Insects of Mindo – The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

Above Red and Black Heliconid Butterfly Looking For A Way Out

Everyone agrees these insects are beautiful (3.5″)

And even this hawk moth (3″)

Back more than a week and the glow is starting to fade out as this life in Ashland becomes more and more of a reality.  It’s strange how one world becomes the imagined world and another gradually becomes plain-old-every-day life.  Now there are softball (verging on the impossible in  Ecuador) and mah-jongg which would have taken more time training than Chiyemi had in Cuenca.

Caterpillar (1.5″) On Fern Leaf – Sachatamia River Walk – Mindo

So, I know that not everyone loves insects like I do (and have trained Chiyemi to love as she enthusiastically examines each specimine and happily discovers others).  Really with this preponderance of six legged, triply segmented, jointed leg creatures,  with half of all living creatures (macro) insects, maybe we should all just learn to  get along with our little hard-shelled brethren.

Apple Green Beetle (3/4″) – Cabana – Sachatamia

Or quite possibly sisters: males are not always necessary.  Almost all ants are females as are bees and termites.   This tips the scales in the direction of feminine dominance amongst class insecta.

Ubiquitous Form Of Life – A Mindo Weevil

I’m told there are entire species of weevils in which males are impossible to find and yet they reproduce (clones) quite nicely.  Parthogenesis is a lot more popular in the insect world than in warmer blooded creatures.  We’ve only managed one such birth claimed in the last 2000+ years, so it’s just not happening among mammals.

Not Many Of These Mammals About – Sachatamia Squirrel

How many species of mammals are there?  Aren’t we the successful ones?  There are around 5000 species of those furry, warm-blooded, four limbed animals about and twice as many birds.  Kind of insignificant compared to the diversity of Insects, the topic of this post (to which I should add miscellaneous invertebrates).

A ciempies in Spanish or what we call a centipede

One Of The Many Weevils We Saw – Sachatamia

There are more beetles than any other order of insects and more weevils than any other family of beetles – that is, there’s a fair case for weevils being the  most abundant animal life form. Wikipedia Weevils if you’re interested and I hope you are.

Now this is a handsome creature – beetle clearly and probably one of the goliath series.  This was a mini-goliath, only 2.5″ long and dwarfed by the ones we saw in central America.  Still a very handsome guy, no?

Look at those feather-form antennae out looking for a mate or food.

Birds Are A Lot Easier To Find In The Rain Forest Than Mammals – Blue/Black Tanager

Bird Mimic Eyes? From The Butterfly Farm/Mariposario

Lovely little (1/2″) beetle on fern leaf

Butterfly Farm – Half The Hatch Are Freed Daily

Another Perfectly Acceptible Insect – Mindo Near The Cascada

Leaf Munchers Are Extremely Popular In  A Rainforest

But For Real Popularity, Go With One Of The 600k Coleopterans

Flies Are Tough To Photograph Because  Two Wings Work Better Than Four – The Other Two Evolved Into Flight/Attitude Control

And These Iridescent Wasps Nearly Impossible To Photograph

Why Are These Upper Wings Angled At 45 Degrees Like  An F-18?

Here’s a lovely green female ant (3/4″)

Transparent Skirt Around Leaf Beetle (3/16″)

Dead Cicada – Live  Cicada (1.25″)

Look At The Faux Veins As In A Leaf On This Katydid (2.5″ + antenna)

The rainforest insects are relentlessly inventive in their blind, evolutionary way.  Hope you enjoyed the  photos of a very, very few of them.