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  Is Picture Wing Fly a Predatory Jumping Spider Mimic?

  August 6, 2013 at 3:45 pm / Evolution, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video

  The video of this picture wing fly (Delphinia picta) was recorded on April 24th 2011 in Athens, GA. It has a curious wing pattern which resembles a jumping spider but is it really? Mimicry is a type of species interaction that evolves in response to prey, predators and parasites. Examples of mimicry is abundant in nature and provide compelling cases for natural selection. A classic example is Heliconius butterflies living in tropical America. Some Heliconius species show Batesian mimicry. Wing […]

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  A Carolina Wren Family Attacked by a Chipmunk

  July 30, 2013 at 6:25 pm / Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

  On April 21 2013, a family (4 juveniles 2 adults) of Carolina Wrens (Thryothorus ludovicianus) were hanging around a downed tree. The chicks were learning to forage while being actively fed by their parents. In the middle of all this a chipmunk approached which made both parents rather nervous. Then the chipmunk made a darting attack. The wren parents defended their chicks quite effectively. One parent dove on the chipmunk with a flying kick. It was so powerful that the […]

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  Ant Tending Treehopper Larvae

  July 18, 2013 at 12:52 am / Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

  May 23rd 2009 in Georgia State Botanical Garden in Athens, GA, USA. The ant (Formica palidefulva) is tending a number of treehopper (Entylia carinata) nymphs. If watched carefully, the honeydew secreted by the instars are visible at [00:22, 00:28, 00:37] seconds into the video. The mother treehopper is still sitting around the midrib of the thistle where she laid her eggs (dark necrotic patch around her). The story got published in the November 2009 issue of the Atlas Magazine under […]

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  A Cannibal Caterpillar?

  April 11, 2013 at 7:27 am / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video

  On September 22 2012, I encountered this caterpillar eating another fuzzy insect part along the White Trail of the State Botanical Garden of Georgia in Athens, GA. While the munching was going on, a familiar bully of the bushes the ground beetle (Calleida punctata) came in. The beetle harassed and eventually forced the caterpillar away from the leaf. I desperately needed help in explaining the sequence of events happening in this video. Why was the ground beetle so interested in […]

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  Hammer Eyed Fly (Richardia telescopica)

  March 6, 2013 at 11:25 pm / Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video

  On September 9th 2001, I encountered this hammer-eyed fly (Richardia telescopica) on STR trail (~600m mark) at La Selva Biological Field Station in Costa Rica. I was rushing on my bicycle to my field site one morning. I had to make an abrubt stop because my path was blocked by a tree fall which I believe was a Hampea appendiculata (Malvaceae). I noticed the fly on one of the branches of the downed tree. I rushed to get the camera […]

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  Carolina Cranesbill (Geranium carolinianum) Flower Self-pollination

  January 24, 2013 at 10:30 am / Evolution, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Video

  Dr. Rebecca Shirk has studied genetic diversity and adaptation in native and invasive populations of Carolina cranesbill (Geranium carolinianum) during her PhD project in Department of Plant Biology at the University of Georgia in Athens. Flowers of this genus has a quite diverse pollination strategy. Flowers come in a staggering diversity of forms. There are huge flowers; tiny flowers; flowers that never open; flowers with patterns that can’t be seen by the human eye; and extremely specialized flowers that are […]

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  Mud Dauber Wasps Constructing Nests

  December 8, 2012 at 9:54 am / NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video

  Insects never have boring lives. Mud daubers set a great example. These busy wasps build their nest chambers out of mud. Here in two separate videos you can see the two stages of nest construction: [1] Gathering mud by Sceliphron caementarium filmed in Athens, GA, USA. [2] Construction of the nest chambers by Sceliphron destillatorium from Canary Islands. The genus Sceliphron is found in all of the temperate and tropical continental areas of the world and on many islands (some […]

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  Atlantik Kasırgaları ve Akdeniz

  June 9, 2012 at 7:35 pm / Global Patterns, NatureDocumentaries.org, Video

  Ölçümlerin başladığı 1884 yılından beri dünyamızın giderek ısındığı kaydedilmekte. Uydulardan elde edilen yüksek çözünürlüklü ölçümler ısınmanın yakın gelecekteki etkileri konusunda net veriler sunuyor. NASA’nın yörüngeye oturttuğu 16 uydu sayesinde okyanus akıntıları ve yüzey sıcaklıkları gibi küresel ölçekteki olaylar üzerindeki bilgimiz her geçen gün daha da artıyor. Yükselen deniz suyu yüzey sıcaklıkları Atlantik’deki kasırgaların sıklığını ve şiddetini artıran bir etken. Atmosfer bilimciler kasırgaları anlayabilmek için bulutları gerçek değerlere yakın hesaplayabilen bilgisayar modelleri kullanıyorlar. NASA’nın geliştirdiği GEOS-5 bulut modeli bunlardan biri. Akdeniz’deki […]

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  Red wasp hunting grasshopper.

  January 16, 2012 at 10:43 pm / NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

  These sequences were captured on May 14th 2010 in Athens, GA, USA. Young grasshopper nymphs (Romalea microptera) all emerged together as a brood were hanging out on a plant (Galium spp.). There were 17 of them. Red wasp (Polistes carolina) began hovering over for a couple of minutes and attacked one of them. The wasp began eating by chewing the abdomen first and later flew over to the top of a kudzu vine (Pueraria montana) to eat the rest. Although […]

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  Daytime Hunting of Barred Owl (Strix varia)

  January 16, 2012 at 10:42 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

  On April 16th 2011, a barred owl glided over my head while I was filming something else along the Orange Trail of the State Botanical Garden of Georgia in Athens, GA. Hunting during daytime indicates that this individual has extra mouths to feed. You can hear the altruistic alarm calls of other nervous birds and rodents. The high pitched alarm call (of a chipmunk?) is particularly audible immediately before each move of the owl. I deliberately kept the scenes long […]

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