Favoritos de pau_y_matias

Observed and photographed by my colleague Mike Morrison. A rare find usually associated with deep water in the tropics. This specimen was 3 m in length, 300 mm from spine to belly and 75-100mm thick and was estimated to weigh around 50 kg.

On my 3rd day working on this project a I recorded a group of around 20 to 30 juveniles Whiprays resting under a Mangrove tree's shade at high tide.

I spent a couple of hours in the water with them being very still until they seemed to got used to the click on my shutter, some were less shy than others and were happy to be very very close to the camera.

I uploaded a video of the sounds made here:

https://youtu.be/D74INfJAVgk

UPDATE JULY 2022

A paper has now been published based on this observation, Elasmobranchs no longer the silent residents of the sea. We the 1st evidence of not one but TWO species of stingray actively producing sounds doi.org/10.1002/ecy.38

Several of these male wasps were congregating around another wasp emerging (stuck?) in a wood crevice. They attempted to mate with it, so I thought it was a female. However close examination indicates that it was another male, perhaps trapped while trying to emerge from its pupal cell. Referring to a detailed reference linked on BugGuide, these key to:
Megarhyssa atrata (male, length about 35 mm)
bugguide.net/node/view/6324
That reference is:
Key to the species of Megarhyssa (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae, Rhyssinae) in America, north of Mexico. Victoria G. Pook, Michael J. Sharkey, David B. Wahl
Dtsch. Entomol. Z. 63 (1) 2016, 137–148 | DOI 10.3897/dez.63.7619
zoobank.org/5C4F5350-2C8E-422C-8C5B-DB8A04300D19

So, this is a polyergus bilateral gynandromorph! ½ worker caste (red), ½ alate (black). The mandibles, eyes, single wing, and antennae are the more obvious caste traits reflected in each half of this individual. Found them shortly after leaving the colony possibly (I found one a few feet away).
See: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/124878696
& https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/124879042

"An insect made in the 80s" according to one member of our party. Despite spending some time trying to get the exposure right to capture the glow and the animal, I still failed to get the head in focus. Oi.

Matches the species description provided here. Seeing as all specimens of this species were collected from Kaikoura, I'd be interested in knowing if the original paper (which I don't have access to) discusses the possibility of a wider distribution.

Clearly differed from C. sirena by its pattern and smaller number of marginal eyes, also much smaller in size. Under a rock at approx. 1m depth.