Colin Donihue

Kat’s first post was so popular here’s a quiz she wrote for you all on insect identification:

Sometimes I find crazy, exciting stuff when looking through P. erhardii stomach contents (see the bottlebrush tick and pseudoscorpion from the last post!). More often than not, however, I find myself looking at variations on a theme: clusters of the same body part from the most common orders of insects. These elements are usually made up of materials that don’t break down easily in the lizards’ stomachs, and remain in the gut even after the rest of the insect is digested.

I put together a pop quiz of some of the most common and recognizable elements I find in the stomach contents. These are body parts that are not easily digestible and are diagnostic of a particular order. See how many you can identify!