1 week Ago By Yahoo News Australia
An eagle-eyed photographer has made two remarkable discoveries after zooming in on a rainforest tree that sprung up in his backyard. David White was initially captivated by a crab spider that was smaller than his thumbnail and had perfectly camouflaged itself against the mottled trunk. But then he noticed a second creature that was even more difficult to see, and has now sparked excitement from experts overseas.
“It was so tiny, you wouldn’t believe how small it is, no bigger than two millimetres,” he told Yahoo News. “I’m pretty old, but I could just make out a bit of movement on the tree at nighttime.” White has delighted in photographing the elusive creatures that live around his home, which sits on the edge of the Daintree Rainforest.
Rotting logs, tight crevices in bark and high branches all provide homes for insects and spiders that most people go their entire lives without ever noticing. “There’s a whole world in front of our eyes that you don’t really see unless you get really close,” White said. “It’s a bit of fun.
It’s like Pokémon Go, ” he quipped in reference to the online augmented reality game in which users search for mystical animals. Related: Incredible photos capture 'magical' phenomenon in Aussie forests International expert excited by second creature found in Aussie backyard By day, White is a professional tour guide, who takes tourists on adventures down the Daintree River to see large crocodiles. But it's at night that he turns his attention to the world of hidden insects.
He has uploaded dozens of images of his unique finds to iNaturalist , a global social networking site where hobbyists and professionals share locations and pictures of plants and animals. In his home suburb of Wonga Beach in Queensland, there are over 3,300 listings, but globally there are over 10 million. One expert, living half a world away in Croatia, believes this second creature White photographed on the tree trunk could be a new species of pygmy grasshopper.
“He’s asked me to catch it, but they’d want it preserved in alcohol and sent to a museum,” White said. “But I’d feel bad killing it. There could be only one living in our forest.
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