Colin Purrington

Yellow-headed Caracara (Daptrius chimachima) Yellow-headed Caracara from Commerce St, Wilmington, DE, US on November 20, 2025 at 03:38 PM by Matt Felperin. Continuing 1st state record initially reported by Jeanette Sloper on 11/18. Moving aroun...

🐤📰: There's apparently a yellow-headed caracara in the USA. Per speculation on Facebook, maybe traveled to Wilmington, DE, via the banana-laden Chiquita Explorer from Honduras. One person said she saw it near the Blue Route / I95. Great pics on iNaturalist. #delco www.inaturalist.org/observations...

Read The Book Journey to rainforests, volcanoes and ancient temples to discover the mind-blowing story of the strangler figs and their kin, which have shaped our world and our species in many extraordinary ways.

I highly recommend Gods, Wasps and Stranglers. Terrific read. planetficus.substack.com/p/the-book

A green oak leaf on a white background. On one of the lower left lobes there is a small open cup-like structure.

Close up of a small, spherical, open cup-like structure covered in lichens and other debris, sitting on an oak leaf.

Close up of a small, spherical, open cup-like structure covered in lichens and other debris, sitting on an oak leaf.

A ball of fluffy debris with a head and legs poking out the front on a white background. You can see the long sickle-shaped mouthparts used to jab prey.

Not a tiny bird's nest, this cute little mossy cup is the remains of a green lacewing cocoon!

If you've seen a crawling piece of fluff it's almost certainly one of these little trash monsters, hiding from predators & prey. Adults look like this: flic.kr/p/2jZaTAQ

#Chrysopidae
North Carolina, USA

I think there are three genera of parasitoids that attack fig wasps: Sycoscapter, Philotypesis, and Apocrypta (all in the Pteromalidae). I'm not really sure which fig wasp species they attack (they all specialize). I think the first two have representatives in California.

Genus Sycoscapter Sycoscapter from University, Riverside, CA 92507, USA on March 10, 2025 at 10:40 AM by David Rankin

If you encounter a wild fig in California, I highly recommend dissecting some of the fruit to see what's inside. You might even get lucky and see wasps trying to get into the fruit. Bonus points for pics of Sycoscapter, a chalcid that is parasitic on fig wasps. www.inaturalist.org/observations...

Close-up of the end of a pink fig showing the bracts that line a small passageway that fig wasps use to get in and out.

This is where fig wasps get into fig syconia. And where the next generation escapes. It's called the ostiole.

FAQ - California Figs Where can I find California Figs? California Figs are available at most major grocery retailers. Fresh figs are available May – November and can be found in the produce section. Dried figs are availab...

The California Fig Advisory Board, a lobbying group, says that only 1% of the state's fig trees require wasps for pollination. What they don't advertise is that these trees can still be visited by the millions of wasps that emerge from nearby, wild fig trees. #figs californiafigs.com/faq/#:~:text...

Common Fig Wasp (Blastophaga psenes) Common Fig Wasp in July 2025 by Noriko Ito

If you live in California, fresh figs may contain fig wasps. www.inaturalist.org/observations...

Common Fig Wasp (Blastophaga psenes) Common Fig Wasp from Tyler Island, Walnut Grove, CA, US on September 14, 2025 at 11:07 AM by Noriko Ito. On common fig Host observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/313985713 (Last pho...

Until recently @ymilesz.bsky.social taught me, I didn't know anything about the fascinating synbiotic relationship between fig trees and fig wasps. So I've been wanting to see their work in the wild, and found it on the last day of #September2025GallWeek !
www.inaturalist.org/observations...

Clustered Gall Wasp (Andricus brunneus) Clustered Gall Wasp in November 2025 by Noriko Ito

Another species that is known to emerge in late fall in CA. Happy to meet her for the first time! www.inaturalist.org/observations...

My photo shows a three quarter profile of an ancient Egyptian figurine of a leaping dog facing left. Carved from ivory, now a warm caramel brown colour with glossy surface. The dogs eyes are outlined in black, the ears are floppy, the mouth is slightly ajar (the inside of the mouth is painted red - not sen in my photo). The front and back legs are outstretched as if running at full speed. A lever under the dog’s chest opens and closes the mouth so that the dog looks as if it’s barking. Dimensions: L 18.2 cm × H 6.1 cm × W 3.6 cm. Dated to Late Dynasty I8, I400-I350 BC, reign of Amenhotep III who was Tutankhamun’s grandfather. The dog is mounted on a thin metal rod in a display case. In the background in the same display case is a ‘galloping’ brown horse, which is the handle of an ancient Egyptian fly whisk or light whip.

A very good boy! 🐾🐕😍

An amazing c. 3,400 year-old ancient Egyptian dog carved from ivory. This leaping dog opens and closes its mouth as if barking by using a lever below its chest.

The Met 📷 by me

#Archaeology

Pupa the size of a grain of barley, glowing slightly from within and revealing the outlines of hundreds of small cells and a darker branching pattern that might be the circulatory system of the metamorphosing fly.

Puparium of a walnut husk maggot fly (Rhagoletis suavis), backlit to show innards. Was wondering whether I could find parasitized ones but I don't think the light is strong enough. #diptera #flies #tephritidae #coptera

White-tailed Bumblebee Hoverfly (Form Volucella bombylans plumata) White-tailed Bumblebee Hoverfly from 48120 Lajo, France on July 11, 2023 at 01:54 PM by theochass. Avec B.Louboutin

Adorbs www.inaturalist.org/observations...

Tiny bird nest fungi, complete with “eggs” gather a coating of morning frost

Some frosty bird nest for #FungiFriday

A macro photo of just-hatched, nearly transparent earwig babies, along with several still-unhatched eggs. The only pigment on the babies is in their compound eyes and mandibles, which can even be seen through the shells of the eggs that are yet to hatch.

--pigment on their eyes & mandibles. Why? My guess is, if you think about it, a transparent eye can't trap light, so to be useful it needs pigment. As for mandibles, they need to be tough enough to bite food (one here is already nibbling its empty eggshell) and melanin hardens (sclerotizes) them.

A macro photo of a mother earwig guarding a cluster of her tiny, pale babies, all of them on damp earth.

#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--

Lawn sign that says "release the flies."

Just a gentle reminder that Friday is the customary time to post about dipterans. Photographs, fun facts, heartwarming stories about bot flies, etc. 🪰 #flyday #flyfriday #flies #diptera #insects

A male Anna’s hummingbird at the door. So nosy! 🤣

Earlier today, I was notified that someone was at my door.

This is who it was:

Plants Are Cool, Too! Episode 2 : Fossilized Forests! YouTube video by PlantsAreCoolToo

In this fantastic video (timestamp adjusted), you can glimpse the autumnal burgundy of a freshly excavated Miocene leaf, which quickly fades to black. Hosted by @martinebotany.bsky.social
www.youtube.com/watch?t=239&...

A male (taxidermy) ibex emerges from behind (fake) rocks in front of a vast (painted) mountain panorama of nearby cliffs and distant valleys

Be honest, could you tell this was a diorama?
Haus der Natur in #Salzburg uses many tricks to make viewers believe they're seeing a wild scene: high-quality #taxidermy, outstanding background painting with perspective to give depth, and hiding the point where the painting meets the 3D foreground. 🐐

Earlier on the expedition we found the most beautiful flower, and here, my friends, is the biggest: Rafflesia arnoldi seen in full bloom today in the Sumatran jungle. This is the largest flower on earth and one of the greatest wonders of the natural world.

I *think* the journal feature can only pull in pics that are parts of observations, but that would be fine I think. I should probably do the same.

This seems like a good place to ask about the red wine traps you mention on some of your iNaturalist observations. Could you post some details/tips? Am wine-trap curious.

UPDATE: Purchased in May of 2019.

Sliced and eaten raw is great. Extra good on salads, too.

Diospyros kaki 'Fuyu.' I looked through my receipts for my garden plants but it seems to be missing, so I'm not sure how long I've had it. 10 years, maybe, but I could be off by 5 in either direction. What type do you have?

An overview shot of a portion of the collection: a long window box with wooden frames filled with glass models of plants carefully arranged and labeled on white backgrounds, as though part of a 3D herbarium. From this distance, they are indistinguishable from real plants.

Glass model of maple leaves, featuring blended molten glass that mimics the red hues of autumn foliage

A glass model of a Columbine (Aquilegia) with parsley-like leaves and pendulous, faintly red and yellow flowers that look like swans huddled together, necks touching and wings flared out.

Glass model of a Potentilla with almost ferny foliage and simple, open-faced yellow flowers with fuzzy centers.

Recently visited the Glass Flowers at Harvard, a collection of 4,300 extraordinarily realistic glass models of plants crafted by the Blaschkas, a father and son team of sculptors

That’s right, these are all made primarily of GLASS — a fact difficult to accept given how accurate & lifelike they are

Thank you. That's super useful.

Transparent, rectangular bin filled almost to top with orange, somewhat flattened fruit, all with calyces still attached.

Harvested 63 persimmons this year, almost twice the number from 2024. And lost only one to the squirrels, compared to perhaps 10 last year. Will be making the usual array of puddings, breads, and ice cream. Might attempt a jam and a cocktail. Anything left over gets dehydrated. #persimmon #ebenaceae

I was too young to remember exactly how my parents did the collecting and de-husking, but a podcast I recently listened to suggested that shaking the tree would dislodge the fruit a few days before they'd normally drop, and I think the discoloration (from larval activity) might be less noticeable.