Translate this page

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Click Beetles

From the beetle family Elateridae, commonly called Click Beetles because its body has an unusual click mechanism when activated will produce a violent click which can bounce the beetle into the air. Its function is to escape from predators and also used for righting itself when it finds itself inadvertently on its back, due to its very short legs, without the clicking mechanism it would be difficult to right itself.
There is about 9300 species worldwide, so identifying which specific genus they are from would be challenging.

Click beetles have long, flat bodies and are masters of feigning death, where it can remain still for a long time pretending to be dead by merely touching it, which makes it an ideal subject for macro photography. They range in length from 1/4 in. to 4 in. Generally found in shades of black or brown, adults are usually nocturnal leaf-eaters.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

The Two-striped telamonia (Telamonia dimidiata),

One of the many jumping spiders found in the Malaysian tropical rain forest, jumping spiders forms the largest family of spiders from the family Salticidae.

Jumping spiders get their names from its ability to jump from place to place spunning silk if need be while jumping, the silk is used as anchorage just in case it falls, it can climb back up the spunned silk.

The two striped telamonia, made famous by an e-mail hoax circulated widely around the globe around 2002 and till now occasionally still being circulated in many edited form still referencing to the two striped Telamonia spider. The hoax claims its bite is fatal and they are usually found lurking under toilet seats waiting to bite on any unsuspecting victim’s butt. Some e-mail hoax actually titled the e-mail “Butt Spider”.

Further information on the hoax can be found in this site: http://www.snopes.com/horrors/insects/telamonia.asp