u/indicator_species

Do y’all remember the UNIDENTIFIED CUCUMBER?!?

I gave it a good 6~months of researching 🧐 but I’m pretty sure the last recorded documentation of this 🥒 species in Texas was 1922!!! UNTIL MEEE back in
January 2026.

Thanks to the amazing Cuke researchers who came through on Reddit/FB with the paper depicting the species and I found the Hubert Clark reference/noting the species in Texas once over a century ago!!! 104 years to be precise!

Peep Fig. 17/18 for reference pics of the species it was identified as! And second link is the original 1922 Clark paper reference from Texas!

https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/EJT\_0949\_0001-0096.pdf

https://marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=sourceget&id=145697

I gave it a good 6~months of researching 🧐 but I’m pretty sure the last recorded documentation of this 🥒 species in Texas was 1922!!! UNTIL MEEE back in
January 2026.

Thanks to the amazing Cuke researchers who came through on Reddit/FB with the paper depicting the species and I found the Hubert Clark reference/noting the species in Texas once over a century ago!!! 104 years to be precise! And thank you @coastal.studieslab for sending another paper in the search for data on it!

EVERYONE MEET Isostichopus maculatus phoenius!

Peep Fig. 17/18 for reference pics of the species it was identified as! And second link is the original 1922 Clark paper reference from Texas! “Previous taxon”

https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/EJT\_0949\_0001-0096.pdf

https://marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=sourceget&id=145697

Every direction, as far as the eye could see, anywhere you focused to look, there were millions and millions of butterflies 🦋 lots of diversity but one species drastically outnumbered them all!

Following a nice cyclone 🌀 “Arthur” and the heat that followed 🥵 they took off on a migration somewhere maybe west of us by the looks of things today but 🤷🏼‍♂️

American Snout Butterfly
“Libytheana carinenta”

“Zoological facility & using safety equipment”
Snake is white sided/leucistic not a wild type coloration but was wild found.

SHOO FLY DON’T BOTHER ME!!!

Take a wild guess what this 🪰might be!!! 👀🫣👀

A~ USDA sterile male New World Screw Worm Fly 🙏🏼
B~ The first wild New World Screw Worm Fly 😥😑🫨
C~ Latrine Fly 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
Or something else?!?!?

I don’t have the answers but I don’t like that it doesn’t glow lmao 😂

I am very familiar with the big bad bug programs down here. “Mex Fruit Fly & now these” So fingers crossed it’s A or C lol 😂 regardless we aren’t a major risk aside keeping eyes peeled out being such a small heavily monitored herd with easy access to mitigation and having protocols for such things, and we are some of the more observant folk to keep an eye out down here on the border!!! USDA Veterinary/bug team have already picked this thing up too and fingers crossed they get back fast with the deets.

They did let me know they have started bringing in and releasing down here but didn’t say exactly where lol 😆

Take a wild guess what this 🪰might be!!! 👀🫣👀

A~ USDA sterile male New World Screw Worm Fly 🙏🏼
B~ The first wild New World Screw Worm Fly 😥😑🫨
C~ Latrine Fly 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

I don’t have the answers but I don’t like that it doesn’t glow lmao 😂

I am very familiar with the big bad bug programs down here. “Mex Fruit Fly & now these” So fingers crossed it’s A or C lol 😂 regardless we aren’t a major risk here at the Safari Park aside keeping eyes peeled out being such a small heavily monitored herd with easy access to mitigation and having protocols for such things, and we are some of the more observant folk to keep an eye out down here on the border!!! USDA Veterinary/bug team have already picked this thing up too and fingers crossed they get back fast with the deets.

They did let me know they have started bringing in and releasing down here but didn’t say exactly where lol 😆

#shooflydontbotherme #newworldscrewwormfly #latrinefly #bugme #swatthefly