Hermit Crabs feeding on coconut

Hermit Crabs feeding on coconut
Originally uploaded by edwbaker

taken earlier this year on Playa Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica. Do any of you crab people want to have a go a go at an identification?

Looking back at 2009

In a brief editorial to the latest Phasmid Study Group Newsletter I said that for phasmatologists it had been a good year with several major papers (I will say something about the partial review of Phyllium by Hennemann et al soon), a field guide to the Australian stick and leaf insects by Paul Brock (I reviewed it here), and a number of new species bought into culture.

Personally it's also been good, in particular a trip to Costa Rica but also e-Biosphere, work on the Blattodea SpeciesFile, visiting the SpeciesFile team and a new job at the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.

In the blogosphere (bugosphere?) we have seen new offers from Erica McAlister (Curator of Diptera's Blog) and a student blog from the entomologists at the University of Illinois (I went there this year too).

It seems the Amateur Entomologists' Society had a good year too.

So despite what you may hear or feel, there are still some good, new and exciting things happening in the world of insects.

Phasmid Calendar

The guys at StickTalk have put together a calendar of members' photographs, including one I took while in Costa Rica last year. I have just ordered my copy - I will review it when it arrives. My contribution is shown below.

Nature Live

I am now back from Costa Rica - and have a fair bit to blog about over the coming days and weeks. Stay tuned!

Today I did two Nature Live talks at the Natural History Museum, London (essentially both the same). The subject was 'The Great Pretenders' - I hope you've guessed it was about phasmids. I would like to thank Mark Bushell (again!) for sending me some livestock to show everyone who attended. I will try and get the video somewhere you can all watch it as soon as possible.

A Couple of Videos

The first features (very briefly) a friend from my Imperial days, the second features a rather large beetle from Costa Rica, that somehow managed to travel with bananas to London and survive.

Click on the images to go to the original videos.

Some Invertebrates from Costa Rica VII: Blue Morpho Emergence

Some Invertebrates from Costa Rica VI: Miscellany II

Some more invertebrates from Alajuela, Costa Rica in April 2007


Cicada casing


Baby(?) snail


Unidentified Orthopteroid


Unidentified leafhopper


Unidentified Odonata

Some Invertebrates from Costa Rica V: Leaf-Cutter Ants

Alajuela, Costa Rica April 2007

Some Invertebrates from Costa Rica IV: Spiders

Alajuela, Costa Rica April 2007

Some Invertebrates from Costa Rica III: Some Beetles

All of these were found in Alajuela, Costa Rica in April 2007

Some Invertebrates from Costa Rica II: Blue Morpho

This video was taken at a butterfly farm near Alajuela, Costa Rica. Blue Morphos are one of the country's must-see invertebrates. We did see the occassional flash of blue whilst hiking in the rainforest but wer nowhere near quick enough to record them on camera.

Costa Rica - Some Non Invertebrates

Here are a few of the non-invertebrates that I found in Costa Rica. These are a lot easier to identify than the invertebrates. I have also included a list of other animals that were seen, but were gone too quickly to be photographed.


Ground Anole/Humble Anole Anolis humilis
Lowland tropical wet forest at Golfito.


Unidentified Motmot - (Baryphtengus martii?)
Garden in Alajuela


Social Flycatcher/Mosquero Cejiblanco/Pecho amarillo Myiozetetes similis
Garden in Alajuela

Also seen (a selection of):
Granular Poison-arrow Frog - Dendrobates granuliferus - Lowland tropical wet forest at Golfito
Gren Poison-arrow Frog - Dendrobates auratus - Lowland tropical wet forest at Golfitio
Central American Smooth Gecko - Thecadactylus rapicauda - Lowland tropical wet forest at Golfito
Green Iguana - Iguana iguana - Lowland tropical wet forest at Golfito
Central American Whiptail - Ameiva festiva - Lowland tropical wet forest at Golfito
Chestnut-mandibled Toucan - Ramphastos sulfuratus - Lowland tropical wet forest at Golfito

Some Invertebrates from Costa Rica I: Miscellany I

I have not the time to even begin identifying these yet - I will keep you all updated as I do.











There are a few (non-invertebrate) photographs here.