That's one badass looking beetle.. Saw this jumping spider the other day, figure if anyone can identify the species it'd be you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g94Ns-bSoYw This was from today, cleaned up a lil pond at work and thought it'd be easier to just hop in. 10 minutes later, these guys were all over me. Not 100% sure if they're leeches, but they were clinging pretty good. Didn't draw any blood or leave any marks though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wKEb4burqc Last, just a carpenter bee that chills around our dumpster.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVyZ0MEW6_M
Yep, those are leeches, that species is fully grown, and present here in california, as well. The jumping spider you found is a species of Thiodina, likely Thiodina sylvana. pretty cool looking!
Do you know the species name of those leeches? The owner at work doesn't like the idea of leeches being in the pond and was like "we're going to have to do something bout that.." but I could care less, lol. I have a feeling he is going to want to kill them off, but it's full of tadpoles and dragonfly larvae.. so I really don't want to do anything that's going to hurt those. Hopefully he'll just forget about them, which is likely.
Nah they're harmless. Those leeches will bite people, but they dont carry or spread disease. They're in virtually every body of water in the USA, leeches are a natural part of the ecosystem and are an important food source for fish and insects. As far as i know, the only real threat is if they vomit into the wound, which can cause an infection, but other than that, i'd rather be bit by a leech than a mosquito. Let him know that anything he uses to kill the leeches will kill everything else in there.
I always loved animals that are camouflaged as lichen AND bark, isnt that totally sweet? There's a species of moth that frequents my property that mimics a jumping spider, the inner portion of the wings has a pattern resembling menemerus bivittatus, right down to the eye configuration, and palps.
I love bugs that can do that too, it's evolution at work as their camouflage allows them to escape the notice of predators. It's cool as hell....
I siphoned out the water into a swamp area across the parking lot today, most of the tadpoles went through the hose.. was kind of neat seeing them swim out the other end. I scooped up everything else and took it across too. There was a ton of tadpoles, but now the majority of them are safe. All the old leaves and leeches went over too, whatever else was in there. Stepped on a couple tadpoles, but thems the breaks. The owner just didn't like the idea of a customer's dog jumping in and coming out covered in leeches. I've been wanting to try an experiment and have leeches stuck to me and see if it helps with my Lyme. I have a theory/hope that it might pick up on chemical signals that it can hitch a ride out when the leech is attached.. then destroy the leeches. I had him all messed up. I was out walking a dog and saw him, so I ran (made the dog run too) all the way back to the building to get my phone and ran back out. It was far for a smoker.. but when I came running up on him, I scared it. They're said to be pretty good navigators. Using the sun or the moon, even said to use the bands of the Milky Way where it can be seen to navigate. This guy just got tangled up from trying to get away from me. When I had the dog at first, it was rolling on open, flat ground and was hauling ass in a straight line.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCdGq3THBhA I brought it home with me.. lol, we were practicing jumping from finger to finger a lil bit ago. I like to think that it likes me, but it seems hellbent on working it's way to my face. When I found it, there was no fear, seemed more like curiosity. I have a some videos I made today too, with ants but I need to trim them up first, don't think I feel like getting into it tonight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD7eSdnuAzU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4AQXW8xGa4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW37cmDBoI0 I like how they stick pieces of dirt to it to soak it up.. same behavior they use when attacking a slug. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp6c0g_mdrg
Granted, watching pretty much any live insect is fun for me, the ants were awesome. Been eating a whole cantaloupe or honey dew for lunch everyday.. found a nice spot to chill in the woods, right next to the ant colony. Think they had their fill the first day though, cause they were out in mass then.. now it's like a halfassed showing.