Larval Images

Just returned from a wonderful week as teaching assistant for a coral reef ecology course that has a field component in Belize on the Meso-American reef. While I love the reefs and seagrass beds, one of my favorite spots to visit in Belize is Twin Cayes- an amazing mangrove caye. Drifting down the channel that [...]

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While most of the larvae out there are from crustaceans and insects, larvae come from a wide variety of taxonometric groups including several groups of Chordates. Today's animal is one of my favorite larvae of all from Belize - the Spotted Trunkfish (Lactophrys bicaudalis (Linnaeus, 1758)). My idea of a perfect day out would be to dive on the reef at Carrie Bow Cay in the early morning and then spend the rest of the day snorkeling in the mangroves nearby, looking for and at the larval forms of fish and the invertebrates. So, on to the trunkfish... [...]

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Yummm… necrophagous larvae, or maggots, of the Blue Blow-Fly,Cynomyopsis cadaverina (Robineau-Desvoidy). The larvae of many species of fly feed on dead tissue. This is highly useful as an ecosystem service as they very effectively clean up any carrion that is missed or left over from any larger scavengers. Some species maggots feed only on necrotic [...]

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25 days after hatching from an egg, 9 days after becoming a chrysalis, this was at 6am, by 8pm the female monarch was out and ready to go free.[...]

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A virtual eating machine, the growth of the monarch caterpillar is plotted over the 14 days from hatch to entering the chrysalis stage. [...]

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