treegrow 的最愛

wierd skinnies

1.2cm long ,weird appendages all over, pumps along like a maggot and uses tiny front legs as pointed too in the second photo (white arrow),its head pumps in and out. .appendages look as if they are made up of little clear beads.

Found below the wrack line. Very fragile. I'm guessing that it was formed beneath the surface and that gentle waves/currents washed the surrounding sand away.
Compare cocoons for Hypocharassus pruinosis: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fstable%2F2422259&psig=AOvVaw1tGtqquQgTRizY0HLKRxK4&ust=1611342253883000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCOD91oLcre4CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

First image: the flatworm has sensed a leafveined slug’s mucus and is on the hunt.

Second image: The flatworm has caught up with the slug and pounces on its prey. The slug shows a surprisingly quick reaction and immediately elongates its body in an attempt to escape, albeit at a sluggish pace. Which is a bit faster than I would have imagined.
And just when I thought the slug was done for, it pulled one out of the hat: the BASE-jumper move! Without parachute, it let itself fall off the tree into the leaf-litter below.
The flatworm looked left and right, seemingly confused by the sudden disappearance of its prey, then showed some superior intelligence. Applying some basic notions of physics, it reasoned that if it let itself fall off the tree also, it would land in exactly the same place. And so it did!
Upon landing in the leaf-litter on the forest floor however the flatworm appeared disoriented and was unable to locate the slug again. With that BASE-jumper move, the slug may have just pulled off the narrowest of all escapes!

Encouraged by @treegrow, I returned to the beach with my macro lens to photograph the flies with large black eyes and noticed more detail. The eyes are framed in beige, the mouthparts are elongated, the pronotum is green and hairy, the legs are black and hairy, there is a flat, turquoise scutellum behind the pronotum, the wings are flat and iridescent, there are oval antennae with long, pointed tips like hairs. I wondered what they were doing on the boulders at low tide, and one appeared to sip from a barnacle shell with mouthparts. They seem social, as many were flocked together.