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A Bug for Dan
- Thread starter John53
- Start date
Yes. I agree. I enjoy watching them.
I've seen several good videos of jumping spiders in action.
Insects are tough subjects. Small, active and sometimes (often) very fast.
Yep. I don't know much more than that to even hazard a guess. Looks like it is in the suborder Brachycera.
Possibly a flea beetle (Chrysomelidae). I'd have to see the hind legs and the underside.
Can you flip the picture over for me?
Yep. Again, that is about all I can add.
It's good detail. Another brachyceran fly.
How large would you say these are? We've talked about them before, but most of what I know is from presentations and reading. They are a tribe of bees found in the tropics and subtropics, so I don't encounter them in the field here.
I actually flipped him to get the top, here's one of the bottom. I'll go out in a bit and see if I can get a better shot.
About 4mm.
I was only kidding. How did you flip that picture over and have something there to see? LOL!
Yes, it is a flea beetle. The size, somewhat metallic sheen, and, more importantly, the enlarged hind femora that allow it to jump like a flea, while not necessarily definitive, are pretty strong evidence for the ID.
So, some species are very small. I got that feeling from the picture, but it is difficult to be certain about scale and size sometimes.
Yup. All those pics I posted today are heavily cropped. The stingless bee is on a lemon tree flower if that helps give a bit of perspective.
Here's a perhaps useless observation. I have a lemon tree and a lime tree planted in close proximity, both are covered in flowers at the moment. The lemon has dozens of stingless and a couple of honey bees on it plus one other that I only go a glimpse of, might even have been a wasp yet the lime has nothing on it. I wonder if lime trees use a different strategy for pollination.
That helps a little bit along with your estimate of size. I'll have to do some reading up on stingless bees and those of Australia to enhance the perspective.
I say that as if I can squeeze even more reading into the time I have available.
It is an interesting observation given the close relationship of the two species. I know almost nothing of citrus taxonomy and my quick Google crash course didn't offer any insights into your observation. Other than that citrus have been bred and crossed rather frequently to really know what is going on genetically that might impact the biochemistry or pollination and reveal itself as the difference you are seeing.
I certainly wouldn't consider it a useless observation. Just one without a ready explanation. I find it very curious.
It would have been ironic if the car they were in was a VW Beetle.
Bug and tar remover.
Nematoceran fly by the looks of it. Albeit, a giant specimen.
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