lishd

@lishd submitted: Please enjoy my cicada killer tattoo, on the front of my left shoulder. The first picture shows him with my arm at rest, in a landing posture; second is how he moves when my arm is at ninety degrees, and is how they look in flight. I was never scared of these big buzzy friends even as a kid. (We can call him a red factor - I changed up his coloration a bit for aesthetics.)

Thanks for sharing my ink! I have one more “bug” tattoo to send. :)

@lishd submitted: It’s so good that you count snails as “bugs”. ^_^ Here are my love snails, based on these guys:

https://www.sciencealert.com/these-love-struck-mutant-snails-found-one-another-thanks-to-science-and-twitter

I got the photographer’s okay before proceeding… he was very pleased with the result. :)

@lishd​ submitted: I have two pieces of Mexican Chiapas amber that contain insects, but I haven’t been able to figure out what those insects are. What do you think? I’m particularly interested in the boy with a claw on their tail. How are you at identifying species from 15-23 million years ago? :D GL, TIA!

@lishd submitted: Here’s the butterfly hawkmoth I met in Croatia who made me literally squee. ^_^

@lishd submitted: Please enjoy my fire ant tattoo. I can make his antennae twitch if I wiggle my toes. :)

@lishd​ submitted: Here’s a polite grey house spider (I think?) that I met shortly after arriving to New Zealand. Specifically, I found him on my neck. Hence the politeness. :)

And the bulldog ant I found in Australia. He was almost an inch long and used his giant mandibles to steal my heart. ^_^

@lishd submitted: Hello! Here’s a leggy friend I found in South Africa on a trip several years ago. I believe he’s a red and black millipede. I took a video as well. :) Please enjoy him.

This is the result of an incredibly cool project. The Galapagos Islands represent a wonderfully diverse, but relatively fragile ecosystem that has been partially ravaged by various invasive species. Because the islands are, well, islands, some of them have been hit harder than others- like Santiago Island, which was home to destructive feral pigs. However, after a robust eradication program as part of Project Isabela and over a decade of monitored island conditions, Santiago Island’s iguanas have come home. 

But why reintroduce iguanas? Why go to the trouble of putting them back? The answer lies in the role that iguanas play in the island’s food web. Iguanas aren’t just cute and charismatic- they also eat a lot of plants. And then poop out a lot of plant seeds. This role makes them important in maintaining different types of island vegetation. Healthy vegetation usually means a healthier island that’s less prone to erosion and land loss, a safety net for all kinds of native and migratory species, and even has impacts on things like improved water quality. In addition, these iguanas’ parasites are a useful food source for island birds, who will pick ticks and other critters off the reptiles’ backs. 

(This is a marine iguana, not a land iguana, but the feeding mechanism is the same!)

Invasive species have threatened many iguana species either through predation or through resource competition, and zoos and aquariums often play a large role in helping these species recover. But that’s actually not the case here- the iguanas were actually relocated from a nearby island, where their food source was being depleted. It was a win-win for the entire species- the North Seymour population is at less of a risk, and the new Santiago population has an entire island without competition from introduced species or pig predation. They’ve got all the cactus they could possibly eat!

Because the challenges to the iguanas’ existence were all introduced (pigs, dogs, rats, and cats), it’s likely that these big lizards will do just fine on Santiago now that the unnatural selection mechanisms are drastically reduced. By reintroducing iguanas, Santiago’s ecosystem now has one of its important plant dispersal methods back in action.

If you’d like to learn more about Galapagos land iguanas or island iguana conservation and reintroduction in general (there’s some really cool projects all over the place, not just in the Galapagos!), I’ve put some links below!

https://galapagosconservation.org.uk/wildlife/land-iguana/

https://www.arkive.org/galapagos-land-iguana/conolophus-subcristatus/

https://www.discoverwildlife.com/news/iguanas-reintroduced-to-galapagos-santiago-island/

https://www.sheddaquarium.org/blog/2017/july/iguana-saga-a-conservation-quest-in-the-bahamas/

https://www.islandconservation.org/hope-intact-vanishing-island-iguana/

Deep, dark, tendril-like mossy inclusions stretching throughout this gorgeous pair of 3/4″ (19mm) ultra translucent moss agate rounds 

Email [email protected] for orders & inquiries

Yay my green on cobalt Luciferins came ^.^ Can’t wait to see them on a sunny day! Photos DO NOT do them justice

3/4″ (19mm) Moss agate plugs with a sparkly druzy pocket

Email [email protected] for orders & inquiries