🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev @ThomasShahan Twitter profile

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

3 years

Nice little group of wet lichens on a fallen branch

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

4 years

Phidippus mystaceus jumping spider momentarily distracted by a passing velvet mite. #salticidae #trombidiidae #arachnida

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

8 months

!!! initially thought they were an oribatid beetle mite... then freaked out upon taking a few photos - realizing they were BAEUS - a *tiny* (~600µm) parasitic wasp! Lost them after trying to stop lens down for a bit more depth of field! Underneath a log, NE Oklahoma

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

5 years

A contrasty ringed Ischnocodia sp tortoise beetle from the lush jungles of Belize and a beautiful golden Aspidimorpha sp from the dry sand forests of Mozambique.

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

4 years

Some *very* small friends I found underneath a rotten log in my yard this afternoon:

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

4 years

Planned on bug-hunting today but it's raining - so, here are some old images of a few different Walker's moths (Sosxetra grata) spotted in Belize in 2014/2015. This unique owlet moth is the only species in the genus Sosxetra & is closely related to the similarly fluffy Ceroctena

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

5 years

Another shot of that insane metallic blue Plochionocerus rove beetle found in the cloud forests near Mindo, Ecuador. Very tough to get a shot of - constantly on the move!

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

3 years

Male Phidippus mystaceus shot in situ on an abandoned blue-green picnic table near some woods. I often prefer "natural" backgrounds, but this guy chose this spot and I thought the color compliments his bright yellow legs nicely!

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

9 years

Game idea: You are Maratus speciosus... dance the fine line between successful courtship and death... #pixelart http://t.co/yU4yK6jSzl

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

1 year

a fancy black and white jumper from Colombia - a male Phiale tristis🤩

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

2 years

totally normal head shape on this wasp I saw yesterday...

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

6 years

A few spins around some recent 3d models. Still a lot to learn - avoiding fancy texture maps and realism. Love the idea of models that look like drawings/photos from most angles. #blender3d

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

3 years

A very unique green crab spider (Thomisidae) found in Peru - Epicadus dimidiaster. Check out that abdomen!

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

4 years

hello, i love you, won't you tell me your name?

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

5 years

This beautiful velvet worm was found by the nightly frog walk group in a rotting log during BugShot Ecuador. Onycophorans are of their own distinct and ancient lineage, more closely related to arthropods than worms.

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

4 years

A bee and a weevil share a moment on wingstem in the woods.

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

4 years

Some *extreme* Paraphidippus crops from shots taken at ~5:1. Jumping spiders can be cooperative while feeding - all shots taken handheld in the field. Scales, setae, hairs...

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

6 years

Some more 3d experimentation with line art/outlines done recently. Based on a character design by @kathleenneeley and then built a little world for him in Blender. As always I probably could have reduced the geometry a bit. Check out the model here:

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

4 years

WILD-eyed female "Wavy Mucksucker" (Orthonevra nitida) fly on a rusty metal bridge during an AM dogwalk. Would have liked: lower angle, more head isolation, more magnification (this is an extreme crop)... but whatever, I'll take what I can get - an honor to see such a fly!

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

1 year

unique "square-ended" crab spider in the genus Sidymella - note how much smaller and more transparent the last two pair of legs are - almost invisible against the leaf! Found at night in Colombia, aug 4, 2023 #arachtober

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

1 year

✨Fantastic white broad-nosed weevil with metallic blue-green stripes - seen in Pereira, Colombia - maybe close to Compsus viridivittatus, @JGEntiminae ?

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

7 months

Initially, I had NO idea what these tiny alien things were -distracted by the intricate flowery bits, I was even considering fungus!🙄 Once home, a bit of research reveals they're assassin bug eggs🥚The eggs of Sinea spp have fancy corollae -making them look like tiny flowers!🌻

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

3 years

inspired by this trichromia sp(?) moth's design and color palette... saw a wee squatting pixelman

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

4 years

😍An impromptu spider hunt in a local park yesterday yielded exactly what I was hoping to find - an adult male Habronattus decorus! Spotted this little guy atop a warm, dry mossy stone in the sun. Brilliant metallic pink/orange abdomen and subtle blue facial scales! #salticidae

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

1 year

Hemaris diffinis aka the "Snowberry Clearwing", a species of hummingbird moth, visits swamp milkweed on a hot day 120fps with a 1/240th of a second shutter speed...

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

6 years

A super cool ant-mimicking katydid nymph spotted late one night in Mozambique. Eurycorypha sp.

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

1 year

SO glad I made a new flash diffuser right before the trip - if only for the amazing diversity of colorful chrysomelids common in the area! 🌈 🪲 Tatamá National Natural Park, Colombia

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

1 year

beautiful metallic bluegreen Chrysura sp cuckoo wasp absolutely covered w/ mites! The wasp could still fly, and the mites may be phoretic(?)... but I can't imagine this is an ideal situation for the wasp?

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

2 years

seen this warm, humid afternoon - on mud near the edge of a pond: 💚a BEAUTIFUL Elaphrus "Marsh Ground Beetle" 💚 check those HOT green metallic pits on the head and pronotum! detail of elytra in next tweet! ⌄

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

2 years

...another cursed attempt at pulling a face from a moth pattern Idalus sp tiger moth, Belize

🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

3 years

inspired by this trichromia sp(?) moth's design and color palette... saw a wee squatting pixelman

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

2 years

A highlight of 2022 was observing (and photographing!) Habronattus americanus in situ for the first time! Here's an particularly handsome male (images might be of a few different individuals - spotted many males on the trip!) July, 2022 - Montana, USA

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

2 years

I've revisited this beautiful white-banded crab spider (Misumenoides formosipes) a few times now at her comfy spot in a thistle beside a pond. I love her and hope she's well💜

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

3 years

Cute little (~1mm) gummy of a springtail - a short-legged neanurid I believe - maybe Vitronura? Found in the soil beneath a damp log, Oklahoma

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

1 year

amazingly fluffy "Woollyleg" Lachnocnema sp butterfly on glass near a light at night Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique, 2018

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

2 years

oribatid on a snail's shell

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

1 year

🪲portrait of a charming pink and green Compsus auricephalus (Golden-headed Weevil) 🩷 - NE Oklahoma

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

1 year

feeling very lucky to have spotted this *extremely* handsome Phidippus putnami male on a bridge in the woods saturday! one of the fanciest salticids in my area - a real treat to see such a clean individual too🤩

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

2 years

☀️Looking forward to summer and the return of colorful leafhoppers🌈 1 Sibovia occatoria "Yellow-striped Leafhopper" 2 Graphocephala coccinea "Red-banded Leafhopper" 3 Graphocephala versuta "Versute Sharpshooter" 4 Oncometopia orbona "Broad-headed Sharpshooter" #Cicadellidae

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

4 years

Starry-eyed Rabidosa wolf spider portrait

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

3 years

An extremely handsome Phidippus mystaceus male jumping spider spotted recently in Tulsa! If the intense green eyes weren't enough - those hot orange legs and horns of hair push this guy over the top - TOO beautiful!

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

3 years

WHAT

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

5 years

Here's a sampling of North America's chunkiest salticid genus, Phidippus, for #arachtober - clockwise from top-left: ♀P. regius, ♂P. putnami, ♂P. mystaceus, ♀P. audax

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

6 years

I have struggled to explain the appearance of pseudopupils in the compound eyes of mantises for a long time - this sculpture explains them very well:

日本野虫の会いきもにあE89

@panchichi3

6 years

カマキリの瞳が追いかけてくるやつの再現…しゅごい (伊丹市昆虫館)

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

3 years

...some details of a BIG beautiful Paraphidippus aurantius female found this past July. Maybe the coolest salticid I found this summer - metallic greens shifting to purple based on angle, HOT orange... amazing salticid:

🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

4 years

Some *extreme* Paraphidippus crops from shots taken at ~5:1. Jumping spiders can be cooperative while feeding - all shots taken handheld in the field. Scales, setae, hairs...

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

3 years

oh to be a tiny orange mite beneath a stone

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

3 years

(1/4)Here's a little thread of moth-trickery - a selection of moths that look like things they aren't... ...to start, here's a Peruvian Rhabdatomis sp lichen moth () ...that looks like a Photinus firefly/lampyrid ()

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

2 years

love finding bright and colorful springtails underneath rotting wood in my yard🤩 🧡plump orange = neanuridae 💜💜metallic purples = lepidocyrtinae

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

4 years

Whoa, what's going on here, warty leaf beetle? Serrate elytral suture like a zipper... why?

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

9 years

More loose attempts at pixel-painting and whittling a story out of song interpretations and dreams. #pixelart http://t.co/XL6Lcc61B6

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

4 years

gif showing off strange patterns inside a female Cotinusa sp(?) jumping spider's eyes. Also check out those little dark spots that appear on top of the head - internal retina movement seen through translucent exoskeleton!

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

3 years

Heart skipped a beat at the sight of this brilliant blue-green cuckoo wasp running around on fallen leaves! On closer inspection, they might have a damaged right wing - possibly explaining why they didn't fly away when approached... :( Chrysis conica - Oklahoma - 10/3/21

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

1 year

adorable little jumping spider seen in Colombia that would rest w/ her legs tucked in... have yet to ID... kinda Beata-like?

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

2 years

💚GREEN SPIDERS!💚 Some viridescent beauties for your Saturday: Epicadus dimidiaster crab spider from Peru, Peucetia viridans "Green Lynx Spider" from Oklahoma, Acragas(?) sp jumping spider from Peru, Araneus apricus "Green Pea Spider" from Mozambique

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

4 years

Highlight from the 2015 BugShot in Belize: an amazing leaf-like Choeradodis sp. hooded mantis - found on a mossy tree near a creek late at night. #Mantodea #Mantidae

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

4 years

Just random close-ups of tree bark here...

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

3 years

Whoa! After struggling to shoot these skittish moths (Brenthia pavonacella?) for years, I found a *bunch* of them on poison ivy this morning! From a distance, they appear kind of salticid-like - moving about in a quick, jerky way.

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

5 years

Arboreal and armored - a cute little Cephalotes sp turtle ant pauses while moving about a tree branch in Belize. Love the bedazzled with glittering rice look! Each seta/scale set in a foveae/pit! 2-shot focus stack.

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

3 years

Very cute and chunky Colla sp silk moth from Belize. A bit bird-turdy maybe? Lovely little antennae!

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

3 years

BEAUTIFUL female Phanaeus vindex ("Rainbow Scarab" burrowing dung beetle) found in (and returned to) soil while gardening recently!

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

4 years

Araneidae is a super diverse family of spiders - here are just a few fancy orbweavers to sate your unquenchable spider thirst. Trichonephila senegalensis (Mozambique), Gasteracantha falcicornis (MZ), Isoxya tabulata (MZ), Micrathena sagittata (Belize)

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

1 year

This beautiful black and yellow weevil seen on a painted sign in Ecuador now has a name: 💛𝘛𝘰𝘹𝘰𝘳𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘴 𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘰💛 read more in the comments on iNat:

The Coleopterists Society

@ColeopSoc

1 year

#LiteratureNotice Anderson. A #NewSpecies of Toxorhinus Lacordaire ( #Coleoptera : #Curculionidae : #Dryophthorinae ; Rhynchophorini) from #Ecuador #Beetle #Beetles

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

4 years

The fruits of chasing Condylostylus long-legged flies around the backyard the past few days. Can't get over those compound eyes and the alternating rows of green/orange ommatidia towards the bottom. Close up crop from 6-shot handheld stack w/reversed 28mm, body shots Laowa 100mm

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

3 years

if you gaze long enough into the mud, the mud will gaze back into you

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

1 year

a handsome eyebrowed ant predator - Tutelina elegans

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

8 years

A few moths that came to the light during the Bugshot workshop in Peru. Not to scale! I've added numbers so you can ID them all by mon, thx!

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

1 year

...and if you thought the male was beautiful - check out this big female Phidippus putnami I found a few yards up the same trail (perched on a wood sign)! 🪧 those abdominal markings!🤩

🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

1 year

feeling very lucky to have spotted this *extremely* handsome Phidippus putnami male on a bridge in the woods saturday! one of the fanciest salticids in my area - a real treat to see such a clean individual too🤩

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

2 years

mite w/ mites (big one might be an Allothrombium sp)

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

5 years

A large orange sparassid (Olios sp?) with a swollen abdomen was brought to me during a workshop in Belize - she moved slowly and awkwardly - clearly unwell. Soon she stopped altogether and her legs curled inwards. A smooth dark nematomorph burst from & spiraled out of her abdomen

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

10 months

my first waterbear!!🤩 closing out 2023 by hunting for these little guys in lichens/mosses! Crop from w/ @laowa_lens Aurogon Supermicro 20x at NA 0.15 #macrobiotidae #tardigrada #waterbear

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

3 years

Beautiful little pale Phymata on a flower yesterday morning. I get a little too excited every time I see a jagged ambush bug - they're just so cool looking with those raptorial forelegs!

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

1 year

now maybe some of it is my my *want* to find jumping spiders, but I can definitely see salticids in the appearance of these insects: 1 Crambid moth, Belize 2 Cerastipsocus trifasciatus barklouse, Oklahoma 3 Procecidochares sp fruit fly, Texas 4 Choreutid metalmark moth, Colombia

🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

1 year

👀do you see a jumping spider?... one hot august morning in 2021 I was delighted to see a group of metalmark moths (Brenthia pavonacella) on poison ivy - which certainly struck me as salticid-esque on first glance! check out @dineshraov 's research on this phenomenon!

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

3 years

oops! all neuropterans!

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

4 years

Weird weevil spotted on a yellow-painted trail sign in Ecuador. Unique look with the compound eyes touching beneath the rostrum and those fluffy tarsi... also, am I reading too much into the matching yellows? No idea on ID yet:

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

4 years

Awesome video of two male Phidippus fighting!

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

2 years

❤️a micro velvet mite (family Microtrombidiidae) traverses the forest floor (seen April 29 2022)❤️

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

2 years

lol i pinch zoomed this real hard and counted 124 legs the first time and then 128 legs the 2nd time

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

5 years

Always a struggle to simplify the intricacy of salticids into readable line-art (the bg coloring helps a bit though). 2014 illustrations for @tigerstylegames Clockwise from top left: Phidippus mystaceus, Habronattus americanus, Sassacus papenhoei, Phidippus regius #wedrawspiders

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

2 years

went for a little hunt this morning and met some nice jumpers 🥰

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

5 years

Here's that sparkly weevil a bit closer. After poking around a bit - I'm still not sure who this is? Mindo, Ecuador

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

4 years

Odd Peckhamia ant-mimicking jumping spider with a contrasting black and orange abdomen. #arachtober

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

2 years

sure, jumping spider faces are great - but check out these colorful salticid abdomens🌈: in order: Paraphidippus, Sassacus, Habronattus, Psecas(?)😍

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@ThomasShahan

2 years

🥰Always thrilled to find these incredible weevils - the beautiful Compsus auricephalus, AKA the "Golden-headed Weevil"! Subtle rose-gold pink scales on the head and legs, with sea-foam green scales on the body! 😍 #Curculionidae #Entiminae #Eustylini

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@ThomasShahan

7 months

as a pretty ignorant dipterist, I only just now found out that all the craziest flies I saw in Colombia last August were all Tephritoids - cool! 🪰 1 Pterocallini(?) - Ulidiidae 2 Paragorgopis - Ulidiidae 3 Setellia - Richardiidae 4 Richardia infestans - Richardiidae

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@ThomasShahan

4 years

Spotted this tiny (~2.5mm body length) fly with big red eyes dancing around wildly on a leaf. Look at those wild wing interference patterns! ...think it's a platypezid, but no idea on what genus or species:

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

2 years

🌈some #leafhoppers with EXTRA saturated colors (this was not done in post-processing!): Graphocephala coccinea, Oklahoma Spangbergiella vulnerata, Oklahoma unknown immature cicadellid, Peru Coronigoniella sp, Ecuador share your deeply saturated cicadellids! 🌈

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@ThomasShahan

7 years

Not terribly accurate and I plan on re-texturing - but here's an update on the salticid model! Lots of headaches but I've learned a bit about salticid anatomy. #blender3d Take her for a spin here:

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

1 year

👀do you see a jumping spider?... one hot august morning in 2021 I was delighted to see a group of metalmark moths (Brenthia pavonacella) on poison ivy - which certainly struck me as salticid-esque on first glance! check out @dineshraov 's research on this phenomenon!

New Scientist

@newscientist

1 year

Some moths and flies disguise themselves as the spiders that try to eat them – and AI analysis suggests the trick is highly convincing.

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

5 years

Two Belizean moths using some sort of ultrablack light-trapping magic to create a "hole in a leaf" illusion? Lifting shadows in post reveals small densely packed super dark scales!

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

2 years

🤩a few recent shots of different eupodoid mites🤗 1 some eupodids snuggling together on some fungus 2 ghostly and quick rhagidiid under a stone 3 cute penthaleid w/ HOT legs! 4 eupodid w/ a beautiful orange body #Eupodoidea

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

5 years

A beautiful Salticus austinensis jumping spider wanders about the lichened landscape of a tree trunk in Lawton, Oklahoma last summer. An extreme crop here from a quick low-mag shot - I was instructing a macro class and didn't want to hog the salticid!

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

8 years

Cotinusa sp jumping spider making her way about a wood railing. Belize, 2013.

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

2 years

woo! found a Sassacus cyaneus this afternoon! Haven't seen this species since May of 2009! a TINY little jumping spider, only 3mm or so body length! Wish I had popped on more magnification in retrospect - look at those beautiful iridescent scales!

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

5 years

I don't keep, breed, or buy salticids. Here are 4 Phidippus females found + released in the wild. Clockwise from top left: P. otiosus on a lichened Oklahoma bridge, P. mystaceus from OK, P. workmani from a Florida BugShot, and finally a P. johnsoni(?) from Mt. Hood, Oregon

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

4 years

I don't collect (or keep) spiders, but sometimes if I spot a spider I'd like to see better, I'll briefly capture them in a plastic vial. Before releasing the spider where found, I'll take a few photos them in the vial.

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

6 years

Cephalotes sp. turtle ant from Belize. I always thought these ants looked like they were bedazzled with rice.

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

5 years

Oncometopia broad-headed sharpshooter color variation. I see considerably less of the pink types - the blue ones are a dime a dozen on my tithonia - why though? ...teneral? ...erythrism? ..."just" a light morph?

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

4 years

Despite being the "common" buckeye, I don't see Junonia coenia all that often, and when I do - they're often difficult for me to photograph and quite skittish. Lucked out yesterday morning and shot this immaculately fresh individual!

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🕷️Thomas Shahan | Kaspa Dev

@ThomasShahan

3 years

Ooh! An exciting find from this morning in the woods - a male Panorpa nuptialis, AKA the "Nuptial Scorpionfly" ...and his "tail" is for mating, not stinging!

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