Bluespine Unicornfish – IUCN Conservation Status: Least Concern In Hawai’i the bluespine unicornfish is known as “kala” The bluespine unicornfish can be found in the Indo-Pacific. Here it is pictured in the calm water off Poipu Beach on the island of Kauai in Hawai’i. It is also known by the common name, short-nose unicornfish. It […]
Carolina Mantis – IUCN Conservation Status: Insufficient Data There are more than 2,400 species across 460 genera and 33 families in the Mantodea order This photo was taken while walking about my backyard. I had just picked a few blackberries, and I was looking to see if I needed to prune the apple tree. That’s […]
Conspicuous Sea Cucumber – IUCN Conservation Status: Insufficient Data The conspicuous sea cucumber is a bottom feeder The conspicuous sea cucumber is a particularly weird looking sea cucumber. It can be found in abundance in the waters of Kaneohe Bay off the coast of Oahu, Hawai’i. Their local abundance is noted by a rarity throughout […]
Blue-fronted Dancer – IUCN Conservation Status: Least Concern Blue-fronted dancers are a type of damselfly This wild winged creature is called a blue-fronted dancer. It is called a “dancer” because of how it flies. Notice the thin transparent wings. The blue-fronted dancer is a type of damselfly. Damselflies are smaller than dragonflies. The male blue-fronted dancers have a blue thorax […]
Flying Gurnard – IUCN Conservation Status: Varies Flying gurnards walk around using their ventral and pectoral fins We are looking at an overhead image featuring a flying gurnard (left) and peacock flounder (right). Both fish have amazing camouflage skills. This photo was taken at Blue Heron Bridge in West Palm Beach, Florida. Blue Heron Bridge is a […]
IUCN Conservation Status: Least Concern Living rock cactus are being poached from the wild I absolutely love this weird wild photo of a living rock cactus! This was taken while on a trip in Big Bend National Park in Texas. When I first saw one of these cacti, I thought that it had been stepped […]
IUCN Conservation Status: Insufficient Data The leaf-footed bug has five nymph instar stages This photo of a leaf-footed bug was taken while Jill and I were out for a hike in Shades State Park in Waveland, Indiana. Shades offers one of the most unique hikes in Indiana. We had started the hike on trail number […]
IUCN Conservation Status: Insufficient Data Alpheus Spring Packard identified 500 new animal species I took this photo while out for a hike with Matt in New Hampshire. The day before we had been diving in Maine, and we had spent the night camping. Surprisingly, this was the only photo that I took that day, and […]
IUCN Conservation Status: Least Concern Their bodies have horizontal blue and yellow stripes This is the head of a snakefish, otherwise known as a blunt-nose lizardfish. This species is found in the Atlantic Ocean, and more specifically this photo was taken off of West Palm Beach, Florida. These fish live on the bottom (benthic) and tend to […]
IUCN Conservation Status: Least Concern They have an anguilliform body plan This creature may appear menacing; however, it is only opening its mouth to breathe. Goldentail moray eels will continuously open and close their mouths as a requirement of their respiration process. These eels don’t have bony gill covers like a fish would have. Instead, goldentail eels […]