View allAll Photos Tagged pigmentation
An unusual melanistic Barn Owl. Melanistic means an increased amount of black or nearly black pigmentation of an organism, resulting from the presence of melanin. It is the opposite of albino, which occurs due to lack of melanin. This bird is captive bred.
Thanks for your visit… Any comment you make on my photograph is greatly appreciated and encouraging! But please do not use this image without permission.
In morphology the masked palm civet resembles other civets. Unlike most civets though, its orange-brown to gray fur completely lacks spots, stripes, and other patterns besides a mask.
That mask consists of a prominent white stripe stretching from nose to forehead (sometimes extends farther but has greatly reduced thickness) that halves a black mask that extends laterally to the far edges of the cheeks and caudally up the forehead, past the ears, and down the back of the neck before stopping just under the shoulder blades. The eyes are surrounded by white fur that can vary from faint, incomplete outlines to well-defined blotches. The lips, chin, and throat are white. In some, white stripes of fur, comparable to sideburns on humans due to shape and location, curve up from the throat. These curves vary in thickness and have ends that terminate either in small blotches at the ear base or large blotches that surround the base of both darkly furred ears.
No matter which coat it sports, masked palm civet's feet are always dark, often black, and the melanism usually extends partway up the legs in varying distances and intensities depending on the individual. The end of a masked palm civet's tail is sometimes darker than the majority of its coat. This difference in pigmentation can vary from a few shades darker than its coat to solid black and can cover a fourth to half of the tail.
The main body varies from 51 to 76 cm (20 to 28 in) in length, to which is added a tail of 51 to 63 cm (20 to 25 in). It weighs between 3.6 and 6 kg (8 and 13.2 lb).
O how agreeable a sight
Those hanging mountains do appear
Which the unhappy would invite
To finish all their sorrows here
When their hard fate makes them endure
Such woes as only death can cure
Henry Purcell
The humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the only species in the genus Megaptera.
The adult humpback whale is generally 14–15 m (46–49 ft), though longer lengths of 16–17 m (52–56 ft) have been recorded. Females are usually 1–1.5 m (3 ft 3 in – 4 ft 11 in) longer than males.
The species can reach body masses of 40 metric tons (44 short tons). Calves are born at around 4.3 m (14 ft) long with a weight of 680 kg (1,500 lb).
The body is bulky with a thin rostrum and proportionally long flippers, each around one-third of its body length.[15][16] It has a short dorsal fin that varies from nearly non-existent to somewhat long and curved.
As a rorqual, the humpback has grooves between the tip of the lower jaw and the navel. They are relatively few in number in this species, ranging from 14–35. The mouth is lined with baleen plates, which number 270-400 for both sides.
Unique among large whales, humpbacks have bumps or tubercles on the head and front edge of the flippers; the tail fluke has a jagged trailing edge.
The tubercles on the head are 5–10 cm (2.0–3.9 in) thick at the base and poke up to 6.5 cm (2.6 in). They are mostly hollow in the center, often containing at least one fragile hair that erupts 1–3 cm (0.39–1.18 in) from the skin and is 0.1 mm (0.0039 in) thick. The tubercles develop early in the womb and may have a sensory function as they are rich in nerves.
The dorsal or upper-side of the animal is generally black; the ventral or underside has various levels of black and white coloration. Whales in the southern hemisphere tend to have more white pigmentation. The flippers can vary from all-white to white only on the undersurface.
The varying color patterns and scars on the tail flukes distinguish individual animals. The end of the genital slit of the female is marked by a round feature, known as the hemispherical lobe, which visually distinguishes males and females.
This image was taken near Isafjordur in Iceland
It is a telephoto shot. I was not close using 300mm end of zoom! Sealions are normally placid and sunbath a lot on our beaches but this one was suddenly upset and shaking the sand off to get ready to charge (off camera person on Left) It only went a few meters then stopped having established its territory on the beach. Thanks if you have time for a comment!
Edit: They can take a fish or penguin with a bite so wouldn't annoy them up close. Stay back 10 m and don't walk between them and the sea which is their escape route.
From DOC website:
NZ sealions are the rarest in the world almost hunted to extinction for their fur in early 1800s.
In 1993, a female sea lion nicknamed “Mum” decided to have her pup on an Otago Peninsula beach. This was the first sea lion born on the mainland in over 100 years. Now, over 150 sea lions live on the mainland, and the Otago peninsula averages 4 new pups born each year, almost all related to “Mum.”
NZ sea lions are also starting to breed in the Catlins and on Stewart Island.
This one is I think a mature male and brown to black in colour with well-developed mane reaching to the shoulders.
Females are lighter in colour, predominantly creamy grey with darker pigmentation around their flippers.
Adult females (rāpoko): length 1.6-2.0 m, weight 100-160 kg
Adult males (whakahao): length 2.4-3.5 m, weight 250-400 kg.
Do you know A tiger's coat pattern is still visible when it is shaved. This is not due to skin pigmentation, but to the stubble and hair follicles embedded in the skin. It has a mane-like heavy growth of fur around the neck and jaws and long whiskers, especially in males. The pupils are circular with yellow irises. The small, rounded ears have a prominent white spot on the back, surrounded by black. These spots are thought to play an important role in intraspecific communication
Cliffside Lane, The Ridge, Fair Oaks / Sacramento County, California
This skipper appears to have lost some of its pigmentation, a process called leucism, which I've never seen in butterflies before.
Update on this skipper image. I posted this same image in Only Butterflies! on Facebook and Brian Orion, a member of the group feels that this is a faded Eufala Skipper and now that I re-looked at the image I have to agree as there are several markings on the ventral forewing that matches the Eufala Skipper.
A first for me as I'd never seen a jackdaw, or any other bird for that matter, with a partial loss of pigmentation in its feathers.
White Tiger Beauty. Fort Worth Zoo, Fort Worth, TX.
The white tiger or bleached tiger is a leucistic pigmentation variant of the Bengal tiger, Siberian tiger and hybrids between the two. It is reported in the wild from time to time in the Indian states of Madhya Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, in the Sunderbans region and especially in the former State of Rewa.[1] It has the typical black stripes of a tiger, but carries a white or near-white coat.
Thank you all for your views, faves and comments!
The old dead chokecherry finally broke near the ground and 3 species of Ichneumon wasps were laying eggs in the stump. This one is alternating brown and yellow. Body around 1 in long with much longer ovipositor. Home, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. 15 June 2023
I didn't realize there could be such a variation in size in the species but 2 experts agree on inaturalist. I guess that would make it 2 species, not 3. Small laying female, only 1 in long body.
Source: Wikipedia
Megarhyssa macrurus, also known as the long-tailed giant ichneumonid wasp[1] or long-tailed giant ichneumon wasp,[2] is a species of large ichneumon wasp.[3] It is a parasitoid, notable for its extremely long ovipositor which it uses to deposit an egg into a tunnel in dead wood bored by its host, the larva of a similarly large species of horntail.
Description
Megarhyssa macrurus has a reddish-brown body of up to 2 inches (51 mm) long.[5] It has black and yellow-orange stripes.[6] Its wings are transparent and the body elongated. The body and ovipositor together can be more than 5 inches (130 mm) long in the female. Males are smaller and have no ovipositor.[6]
The ovipositor
The ovipositor looks like a single filament, but it comprises three filaments, the middle one of which is the actual ovipositor, which is capable of drilling into wood. This central filament also appears to be a single filament, but is made of two parts, with a cutting edge at the tip. The two parts interlock and slide against each other.
Although very thin, the ovipositor is a tube and the egg being laid moves down a minute channel in its center. The outer two filaments are sheaths which protect the ovipositor; they arc out to the sides during egg-laying.[6]
Distribution
M. macrurus is found across the eastern half of the United States, reaching into the extreme south of Canada near the Great Lakes.[7]
Behaviour
Pigeon tremex horntail (Tremex columba)
M. macrurus is harmless to humans;[6][8] they are parasitoids on the larvae of the pigeon horntail (Tremex columba, Symphyta), which bore tunnels in decaying wood.[9] Female Megarhyssa macrurus are able to detect these larvae through the bark; they paralyse them and lay their eggs on the living but paralysed larva; within a couple of weeks the Megarhyssa larvae will have consumed their host and pupate, emerging as an adult the following summer.[6] www.inaturalist.org/taxa/47963-Megarhyssa-macrurus
'There is no other North American Megarhyssa species with two black spots on the wings. The patterns on the metasoma (abdomin) can vary somewhat between individuals. See bugguide.net/node/view/84171' enature comment on inaturalist.
Identification
Females of M. macrurus are distinguished from those of M. greenei by having the forewing pigmented along the basal vein (such that 2-3 distinct regions of pigmentation are present) and by the longer ovipositor length of about 2.2-2.3x the body length (3.0x forewing length). They also have dark vertical stripes on the face.(2)
Males are distinguished from all other species in the genus by the presence of pigmentation on the forewing (at the base of cell 2R1). They are also the only members of the species to have vertical lines on the face.(2)
Range
e NA to Rocky Mtns. / n. Mex. (BG data)
Food
Larvae parasitize Pigeon horntail (Tremex columba, Siricidae)
- Range: e. NA to Calif.
a man with severe
Neurofibromatosis aka VR disease
sauntering to and fro
in the
BIMAN BANDAR raliway station.
Neurofibromatosis 1 also called von Recklinghausen's disease, is a genetic disorder characterized by the development of multiple noncancerous (benign) tumors of nerves and skin (neurofibromas) and areas of abnormal skin color (pigmentation).
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“There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
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Biman Bandar station
in
North Dhaka
Photography’s new conscience
Given that I was in Louisville for the NBDCC 2025 (National Barbie Doll Collectors Convention), I decided (after hemming and hawing) to drive the hour and forty-five minutes to Bowling Green to try to find the white squirrels on campus. I was told they are all over, but you have decent odds trying at the WKU campus. So off I went. After arriving early (benefiting from the time change to Central), I walked around and noticed a number of Eastern Grey Squirrels on campus, but for the first hour, any white ones were elusive. Then by the Housing and Residence Life building (and the Centennial Mall), I noticed a bright white object moving. I found one! This little guy (little chance to mistake that) was probably the only one I saw. I moved around and did not find any others - but got some great pictures of this little charmer.
FWIW, the white squirrels in Bowling Green, Kentucky are leucistic. A leucistic squirrel has a condition that leads to a partial loss of pigmentation. The distinction between leucistic squirrels and albino squirrels is typically in the eyes. If they have dark eyes and are white or mostly white or off-white, they have leucism. A great squirrel tourism campus indeed! Taken on Friday June 27th, 2025 in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Drove four hours to
find these beauties on campus.
Totally worth it.
#SquirrelHaiku
The Brewster and the Lawrence warblers are hybrids between the blue winged and the golden winged which, other than pigmentation, are highly similar and can produce fertile offspring. The Brewster looks and sounds like a golden winged but with a masking of a blue Winged (this one is one generation back cross to the golden winged).
This bird was busy chasing away other warblers but found time to snack
Leucism is a condition in which there is partial loss of pigmentation resulting in white, pale, or patchy coloration of the feathers but not the eyes.
I'm presuming it is anyway as it has five subsegments on ant 4... Though it has rather long 1st and 5th subsegments. Another collembolan from Snook's Covert, my local woods, here in Somerset. All Arrhopolites have reduced pigmentation and ocelli, (with only one ocelots each side of the head (an example of auto correct... should read ocellus!) in the concentrated patch of orange red). They're built for darkness, so don't need eyes or colour...
Still finding N. minutus every now and again, though I haven't improved on the photo resolution yet.
There aren't any Arrhopolites species in the UK that are exclusively cave dwelling, though they love it, obviously... So you can often find them, along with Neelus murinus, on the underside of deeply buried logs, the nearest thing to a cave.
This little jumper is a female based on the pigmentation in her front legs according to BugGuide.net.
This would appear very similar to a specimen I found back in November, FransJanssens@www.collembola.org added this explanation about this dark colour form." In 1930, Jan Stach, called specimens from Spain with such broad cross bars meridionalis. In fact he described 4 types. Your specimen matches with type 2: the bars touch the lateral pigmentation."
A somewhat worse for wear Nubian giraffe, looking old and dark he had a large patch of white pigmentation on his neck and the hair on his horn like ossicones was literally worn to the bone.
Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda, June 2019
Nikon D500, 300mm F4 PF & 1.4TCiii @ F8, 1/1600, ISO1400
Today I didn't go to my English class because I didn't feel so well.. so I decided to try and do something half way decent during that time and was playing with makeup :)
I bought some really nice L'Oreal High pigmentation make up that has really really bright colours and used some loose eye glitter and looked out of the window!
The camera I held right next to my eye and tried to hold it steady!
This is what came out!
The red-crested turaco (Tauraco erythrolophus) is a turaco, a group of African otidimorph birds. It is a frugivorous bird endemic to western Angola. Its call sounds somewhat like a jungle monkey.
Red-crested Turaco is a medium-sized bird, with characteristic red and green pigmentation, typical in this genus. It is endemic to Angola.
This turaco is very similar to Bannerman’s Turaco (Tauraco bannermani), but they differ in crest and face colours.
The equivalent of albinism in animals, erythrism results from the inheritance of two recessive genes for the absence of pigmentation. Normally the katydid colour palette runs the gamut of greens, browns and yellows, colours which keep them camouflaged and aid in their survival. Although it has been hypothesized that pink coloration may increase survival rates amongst red vegetation it is much more likely that the genetic anomaly decreases fitness by increasing the insect's visibility to predators. Therefore it is likely that most individuals with this condition don't survive long and rarely make it to adulthood. Photo from the Santa Marta region, Colombian Caribbean.
La Casa del Alabado is a privately owned museum in an old Spanish-colonial residence located very near the Quito’s historic San Francisco Plaza. And when I say old, I don’t mean a hundred years or so. I mean truly antique. The house was built in 1671. The building itself is worthy of a visit even without its contents. Renovations have maintained the central structure which includes two interior courtyards, one in which tables and chairs await visitors. I easily spent time just enjoying the ever-changing clouds in the Andean sky. Exterior passageways on the second floor allow me to flow in and out of exhibits, giving the mind time to pause in between rooms.
Believe me, this is a place where a pause is necessary. Each room requires contemplation as your mind processes the beauty of each and every piece you see.
In the scheme of things, this building may be antique but its artifacts are ancient. We saw stunning pieces in amazing condition dating as far back as 4500 BCE, around the time the wheel was developed in Mesopotamia. Incredibly, this collection constantly surprises the visitor. Perhaps this is because the curators chose not to organize the collection by era or by time or even by culture. Instead, they found commonalities within each civilization and display those pieces side by side.
***
Housed in an elegant colonial-era home, this privately owned museum with contemporary displays showcases an impressive collection of pre-Columbian artifacts. Thematically organized around subjects such as shamans, pigmentation and the afterlife, explanations in English and Spanish (audio guides are available) explore the indigenous beliefs represented by the finely crafted ceramic pieces and jewelry.
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The Casa del Alabado Museum has in its custody around 5000 archaeological objects belonging to ancient societies that occupied the territory known today as Ecuador. A finely honed selection of 500 pieces makes up the Museum's permanent exhibition, with both scientific and museological content, invites the public to discover the worldview of indigenous Americans and explore the aesthetic and technical excellence achieved by ancient artists as they worked an array of raw materials.
***
I am museophiles, having visited some of the most interesting collections in the world. What makes the Casa del Alabado so interesting is that each piece harked back to another we had seen – many in San Francisco at the Asian Art Museum, others in Asian Art collections in Europe. Yes, the connections back to Asia are astounding. I saw figures reminiscent of Japanese Shogun Warriors and ancient Indian Yogis. We saw faces that could have come from ancient China or Japan. The connections were almost overwhelming.
Yet, at the same time, I saw pieces that were essentially Andean – tied into the ancient cosmology that we see repeated again and again in the artwork even today.
The black-legged kittiwake is a coastal bird of the arctic to subarctic regions of the world. It can be found all across the northern coasts of the Atlantic, from Canada to Greenland as well as on the Pacific side from Alaska to the coast of Siberia.
Black-legged kittiwakes' wintering range extends further south from the St-Lawrence to the southern coast of New Jersey as well as in China, the Sargasso sea and of the coast of west Africa. There are two subspecies of black-legged kittiwake. Rissa tridactyla tridactyla can be found on the Atlantic coast whereas Rissa tridactyla pollicaris is found on the Pacific coast.
The adult is 37–41 cm (15–16 in) in length with a wingspan of 91–105 cm (36–41 in) and a body mass of 305–525 g (10.8–18.5 oz). It has a white head and body, grey back, grey wings tipped solid black, black legs and a yellow bill. Occasional individuals have pinky-grey to reddish legs, inviting confusion with red-legged kittiwake.
The inside of their mouth is also a characteristic feature of the species due to its rich red colour. Such red pigmentation is due to carotenoids pigments and vitamin A which have to be acquired through their diet. Studies show that integument coloration is associated with male's reproductive success. Such hypothesis would explain the behavior of couples greeting each other by opening their mouth and flashing their bright mouth it to their partner while vocalizing.
As their Latin name suggests, they only possess three toes since their hind toe is either extremely reduced or completely absent.[7] The two subspecies being almost identical, R. tridactyla pollicaris is in general slightly larger than its counterpart R. tridactyle tridactyla. In winter, this species acquires a dark grey smudge behind the eye and a grey hind-neck collar. The bill also turns a dusky-olive color.[7]
Since kittiwakes winter at sea and rarely touch ground during this period, very little is known about their exact molting pattern.
The Kittiwake landed on the ship somewhere between Iceland and Greenland, before flying off again. It looked at me as though to ask to be left alone while it was resting.