Thomas Shahan
@tshahan
Spiders! Art? most active on iNat:
...Ectatomma tuberculatum (top) and an alydid bug nymph (bottom) from Guyana. Roughly same size and similar movement/stance from a distance - totally mistook the bug for the ant in the field - should’ve filmed a comparison!
The quoted post is kind of like the New World equivalent of this mimicry comparison I put together from Mozambique - showing the Old World equivalent slender ant, Tetraponera (top), and its mimic - Myrmarachne (spider, bottom).
Incredible mimicry under a mango tree: Pseudomyrmex sp ant (top) and a Synemosyna sp jumping spider (bottom). Both Synemosyna males found on this trip lacked (antennae mimicking!) front legs - yet they were no less ant-like!
Back from BugShot in the Rupununi savannah of Guyana! Some incredible ant mimics & potential models: 1. Alydid (Broad-headed Bug) -> Ectatomma? 2. Myrmecium sp. (corinnid spider) -> Ectatomma? 3. Synemosyna -> Pseudomyrmex 4. Peckhamia -> Crematogaster **All IDs tentative - corrections welcome!**
Thanks Wayne - was hoping you'd see it! Dorsal views and more here: www.inaturalist.org/observations...
Photuris sp firefly (beetle in the family Lampyridae) with elytra popped - about to take flight 🪲
in non-salticid news, I found this beautiful stag beetle *just* as I was overheating and getting fed up w/ mosquitoes while hunting today 🙏
Re-visited a limestone gravel path yesterday after a rainy night and got lucky with harmochirine portraits 🕷️ 1 Sooty-faced adult male Habronattus borealis 2 Adult male Pellenattus(?) - first time seeing this guy! 3 Immature male w/ red face 4 Uniformly pale green-eyed female
"tufted" dark morph of the dimorphic jumping spider Maevia inclemens 🤩 Excited to get a portrait (on a light bg highlighting his mohawk) as it's been a while since I've shot a dark morph - I usually only run into the colorful "light" morphs Still hoping to film their courtship display(s) someday
Clockwise from top left: Nectopsyche sp. - White Miller Caddisfly Petrophila jaliscalis - Jalisco Petrophila Cyllopsis gemma - Eastern Gemmed-Satyr Cerastipsocus trifasciatus - Barklouse maybe the depicted salticid is at a low anterior angle: how real jumpers may encounter another face-to-face?
overlaying jumping spiders on insects at 50% opacity... clockwise from top left: salticid/caddisfly salticid/moth salticid/butterfly salticid/barklouse
first two shots are closer shots of the ant above ^ ....second two shots are of another Camponotus I shot in April with a past-attacker's head attached to leg III:
Camponotus with another ant's head still clamped to her left antenna. Second time I've seen this with this species (Camponotus pennsylvanicus?) this spring! Wild how the mandibles can still be locked so tightly even after the attacker was decapitated!
Not the most colorful Habronattus out there but very handsome in an understated way - Habronattus borealis. One of the more common Habros I'll see around here (NE OK) on rocky shores of creeks and lakes in the summer.
I see Peckhamia a lot and occasionally think "ooh this one looks a little different" but don't ID them to species because they're apparently difficult to tell apart and the genus needs revision love that they're still kind of a mystery🙇
from the side... bold patches of white setae break up the silhouette + create the illusion of a more tucked waist, additional body segment(s?) - maybe even a more isolated, ant-like head? and a darker color around the rear eyes (~where an ants are) makes them look bigger! lateral angle disguise ✅
bit better anterior angle - focused on the "antennae" - v anty 🐜 squinting eyes (and looking at the image small), taking in just values, u can def see the silhouette of an ant like head capsule too anterior angle disguise ✅
Peckhamia sp ant-mimicking jumping spider showing off their odd second pair of legs - thin and dark - help up and out like the geniculate antennae of an ant Woods, NE Oklahoma, in situ, 5-14-26
Thanks for the feedback/suggestions on the spider anatomy design!🙏 Was going to update it today but went on a hike instead - here are some handsome jumpers I found: Hentzia mitrata, Habronattus coecatus, Paraphidippus aurantius, and Habronattus decorus - all in situ w/in about the same 1 acre area!
...originally designed it being purely black and white, but am unsure if color helps readability... also thinking my usual woodcutty line art may be too busy with all the labels... might need stronger divisions between body parts... #salticidae #jumpingspiders #anatomy
Salticid anatomy design I've been whittling away at too long - started as an idea for a t-shirt but may be too feature-bloated now... Tear it apart! I need criticism/corrections! What don't you like? What doesn't read well? Anything misleading/mislabeled? Fonts/labels/pointers can all be changed...
grateful for a herp-heavy spring so far! 🙇 1 Rough Greensnake (Opheodrys aestivus) 2 Mississippi Mud Turtle (Kinosternon subrubrum hippocrepis) 3 Lined Snake (Tropidoclonion lineatum) 4 Three-toed Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina triunguis) in situ, NE OK
was photographing a turtle yesterday when a Habronattus decorus male hopped on top the turtle and searched around a bit #salticidae #jumpingspiders #arachnology #herpetology
Baeus! The impossibly cute (and small at ~600µm BL) spider egg parasitoid wasp - found beneath a stone in my backyard, Oklahoma
this Synemosyna was LOVING these little yellow flies - even got one while it was mating! two more showed up while I was shooting… 🪰ID help appreciated - I’ve got them at an unconfident “Nematocera” on iNat: www.inaturalist.org/observations...
squinting my eyes, blurring my vision, just looking at coarse silhouettes and values... comparing Synemosyna formica's 🕷️ first leg to Camponotus subbarbatus' 🐜antennae... both seen around 1PM 4/9/26 woods NE Oklahoma (unsure of plant ID - maybe young Verbesina?)