Category: Insects

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Unidentified BEETLE

I spent nearly an hour searching my books and all over the internet for an ID on this interesting fellow I saw while walking to town the other day. He is possibly in the large Scarab Beetle family or Stag Beetle family or seems related to our Rhinoceros Beetle and Hercules Beetle, but even with those I can’t find photos of one with these large, wide “horns” or divided head. New surprises every day!   🙂

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Unidentified Beetle, 2 to 3 inches long

“Any foolish boy can stamp on a beetle, but all the professors in the world cannot make a beetle.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer

See my “Other Insects of Costa Rica” photo gallery for more insect oddities.

¡Pura Vida!

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Flowers = Butterflies

And 4 species today!   🙂   I went out and photographed the above flowers for a one-shot post when I realized there was a dozen or so butterflies beyond them on my Porterweed flowers of these 4 species (one I incorrectly named the other day}:

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Cloudless Sulphur
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Statira Sulphur
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Polydamas Swallowtail, I mistakenly called a Red-sided Swallowtail recently. Sorry!

 

Cloudywing Butterfly (not sure which one of several Cloudywings)

 

See more of these 4 and 100 others in my Costa Rica Butterflies Gallery.

¡Pura Vida!

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Blue-eyed Darner Dragonfly

One of the neat things about living in Costa Rica is that you do not always have to go look for wildlife, since it often comes to you. This has been particularly true with insects at my house!   🙂

After breakfast yesterday I soaked my oatmeal bowl in the sink with warm soapy water and finished my coffee while reading the paper. When I returned to the sink, this dragonfly had flown or dropped right into the soapy water and was dead. I gently pulled him out and lightly dabbed with a paper towel – no life. And here is my quick cellphone photo. After an internet search I declared him a Blue-eyed Darner male. I’m seldom 100% certain of insect identifications, but this is my best match on the web!

See my Dragonfly Gallery.

“I love to see the sunshine on the wings of the Dragonflies… there is magic in it.”
― Ama H.Vanniarachchy

 

¡Pura Vida!

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Green Orchid Bee

He’s revisiting my garden and thus I’m posting some new photos of a favorite bee here. See my Bees Gallery for some better photos made earlier or posted on earlier blog posts linked below. And if interested in reading about this Central American bee, there’s a good history on Wikipedia.  (People in Florida are trying to introduce them there.)

 

¡Pura Vida!

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Unidentified Flying Bug

He was showing an interest in one of my dried up flowers in the garden the other day and I have not found a name for him yet – just another interesting creation of God!

“Why should man value himself as more than a small part of the one great unit of creation? And what creature of all that the Lord has taken the pains to make is not essential to the completeness of that unit — the cosmos?”
― John Muir, A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf

¡Pura Vida!

See my “Other Insects” Gallery for more fun bugs.

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Virtual Night Hike at Selva Verde

Come join one of the guides at Selva Verde Lodge on a typical night hike in their Sarapiqui Private Reserve. Since people have not been able to visit them live, they put this”virtual night hike” on their YouTube Channel. One of the guides shows you the kinds of things I get to see live when I go on such night hikes at this and other lodges in Costa Rica. It is real and typical except for the short time of only 3 minutes! In real life there is more walking between the animals seen!   🙂

Featured image is from my Red-eyed Tree Frog Gallery and another night hike somewhere else (Danta Corcovado).  

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And here’s the same guide on a DAYTIME TOUR of Selva Verde, Just be aware that in an hour or more tour you see a lot more wildlife than in these little 3 minute videos! But both are a taste of what I regularly see and photograph in my retirement in Costa Rica: 

¡Pura Vida!

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Unknown Insect

More than a week ago I cellphone-snapped a shot of this funny-looking flying bug in a drop of water on my bathroom counter. He was gone the next morning, either flown away or eaten by one of my many geckos.

Retirement in Costa Rica does include living with bugs and this year’s “pre-rainy season” seems to have included more than usual for me, especially flying  insects around the lights at night. I sometimes just never turn on the light in my bedroom at night to avoid being bothered by flying insects when in bed.   🙂

We hope that, when the insects take over the world, they will remember with gratitude how we took them along on all our picnics.     ~Bill Vaughan

 

🙂

¡Pura Vida!

 

See my photo galleries:  More Insects   –  OR   –   the separate Butterflies gallery. Insects are truly amazing!

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Green Orchid Bee

The Green Orchid Bee or Euglossa dilemma (Wikipedia) is a Central American Bee found only here naturally (and occasionally in my garden) though recently introduced into South Florida (an invasive species there). I like them for their iridiscente green color added to my garden from time to time. I do have a Bees Gallery for more photos of this and other bees here. Just one of the thousands of interesting insects in Costa Rica that I enjoy watching!   🙂   See also my Butterflies and More Insects Galleries for more bugs!

Green Orchid Bee

In my garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica.

¡Pura Vida!

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Another Strange Bug

This Longhorn Beetle was shot earlier this month on my terrace and I haven’t identified the exact type yet, but whatever he’s called, I like to share all the neat creatures we have here!    🙂

When birds burp, it must taste like bugs.    ~Bill Watterson

¡Pura Vida!

🙂

And remember, I have TWO INSECT GALLERIES:  Butterflies  (100+) and all other bugs in More Insects (66+).   Enjoy my bugs!   🙂

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Tractor Centipede?

There are literally thousands of species of centipedes in Costa Rica, thus the name “Tractor” is dubious but the closest match I could find online for this centipede on my terrace today.

It is interesting to note that centipedes don’t have 100 legs or feet as the name implies and neither do millipedes have a thousand.   🙂    Centipedes have two pair of legs per body section and they stick out to the side like those in this photo, while a millipede looks more like a worm with his legs (one pair per section) barely showing and he is a slower mover than a centipede plus burrows into the ground. There are thousands of species of each here and I wonder if all the species even have names? Regardless, they are interesting to watch!

 The centipede was happy quite,

Until the toad in fun

Asked him which leg went after which,

Which drove him into such a pitch

He lay distracted in a ditch,

Considering how to run. 

~Author Unknown

¡Pura Vida!

See my photo collection of Millipedes in Costa Rica with this appearing to be my first centipede photo. Or if you really like funny-looking tiny creatures, check out my whole More Insects gallery which is separate from my butterflies gallery. Our world is full of so many interesting creatures!   🙂   And I love my constant exploration of nature in my retirement in Costa Rica!