On location up the river Manu at the Cocha Cashu Biological Field station:
Macero poison arrow frog (Ameerega macero) announces its toxicity with bright aposematic colouration;. Roughly the size of a thumbnail, these frogs are mostly toxic to smaller mammals. It is really only the poison arrow frogs of the Phyllobates genus which contain toxic alkaloids which can potentially result in human death (and which incidentally the indigenous people of Colombia use to tip their arrows with):
An assassin bug sneaks up on a millipede. It will gently palpate it with it's antennae, lull it into a state of confidence and torpor and then impale it with its proboscis:
The male bearded weevil (Rhinostomis cf. barbirostris) uses its hairy proboscis to gently scratch the female's back. This is likely a courtship display, it's unclear whether it serves any additional function Eg. cleaning the female of parasites prior to her laying eggs:
Ants (Dolichoderus bispinosus) have attacked a termite nest and are bringing back the spoils:
An ichneumonid wasp drills into an old fallen tree trunk where she will lay her eggs in beetle grubs:
The araneophagic pirate spider (Gelanor sp.) will invade the webs of other spiders, dropping from above on its own silken line, or else carefully threading its way through the maze of sticky capture silk to kill its prey, where it will leisurely consume it in the victim's own web, or nearby:
A tentacled caterpillar because why not?:
Thanks for looking and commenting,
Paul
