Large 2-3 inch long, reddish brown and light-brown scarab beetle with a prominent horn on the head and another with fuzzy orange-brown accents on the thorax. Insect is clinging to a tree trunk with white mottled bark.

Large 2-3 inch long, reddish brown and light-brown scarab beetle with a prominent horn on the head and another with fuzzy orange-brown accents on the thorax. Insect is clambering over a mossy surface.

Large 2-3 inch long, reddish brown and light-brown scarab beetle with a prominent horn on the head and another with fuzzy orange-brown accents on the thorax. Insect is clambering surface with soil and little vegetation

Large 2-3 inch long, reddish brown and light-brown scarab beetle with a prominent horn on the head and another with fuzzy orange-brown accents on the thorax. Insect is climbing along a towards a wrist with a watchband visible.

“Not everything ‘round a light is a moth”. This large, handsome #scarab #beetle “bumbled” into the sheet at the #RioQuijosEcolodge light trap & clambered around nearby branches & surfaces. Busy & determined, most chunky #beetles are hard to restrain. “Yes”, those little claws were sharp! #Ecuador

“Come to the light!” Tiny selection of one night’s cohort of #moths attracted to an illuminated sheet hanging near the forest edge at #RioQuijosEcolodge, #Ecuador. At times it was a “shut your mouth” situation as the swarm filled the air…including that which you hoped to breath! Moths are glorious!

Stick insect (maybe genus Dyme?) bearing body-length antennae with red legs and a green and yellow body dotted with black spines resting vertically on an upright branch in the vegetation of an Ecuadorian rainforest. Attached just behind the head of the stick insect is a yellowish-white engorged ectoparasitic fly species in genus Forcipomyia.

Close-up of stick insect Stick insect (maybe genus Dyme?) showing the black spines dotted along the green and yellow body. A leaf forms the background vegetation of this photo taken in an Ecuadorian rainforest.

Centered in a close-up image of a stick insect is a yellowish-white engorged ectoparasitic fly (a species in the genus Forcipomyia) attached behind a prothorasic leg.

“Functional & decorative?” This #stick #insect (Order #Phasmatodea) from #RioQuijosEcolodge #Ecuador sports an impressive suit of spines on its green, red & yellow body. They look harmless, but maybe not be in a predator's mouth! An engorged #Ectoparasitic #Forcipomyia #fly isn’t bothered by them.

Green & Yellow walking stick with red legs.

Black and yellow walking stick with enormous inflated abdominal tip.

Large daddy-long leg/harvestman with a rust colored body.

Close up of the harvestman showing the details of its body.

“Long, leggy things abound” #RioQuijosEcolodge #Ecuador was wonderland for #stick #insects (Order #Phasmatodea) & impressive #harvestmen (#Arachnid relatives in Order #Opiliones). I typically found something new & really big, awesome, or weird along dark forest paths every 5 min during nightwalks