narpuss favoriter

Need help with this bizarre thing. In the field I was convinced we saw a centipede (which would have been exciting as no centipedes have been reported from Uweinat), however looking at the photos it became clear that it only has three pairs of legs, and three long caudal filaments. Initially was not sure whether we are seeing a larva of some other order, or an adult of some obscure member of Zygentoma.

Found in a garden bed.

We were asked by local guides not to share the precise location of any photos from the trip since we were going to some private/secret/sacred locations throughout the week that see trespassers often. I figured it would be better to be overprotective rather than accidentally share something I shouldn't have, so I have edited the accuracy to cover the entire island.

MBL Director requested that we try to locate specimens. I purchased the Pennak/Zinn paper describing the group which identified Nobska Beach as a known location from June/July 1939 and a source for the cotypes.

On Sep 20, Bill Grossman made a series of samples at Nobska Beach. He made a series of samples from high to low water at four locations running west to east more or less evenly spaced along the beach. At each location he took three to five samples from the high water mark down by 2-2.5 meter increments. Based on the paper's details he took a vertical shovelful of sand and sampled between 12-15 cm from the surface.

The resultant 16 or so jars were examined by MBLs Carsten Wolff. He found two specimens in the lowest (wettest) sample of the middle two sampling locations. He will look for additional specimens in the samples.

Found this species up at the Nature Center at Devil's Lake State Park.

At up to 2 inches long, it is one of the largest known "click" beetles in the family Elateridae. The huge false eyespots make it readily identifiable; it is thought these startle predators into thinking they are confronting an animal much larger than it really is. The true eyes are located behind the base of the saw-toothed antennae. Most click beetles are considerably smaller and not as conspicuously marked.