Bichos do Brasil — The Tiny Beasts of Brasil

Not quite translated into “the tiny beasts” like it would be in Spanish, in Portuguese bichos refers to animals in a more general sense.

One thing that surprised me was the absence of bugs in both Sao Paulo and Fortaleza — when not looking for creatures, I believe I saw one cockroach by a sewage opening while getting into a cab in Fortaleza. And… a crab that decided to stalk my foot on the beach at Canoa Quebrada.

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Beyond these two, to find tiny beasts, I spent an hour wandering around a wooded area in Icarai, a small town between Fortaleza and Cumbuco Beach (after the bus I was riding on broke down on the way to Cumbuco). I discovered that when you start looking at things in a micro view you find interesting life.

The pretty little Tetrio Caterpillar below will eventually become a Sphinx moth (remember the sphinx moth from Cuba).

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The below butterfly look much bigger in the photo than it is in real life. It’s the same size as my fingernail. I’m not sure what exactly it is — but it came in a brown model as well. It could be an Asterope or the recently cataloged Thepytus Carmen.

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There were lots of Monarch butterflies flitting about, but they were very skittish. This was the only one I managed to snap.

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Brazil is known for its large variety of arachnids… with large being the keyword. I only seemed to be able to find these tiny little white jumping spiders that had odd moving heads.

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This is some kind of red beach wasp that followed me everywhere in Cumbuco. The locals seemed to be really afraid of them so I assumed they were a wasp (perhaps incorrectly). These bugs seemed to like to commit suicide by diving into the ocean.

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Finally, a wall of geckos magically appeared for me on my last day in Fortaleza. They all scattered as I got close… only this guy/gal was the only one who decided to tough it out.

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