Tom Astle
@tjalamont.bsky.social
Writer & nature photographer, especially macro photography of arthropods. Desert Tortoise conservation advocate. Fan of California, Montana, the rest of the planet. Photo website: https://www.tomastlephotography.com/
Here's a nice frog to start the week. I think it's Hylarana nicobariensis, sometimes called a cricket frog, from Borneo. Check out its toes - see the little tubercles/bumps on the underside? Not sure of their purpose, but maybe they help hold on to slippery surfaces like wet leaves and rocks. 🐸🌿
November 24, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Here's a nice frog to start the week. I think it's Hylarana nicobariensis, sometimes called a cricket frog, from Borneo. Check out its toes - see the little tubercles/bumps on the underside? Not sure of their purpose, but maybe they help hold on to slippery surfaces like wet leaves and rocks. 🐸🌿
Sunday Surfing in the photo archives - here's a giant shield bug (family Tessaratomidae) from Malaysian Borneo awhile back. These are larger than the typical stink bugs we see here in the U.S. They can spray a defensive chemical that not only smells unpleasant, but can damage skin. 🐙🌿 #Bugsky
November 23, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Sunday Surfing in the photo archives - here's a giant shield bug (family Tessaratomidae) from Malaysian Borneo awhile back. These are larger than the typical stink bugs we see here in the U.S. They can spray a defensive chemical that not only smells unpleasant, but can damage skin. 🐙🌿 #Bugsky
Reposted by Tom Astle
Blind cave spiders~
This occurs due to the process of regressive evolution. In an environment without light, vision provides no advantage in finding prey or avoiding predators. The loss of their eyes means that energy and resources once used for eyes are instead allocated to other traits.
This occurs due to the process of regressive evolution. In an environment without light, vision provides no advantage in finding prey or avoiding predators. The loss of their eyes means that energy and resources once used for eyes are instead allocated to other traits.
November 23, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Blind cave spiders~
This occurs due to the process of regressive evolution. In an environment without light, vision provides no advantage in finding prey or avoiding predators. The loss of their eyes means that energy and resources once used for eyes are instead allocated to other traits.
This occurs due to the process of regressive evolution. In an environment without light, vision provides no advantage in finding prey or avoiding predators. The loss of their eyes means that energy and resources once used for eyes are instead allocated to other traits.
Reposted by Tom Astle
The #BlueSkyArtShow theme of this week, #Small, is making me really happy. #Macrophotography is my favorite photography genre!
To start really small, here is a Lacewing egg on its stalk. It is barely bigger than a hair.
#Insects #Arthropods #Invertebrates #BugSky #SciArt
To start really small, here is a Lacewing egg on its stalk. It is barely bigger than a hair.
#Insects #Arthropods #Invertebrates #BugSky #SciArt
November 22, 2025 at 1:50 PM
The #BlueSkyArtShow theme of this week, #Small, is making me really happy. #Macrophotography is my favorite photography genre!
To start really small, here is a Lacewing egg on its stalk. It is barely bigger than a hair.
#Insects #Arthropods #Invertebrates #BugSky #SciArt
To start really small, here is a Lacewing egg on its stalk. It is barely bigger than a hair.
#Insects #Arthropods #Invertebrates #BugSky #SciArt
Reposted by Tom Astle
November 21, 2025 at 4:51 PM
#Bugsky 🐙🌿 Who wants another baby earwig update? Everyone? Thought so. The babies are now two days old and slightly darker than when they hatched. Mama is guarding them and will stay on the job until their second molt. Btw, in the earlier post, the newly-hatched babies only had--
November 20, 2025 at 5:45 PM
#Bugsky 🐙🌿 Who wants another baby earwig update? Everyone? Thought so. The babies are now two days old and slightly darker than when they hatched. Mama is guarding them and will stay on the job until their second molt. Btw, in the earlier post, the newly-hatched babies only had--
Reposted by Tom Astle
WE FOUND IT! We trekked day and night through tiger-patrolled Sumatran rainforests accessible only under permit for this: Rafflesia hasseltii. Few people have ever seen this flower, and we watched it open by night. Magic.
November 19, 2025 at 12:48 AM
WE FOUND IT! We trekked day and night through tiger-patrolled Sumatran rainforests accessible only under permit for this: Rafflesia hasseltii. Few people have ever seen this flower, and we watched it open by night. Magic.
#Bugsky 🐙🌿 Earwig Egg Update! Yesterday I took a photo of earwig eggs, and when I lifted the rock today, they were hatching. The new babies are transparent except for their compound eyes and mandibles; those were the orange spots you could see on the eggs yesterday. Check out this cropped photo--
November 18, 2025 at 6:35 PM
#Bugsky 🐙🌿 Earwig Egg Update! Yesterday I took a photo of earwig eggs, and when I lifted the rock today, they were hatching. The new babies are transparent except for their compound eyes and mandibles; those were the orange spots you could see on the eggs yesterday. Check out this cropped photo--
A cluster of, I think, earwig eggs (although I didn't see the mother, who typically would be guarding them). What I especially like are the micro-droplets of condensation; each egg is at most 1 mm., so the droplets are incredibly small. Shot at 2X, ten handheld images stacked. 🐙🌿📷 #Bugsky 🥚
November 17, 2025 at 6:51 PM
A cluster of, I think, earwig eggs (although I didn't see the mother, who typically would be guarding them). What I especially like are the micro-droplets of condensation; each egg is at most 1 mm., so the droplets are incredibly small. Shot at 2X, ten handheld images stacked. 🐙🌿📷 #Bugsky 🥚
You could go to the tropics to see wild parrots, or you could go to, say, Pasadena 🦜🦜🦜
November 17, 2025 at 3:23 AM
You could go to the tropics to see wild parrots, or you could go to, say, Pasadena 🦜🦜🦜
We've had a couple of days of rain here in the Los Angeles area. This morning I found a young Monarch caterpillar (I think second-to-last instar) during a break in the weather. 🐙🌿 #Bugsky
November 16, 2025 at 5:45 PM
We've had a couple of days of rain here in the Los Angeles area. This morning I found a young Monarch caterpillar (I think second-to-last instar) during a break in the weather. 🐙🌿 #Bugsky
Reposted by Tom Astle
This spectacular Mimetica incisa (a species of leaf katydid) visited @casabentbill.bsky.social tonight.
#bugsky #insects #nature
#bugsky #insects #nature
November 16, 2025 at 4:03 AM
This spectacular Mimetica incisa (a species of leaf katydid) visited @casabentbill.bsky.social tonight.
#bugsky #insects #nature
#bugsky #insects #nature
Here is your Saturday Snoot. This colorful little cartoon-looking critter is a planthopper nymph, about 1 cm. long, from Costa Rica. I do not know the function of the marvelous snoot. (Per iNat, family Dictyopharidae, possibly Lappida sp.) #Bugsky 🐙🌿👃
November 15, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Here is your Saturday Snoot. This colorful little cartoon-looking critter is a planthopper nymph, about 1 cm. long, from Costa Rica. I do not know the function of the marvelous snoot. (Per iNat, family Dictyopharidae, possibly Lappida sp.) #Bugsky 🐙🌿👃
Reposted by Tom Astle
Sharing is caring
November 15, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Sharing is caring
Thanks, @chicagoseb.bsky.social - this made my evening
So beautiful ... I had to draw it real quick🪲
Following post is the finished sketch. 👇🏻
Following post is the finished sketch. 👇🏻
November 13, 2025 at 5:00 AM
Thanks, @chicagoseb.bsky.social - this made my evening
If you ever see a mantis, spider, or other predatory bug with prey (like this mantis with a bee), look closer and you may spot tiny jackal flies, aka freeloader flies (family Milichiidae), gleaning food while carefully avoiding becoming part of the meal themselves. (Two are visible here). #Bugsky 🐙🌿
November 12, 2025 at 9:41 PM
If you ever see a mantis, spider, or other predatory bug with prey (like this mantis with a bee), look closer and you may spot tiny jackal flies, aka freeloader flies (family Milichiidae), gleaning food while carefully avoiding becoming part of the meal themselves. (Two are visible here). #Bugsky 🐙🌿
A closer look at Ms. Mantis (Stagmomantis limbata, native here in SoCal) from today. Adults can be green or brown, but that doesn't adequately describe how much they vary. "Brown" can tend toward yellow, orange, or even pink, and "green" can be grayish, deep shamrock, or mint-pastel. #Bugsky 🐙🌿
November 12, 2025 at 7:02 PM
A closer look at Ms. Mantis (Stagmomantis limbata, native here in SoCal) from today. Adults can be green or brown, but that doesn't adequately describe how much they vary. "Brown" can tend toward yellow, orange, or even pink, and "green" can be grayish, deep shamrock, or mint-pastel. #Bugsky 🐙🌿
Rescued another Ms. Mantis off the side of the house and placed her in happier hunting grounds. Hopefully the three I’ve seen recently will all lay egg cases so next year I’ll have a good crop of mantis babies. 🐙🌿
November 12, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Rescued another Ms. Mantis off the side of the house and placed her in happier hunting grounds. Hopefully the three I’ve seen recently will all lay egg cases so next year I’ll have a good crop of mantis babies. 🐙🌿
I really like living in Southern California but tonight I wouldn’t mind being a little further north goddammit
November 12, 2025 at 5:19 AM
I really like living in Southern California but tonight I wouldn’t mind being a little further north goddammit
An extremely small spider, 1 mm. at most, suspended over a fall-color-turning redbud leaf in my yard. Not sure, but I'd guess it's a recently-hatched brown widow spiderling (Latrodectus geometricus), based on the marking on the abdomen. 🐙🌿🍁🕷️ #Bugsky
November 11, 2025 at 6:25 PM
An extremely small spider, 1 mm. at most, suspended over a fall-color-turning redbud leaf in my yard. Not sure, but I'd guess it's a recently-hatched brown widow spiderling (Latrodectus geometricus), based on the marking on the abdomen. 🐙🌿🍁🕷️ #Bugsky
Reposted by Tom Astle
Ms. Mantis on my front porch just now. This time of year the adult females sometimes wander to find new spots to lay their egg cases - I relocated her to a flowering shrub where she can fatten up on bees and stay hidden from birds. She’s a native species here (Stagmomantis limbata). 🐙🌿 #Bugsky
November 9, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Ms. Mantis on my front porch just now. This time of year the adult females sometimes wander to find new spots to lay their egg cases - I relocated her to a flowering shrub where she can fatten up on bees and stay hidden from birds. She’s a native species here (Stagmomantis limbata). 🐙🌿 #Bugsky