Mammals and Araneoidea Spiders

After five years of living in Costa Rica, I still get excited seeing the exotic flora and fauna of this country.

We are presently fortunate to have five separate webs around our house, made by the golden silk orb-weaver spider. The webs are simply amazing - large and strong with a golden sheen. The spiders are amazing also:

 

I think this one is missing a leg.

 

Here you can see the golden web.

For more information on this amazing creature, check out my friend Claudia's blog article on the golden orb. Claudia is a protozoologist and knows whereof she speaks - Claudia's blog article

Now for the mammals - we have agoutis running through our yard at regular intervals. They exist on fruits and nuts so our orange and mango trees are an attraction for them. This pair were close to our back door but started running when I came out with a camera.

 

Not sure what it is carrying - old dried up mango?

They both are carrying something ... 

For more information on the agouti, click here. Now, see how interesting it is living in the tropics?

Amazing Bugs

Look at this!

 

This insect was floating in the pool the other day, still alive, and we fished it out so it could dry off. It was gone about half an hour later. It is absolutely amazing looking and we have never seen anything like it.

So I turned to my friend, Claudia, who is a protozoologist and also a fellow artist here in Atenas. She also lives part of the year in Saintes, France, and her blog posts from there are so interesting to read. As usual, she solved our insect query in short order and here is what she said:

" It's a Hemiptera, a "True Bug", belonging in the insect group called "Planthoppers". They all look a bit like plants, one way or another. This one, a Fulgora laternaria, is called peanut-headed bug or alligator bug. It's harmless, no teeth! Just a sap-sucking snorkel-mouth. What looks like big, black eyes are just dots to scare potential predators."

So thank you, Claudia, and thank you peanut-headed bug for showing us yet another fantastic creature of Costa Rica.

 

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