crab, but it’s not as gnarly as some of the photos I’ve seen. We untangled him from a net that we removed from a shipwreck site in North Carolina - The Caribsea. Docked in Swansboro, NC.

NUMBER: 20221109
SPECIES: Blue Crab, Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, 1896[1]
SPECIMEN: 1 rare all-blue color variant
OTHER NAMES: Atlantic Blue Crab, Chesapeake Blue Crab,
DATE, TIME: 9 November 2022, 3:37 AM
LOCALITY: Near Cobb Island, Chesapeake Bay
LATIDUE, LONGITUDE: 38.254184, -76.841929
DISTRIBUTION: Atlantic and Gulf coasts, from Nova Scotia through the Gulf of Mexico and to Uruguay.
SIMILAR SPECIES: Ornate Blue Crab, Calinectes ornatus Ordway, 1863 appears the same, but adults are smaller than shown, and have 6, not 4 frontial teeth on the carapace.
OBSERVERS: Dr. Ernest H. Williams, Jr.,[2,3,5,6] and Dr. Lucy Bunkley-Williams[2,4,5,7]
REFERENCES:
<>Anonymous. 2023. Delaware Surf Fishing. This true blue crab is rare. https://www.delaware-surf-fishing.com/this-true-blue-crab-is-rare/#:~:text=A%20completely%20blue%2C%20blue%20claw,only%20commercial%20crabbers%20catch%20them.
<>Boycourt, L. 2018. All-blue Blue Crab-found in York River. Chesapeake Bay Magaine https://chesapeakebaymagazine.com/all-blue-blue-crab-found-in-york-river/
<>Arena, R. 2020. True blue: Rare crab caught near Morgan City [Louisiana]. Louisiana Sportsman. Outdoor Updates. 2 November. https://www.louisianasportsman.com/outdoor-updates/true-blue-rare-crab-caught-near-morgan-city/
<>Castleberry, T. 2019. NC fisherman catches rare all-blue crab. WECT News. https://www.wect.com/2019/07/26/nc-fisherman-catches-rare-all-blue-crab/
<>Dietrich, T. 2018. York River watermen catch rare all-blue Blue Crab. Daily Press. https://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-nws-blue-blue-crab-20180806-story.html
<>Malmquist, D. 2018. Once in a blue moon: Crabber catches rare all-blue Blue Crab. William and Marry News Archive. 31 July. https://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2018/once-in-a-blue-moon-crabber-catches-rare-all-blue-blue-crab.php
<>Williams, E. H., Jr. and L. Bunkley-Williams. 2021. The first report of an Albino/Blue Bi-hemispheric Chimera Blue Crab, Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, chimera. iNaturalist #93671783, 4 September 2021 (open access) [602].
<>Williams, E. H., Jr. and L. Bunkley-Williams. 2021. Partial albino Blue Crab, Calinectes sapidus Rathbun. iNaturalist #93812431, 5 September 2021 (open access) [603].
<>Williams, E. H. Jr. and L. Bunkley-Williams. 2021. Melanistic Blue Crab, Calinectes sapidus Rathbun. iNaturalist #103210867, 17 December (open access), ResearchGate [635].
<>Williams, E. H., Jr. and L. Bunkley-Williams. 2023. A rare all-blue Blue Crab, Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, in Chesapeake Bay. iNaturalist #???, 12 June 2023 (open access), ResearchGate [849].
<>Williams, E. H., Jr., C. D. Miller, M. J. Dowgiallo, and L. Bunkley-Williams 2022. First indication of pigment incitation due to injury in the Blue Crab, Calinectus sapidus Rathburn. Research Quality Report, iNaturalist #???, 22 September (open access), ResearchGate [698]
<>Williams, E. H., Jr., C. D. Miller, M. J. Dowgiallo, and L. Bunkley-Williams. 2022. First report of completely duplicated gonopods, occurring in a Blue Crab, Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, in Maryland. iNaturalist #141625605, ResearchGate, 8 November 2022 (open access) [711].
FOOTNOTES:
[1]Identification was peer-reviewed, text edited and usually condensed. The original text is in our reprint #815 and ResearchBase. [2]West University, South Africa; Adjunct Professors, Research Field Station, Florida Gulf Coast University, 5164 Bonita Beach Road, Bonita Springs, FL 34134; [3]Dept. Marine Sciences, University of Puerto Rico (retired); [4]Dept. Biology, UPR (retired); [5]920 St. Andrews Blvd, Naples, FL 34113-8943; [6]e-mail ermest.williams1@upr.edu, ORCID 0000-0003-0913-3013; [7]e-mail lucy.williams1@upr.edu, ORCID 0000-0003-1390-911x

Looking down from the jetty, a marvelous scene of epic scope! A bajillion soldier crabs moving in groups and waves, with the front of receding water apparently the most prime spot, worth braving the numerous toadfish patrolling the edge and waiting for the right time to lunge forward in the shallows and run away with a crab. Often they wouldn't get the crab-- it was a bit fast for me to see, but looked like the crab would pinch them in the snoot-- and sometimes when they did get a crab the competition from other fish would be so fierce that the crab would get dropped and escape to shore.

Photo license and credit belong to the Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH), the Hakai Institute, and MarineGEO | http://specifyportal.flmnh.ufl.edu/iz/ | Field Number: BHAK-1187 | This observation is a part of the collaborative work between FLMNH, the Smithsonian Institution's Marine Global Earth Observatory (MarineGEO) and Tennenbaum Marine Observatories Network, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, and the Hakai Institute

This observation is part of a long-term project examining plankton biodiversity in the nearshore waters around the Hakai Institute's Quadra Island ecological observatory. A COI DNA sequence from the organism has been deposited in the Barcode of Life Data System (BOLD). Photo license and credit belong to the Hakai Institute.

Photo license and credit belong to the Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH), the Hakai Institute, and MarineGEO | http://specifyportal.flmnh.ufl.edu/iz/ | Field Number: BHAK-2768 | This observation is a part of the collaborative work between FLMNH, the Smithsonian Institution's Marine Global Earth Observatory (MarineGEO) and Tennenbaum Marine Observatories Network, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, and the Hakai Institute

Photo license and credit belong to the Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH), the Hakai Institute, and MarineGEO | http://specifyportal.flmnh.ufl.edu/iz/ | Field Number: BHAK-2245 | This observation is a part of the collaborative work between FLMNH, the Smithsonian Institution's Marine Global Earth Observatory (MarineGEO) and Tennenbaum Marine Observatories Network, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, and the Hakai Institute

Nudibranch Coryphella trilineata (northern form, about 10mm long) & look-alike amphipod Podocerus cristatus. Scanned from a 35 mm slide I took in the lab in 1984. I had found the specimens in close proximity to each other a few days earlier in the low intertidal at Middle Cove, Cape Arago, Oregon. The amphipod (and her recently hatched juveniles, visible at lower right when viewed large) are on a piece of the outer tube of the polychaete Pista elongata; the slug is on a piece of the hydroid Abietinaria.

Notice the white head tentacles of the slug and the white antennae on the amphipod. Here's what one form of the amphipod looks like in central California, where the southern form of O. trilineata ( with chromium orange on their rhinophores and cephalic tentacles) is prevalent: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/1103734

Farther south, near Puerto Vallarta, MX, the amphipod lacks white lines, just like the abundant local aeolids (see Fig. 1f-h in paper here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282252603).