Pages

▼

Friday, 2 January 2015

Orthonevra nitida

Image: USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab
Tattooed eyes? Whatever will they think of next?

I'd be up for some lung piercings and a peroxide blonde skeleton.

Image: Chuck
Orthonevra nitida is a member of the Hoverfly family, found mostly in the eastern side of the United States.

Image: Jesse Christopherson
They're teeny-tiny! Just 5 mm (0.2 in) long. And they lack the bright, stripy colours found in lots of other Hoverflies...

Image: Mike Leffler
They have a certain charm all of their own, though. I could get lost in those eyes. They look a ot like a maze, after all.
at

5 comments:

  1. Esther2 January 2015 at 12:30

    They certainly are mesmerizing! Do you know if the patterns mean anything?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Joseph JG2 January 2015 at 12:58

    I saw some ideas here:
    http://pandasthumb.org/archives/2013/07/orthonevra-niti.html

    It's not clear what they're for. It might improve their sight or help out camouflage or something like that.

    It's pretty weird!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Crunchy2 January 2015 at 14:04

    They look like they fell asleep at a frat party and their mathematics major roommate sketched perfectly symmetrical patterns on their eyeballs.

    And that's why that dude doesn't get invited to parties or any attention from the damselflies.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Joseph JG2 January 2015 at 14:07

    NEEEEERRRD!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. TexWisGirl2 January 2015 at 16:20

    so funky cool!

    ReplyDelete