It’s important to me that everyone sees these Chilean Stag Beetles. Do you see the size of those things?

Franz Xaver Mandl - "Berchtesgaden region with a view of the Watzmann mountain" (1863)

This trip up the north of Thailand, doesn't stop giving me 'bug surprises'. In our last guesthouse I found some "interesting ants" but didn't give them much thought. It was just later when I took out my TG-7 out of my pocket and pointed at them that I noticed the hooks on their thorax and betwren their thorax and abdomen.

They turned out to be polyharchis armata, not that I know much of ants, but I know that these are a species of fish hook ants new to me. Those hooks are a deterrent for predators. Just look at them, who would like to eat something that spicky?!

Actually that's polyrhachis bihamata! Polyrhachis Armata are black and their spikes aren't curved in this fishhook way :)

Those hooks are super capable! They can pierce human skin relatively easily, super cool adaptation

Henriëtte Ronner-Knip (Dutch–Belgian, 1821–1909), "Study of Eleven Cats" (details), 1904

Indian Narrow-headed Softshell Turtle (Chitra indica), male, family Trionychidae, Chitwan National Park, Nepal

ENDANGERED.

photograph by Sumana Chhetri

Southern Banded Newts (Ommatotriton vittatus), mating, family Salamandridae, Lebanon

photographs by Rami Khashab

Indian Pitta (Pitta brachyura), family Pittidae, order Passeriformes, Karnataka, India

photograph by Satisha Sarakki

Solórzano's Velvet Worm (Mongeperipatus solorzanoi), family Peripatidae, Costa Rica

photograph by Victor Acosta Chaves

Peder Mørk Mønsted - "Cape Martin, France" (1907)

Anderson's Crocodile Newt aka Japanese Warty Newt (Echinotriton andersoni), family Salamandridae, Japan

photographs by Koh Ke Han

'a woman from the land of eskimos' oil on canvas, framed: 62.9 x 57.2 x 8.9 cm; léon cogniet, french, 1826.

Muddy Alligators (1917) by John Singer Sargent

Hubert Robert - "The Old Temple"

Tianshu Zhang (Chinese, 1992) - Untitled (2023)