Anton Sorokin

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A coyote feeding on a deer in the Marin headlands.

The painted meadow grasshopper (Chimarocephala pacifica) looks exotic and tropical but it is a California native species found across the southern 3/4s of California & into Baja. This one was found in the East Bay hills. Most members of this species are not hot pink but rather varying shades of green or brown - however a small percentage of the population (usually females) is this combo of green + hot pink. Seems like a very maladaptive mutation for a diurnal insect that frequents open spaces - and it very well might be! Which would account for its scarcity within a population. If it acts as a beacon for birds or other predators the grasshoppers and their genes are quickly removed. Interestingly I know of another group of orthoptera which occasionally undergo a mutation to produce hot pink individuals - katydids! There are multiple articles & papers about how it was found that the pink gene was actually dominant over green, making green the recessive trait. When the 2 alleles are present in the same individual it is pink, & a breeding pink katydid will likely produce 50% pink offspring even when breeding with a green. But most of the katydids are green!? Turns out its probably because the green ones survive better, so even though the green allele is not dominant its still mostly the one getting passed down to future generations. Most green katydids never even encounter a pink individual to breed with as they're all eaten up, and most pink katydids dont survive to breed! Could it be something similar with these grasshoppers?

Diablo range aquatic gartersnake (Thamnophis atratus zaxanthus) hunting for tadpoles in a small pond in the East Bay