"Jim Spanfeller" (awesomeaustinv)
04/16/2020 at 13:24 • Filed to: None
2
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"Jim Spanfeller" (awesomeaustinv)
04/16/2020 at 13:24 • Filed to: None | 2
| 17 |
“You can try this yourself! All you need is a bathtub, a muffin, and a go-get-em’ attitude. Nothing will happen, but you might lose a roommate.”
I just watched so many of these videos in a row that I’ve been reading all Oppo posts today in Ze’s voice... This is truly one of the greatest things on Youtube...
TheRealBicycleBuck
> Jim Spanfeller
04/16/2020 at 13:49 |
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The Ebony Jewelwing is one of my favorite damselflies (not my picture).
I think this is a Neon Skimmer , but if that’s the case, it’s a lot further east than its normal range. I took its portrait in the middle of a swamp.
vondon302
> Jim Spanfeller
04/16/2020 at 14:55 |
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And that’s how the oppo do...
Ze Frank is so good
phenotyp
> Jim Spanfeller
04/16/2020 at 15:32 |
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Oh man, you’re just now discovering Ze Frank?
I wish I could watch The Show for the first time, again. It was one of the most amazing, weird, and inspiring things. One year of daily video. What ended up being a huge following around the world. Some of the funniest shit.
Like the Earth Sandwich.
His stuff has been a bright spot for me for like 15 years, even, and maybe especially, when things haven’t been all that bright.
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phenotyp
> TheRealBicycleBuck
04/16/2020 at 15:40 |
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I love the odonates so much. The jewel-wing damselflies, especially.
A Boy and His Longtail
> Jim Spanfeller
04/16/2020 at 15:46 |
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True Facts is a gift to humanity
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TheRealBicycleBuck
> phenotyp
04/16/2020 at 16:13 |
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Nice pics. The Ebony Jewelwings marked a turning point in my life. I was lucky enough to earn a spot in a summer program where high school students attended classes held at the University of Oklahoma Biological Research Station. I spent the summer between my freshman and sopho more year at the station and took a graduate course in entomology.
Part of our learning experience was helping out some of the graduate students with their research work. The guy that I assisted was studying fish in freshwater streams and how the population changed with temperature. We went to the spring which was the headwaters for one of the creeks in the area and spent the day catching and cataloging fish. I wasn’t terribly interested in the fish, but I remember that the counts showed population variance in both species and counts with temperature as we worked our way downstream.
What was amazing to me was the damselflies. There were scores of Ebony Jewelw ings flitting around the creek. It was overgrown and shaded, so all you c ould see was movement in the dark punctuated by flashes of blue and black as they moved through the dappled light. It was like a fairy tale had come to life.
While I had leanings toward becoming a biologist, I’m pretty sure that day placed me firmly on the path.
haveacarortwoorthree2
> Jim Spanfeller
04/16/2020 at 16:17 |
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Much different than the Ze Frank I know. (Oh, I guess he is Ze Fronk )
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phenotyp
> TheRealBicycleBuck
04/16/2020 at 16:44 |
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Holy shit. I majored in biology in college, entomology and comparative anatomy were my favorite classes. I grew up loving and being totally fascinated by bugs of all sort. Still am.
Your damselfly story is pretty close to mine. I grew up in woods and ponds, so they were everywhere. A couple summers I worked at a canoe livery on a local river, and the summer that I turned 21, I was pretty much running the livery. On really good days, when we had just enough customers that I didn’t have to invent some mowing or repair, I’d have some time in the afternoons to lie on the dock next to the waterfall, no one to bug me, read some 1000+ page book in the dappling shadows and shimmering reflections, and even with the (admittedly tiny) waterfall behind me, it was quiet enough that you could hear the damselflies’ wings brushing against each other as they flitted.
Unlike the P-51s of the dragonfly world, the delicacy and precision flying of damselflies has always enchanted me.
Probably why I draw lots of airplanes that look like this .
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phenotyp
> TheRealBicycleBuck
04/16/2020 at 16:55 |
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One of the big mind-benders I thought about as a kid was: what if dragon/damselfly nymphs aren’t really nymphs— if they can live like 6 years underwater and just eating really juicy bugs, tadpoles, and fish, just chillin, eating, and being near the top of that scale of food chain.
Then they get a couple weeks of zooming around at admittedly amazing speed, having sexytimes if they’re lucky, then expiring.
It’s like the Bon Jovi song of the insect world: going out in a blaze of glory.
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TheRealBicycleBuck
> phenotyp
04/16/2020 at 16:59 |
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It’s fun to see how many Oppos have overlapping backgrounds and interests! My favorite place to go when I had a break at the summer camp where I worked was the boat dock. I really loved being able to take out one of the boats. Most of them were Sunfish, but my favorite was a red Hobie Monocat.
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TheRealBicycleBuck
> phenotyp
04/16/2020 at 17:02 |
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“They will live as nymphs for up to four years, molting their skin between 8 to 17 times depending on the species, and finally when they mature into adults, they can only live for a few months.”
I thought this was the case (remembering from my class over 20 years ago), but I had to find a reference to be sure.
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phenotyp
> TheRealBicycleBuck
04/16/2020 at 17:10 |
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2016, right after i got the iphone 7. Still amazed at the quality of the photo.
Still amazed by the darter. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that they’re still around after 300 million years. They kinda have this shit down. Maybe sometime we’ll see some more 3+ foot wide dragonflies. How fucking awesome would that be?
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TheRealBicycleBuck
> phenotyp
04/16/2020 at 17:22 |
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Wow. That’s sharp. It was a total surprise to spot a red dragonfly over here in Louisiana. I’d never seen one before!
I sure hope we don’t see giant dragonflies. The atmospheric changes that make them possible would be detrimental to our health. Not to mention what it would be like to hit one while on a motorcycle. Something that big is likely to take you right off the back!
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phenotyp
> TheRealBicycleBuck
04/16/2020 at 17:36 |
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I know! But we think of them only as the ones flying around, but their whole life is underwater. Is that really a “nymph?”
Classification philosophy is a whole ‘nother thing.
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phenotyp
> TheRealBicycleBuck
04/16/2020 at 17:42 |
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Well, sure, there’s not enough oxygen for giant bugs, but... woudn’t you love to see one? WHAT THE HELL DID THEY EAT?
All they do is eat! They’re built for two
missions, eating and fucking
. I’ve listened to a green darner munching on a horsefly’s head, and wished I had a microphone that could capture that sound
. Scale that up by 30,000%... what the hell is it eating?
First off, I’d say, goodbye birds.
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Jim Spanfeller
> haveacarortwoorthree2
04/16/2020 at 17:50 |
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I remember that show! That was a good show.
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Jim Spanfeller
> A Boy and His Longtail
04/16/2020 at 17:57 |
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You know it’s special when you’re laughing your everything off while simultaneously learning (perhaps a bit more than you wanted to know) about gobs of fascinating animals, including Morgan Freeman.