Microclima

Most polychaete species spend their lives in burrows in the seabed. However, adult individuals of two species, Alitta succinea and Platynereis dumerilii, leave their burrows to spawn during warm summer nights around the full moon. The worms swarm with thousands of individuals swimming simultaneously in the open water. During this journey, their bodies rupture while releasing eggs and sperm before they die. They are a luxury diet for many carnivores and are snapped up by trout and other predatory fish. And now University of Southern Denmark (SDU) biologists have shown that certain jellyfish also capture and eat the swarming polychaetes.

Calcites inside amethyst geode from Uruguay

I think the little winged insect is a wasp, of the sort that lays its eggs in preexisting eggs. The eggs belong to an unlucky bug, and all are tiny enough to disappear on a leaf.

Edited to add:

@razehider said:

the eggs are assassin bug eggs, i think the wasp looks more like a sciaroid/fungus gnat? weird place for it to be

And I said:

it does look quite a bit like a sciaroid, and I wish I had a clearer photo. The vines in that part of the yard are full of assassin bugs, so I’m sure you’re right about the eggs. :)

A slightly blurry creature of mystery!

Rainbow Pyrite with Quartz on matrix from West Kalimantan (Indonesia)

Video: ColoradoGemWorks

ough

my cute mole cricket basya