jupiterswasphouse

[jupiterswasphouse]

[PHOTO TAKEN: JUNE 5TH, 2025 | Image ID: A photo of a reddish-brown stag beetle on a white woven plastic tarp /End IDs.]

[jupiterswasphouse]

Oh beautiful! Ammophila is a wonderful but odd genus to mimic! Apart for some tell tale Dipteran features, this is a great mimic!

Systropus macer is a species of beefly (Bombyliidae) that mimics a sand wasp in the genus Ammophila. This gives it a strange appearance for a beefly, as most other species are round and hairy.

S. macer is a parasitoid of slug caterpillars, which is also somewhat unusual since bombyliids typically target ground-dwelling hosts like burrowing bees and beetle larvae.

(Massachusetts, 8/11/24)

[jupiterswasphouse]

[PHOTOS TAKEN: JULY 5TH, 2025 | Image IDs: Two photos of a brown and grey sac spider on a white metal surface /End IDs.]

[jupiterswasphouse]

[PHOTOS TAKEN: JULY 5TH, 2025 | Image IDs: Six photos of a black, grey, yellow, and red eastern lubber grasshopper on a brown metal pole /End IDs.]

Finally, the lubbers that hatched a couple months prior are full size!

[jupiterswasphouse]

[VIDEOS TAKEN: JULY 5TH, 2025 | Video ID: A video of a red/brown fine-backed paper wasp crawling across a bundle of hydrangeas, looking for nectar to eat /End IDs.]

[jupiterswasphouse]

[PHOTOS TAKEN: JULY 2ND, 2025 | Image IDs: Two photos of a black polypore fungus beetle on top of a white mushroom on the side of a log /End IDs.]

Was looking at this polypore fungus beetle, and I thought it was the only one on the mushroom, until I turned the camera a bit!

[VIDEO TAKEN: JUNE 2ND, 2025 | Video ID: A video of a bunch of tiny black fungus beetles and a larger, black and brown fungus beetle crawling around the underside of the same mushroom shown above /End ID.]

[jupiterswasphouse]

[PHOTOS TAKEN: JULY 2ND, 2025 | Image IDs: Two photos of a grey and brown robber fly alone on a white woven plastic tarp, followed by another two images of it standing next to a leafhopper /End IDs.]

Surprised that that robber fly didn't scare off the leafhopper XD friends ig!

[jupiterswasphouse]

[PHOTOS TAKEN: JUNE 27TH, 2025 | Image IDs: Three photos of a red, black, and yellow reddish-brown stag beetle standing on moss /End IDs.]

[jupiterswasphouse]

[VIDEO AND PHOTOS TAKEN: JUNE 27TH, 2025 | Video and Image IDs: A video and two photos of a beige/brown cicada fresh out of the ground, about to molt. In the video, it crawls across a human hand, trying to find a good spot, while in the photos it's perching momentarily on a wood post. /End IDs.]

Found this little guy, right on the verge of adulthood, on the ground, just getting ready to find a spot to molt! I had to get my dog away from it because the only reason I noticed it was because she was sniffing at it curiously! Spent the next 20 minutes trying to find a spot that it liked where I could watch it molt, until finally...

[VIDEO AND PHOTOS TAKEN: JUNE 27TH, 2025 | Video and Image IDs: A 15 minute long video and six photos of the cicada shown above, now on a white woven plastic tarp. Over the course of the video, the cicada molts, revealing a soft, grey, brown, and mint green exoskeleton as several angles are shown. The images show further progress, one just before the beginning of the video, the cicada partially through its molt; the next three right after the molting process, showing its wings at partial, but not full, extension; and the final two showing it much later in the night, still in the process of hardening, but much darker now than before as it reaches the end /End IDs.]

It molted! It decided it liked this tarp, and allowed me to watch the process unfold! It started molting maybe 5 - 10 minutes before I started filming and finished about 10 minutes after I stopped filming as well (I don't have a good setup for holding my phone in place so I was quite literally standing there for 15 minutes before I reluctantly tapped out), before proceeding to spend most of the rest of the night hardening up in that spot!

[jupiterswasphouse]

[PHOTOS TAKEN: JUNE 27TH, 2024 | Image IDs: Two photos of a brown geometer moth on a dirty white woven plastic tarp /End IDs.]

[jupiterswasphouse]

todays warm up

[jupiterswasphouse]

The phrase "fuck it, she probably be creepin around like calamity ganon" has been in my head for years, and after looking at that fight again, I couldn't stop thinking about this.

And it's absolutely correct. Have you seen how low those tunnel ceilings are?

[jupiterswasphouse]

awesome

[jupiterswasphouse]

[PHOTOS TAKEN: JUNE 26TH, 2025 | Image IDs: Two photos of a lacewing larva, covered almost completely in its chitinous camouflage pile, crawling up the side of a crepe myrtle branch /End IDs.]

[jupiterswasphouse]

[PHOTOS TAKEN: JUNE 24TH, 2025 | Image IDs: Four photos of a yellow, brown, and beige crambid moth on a brown wooden post /End IDs.]

[jupiterswasphouse]

Centipedes can be some of the most beautiful bugs you've ever seen and I love them so so much, but I've had more than a couple incidents of just chilling and then having an eastern bark centipede think "Ohhh this is an odd and interesting rock,,," before skittering up my leg XD

bugs you know I love you so much but please dear god do not take inspiration from this house centipede

[jupiterswasphouse]

[PHOTOS TAKEN: JUNE 23RD, 2024 | Image IDs: Two photos of a black and grey spined micrathena spider, notably with large, spiky abdomen. In one, it's on a strand of silk, while on the other, it's on the underside of a leaf /End IDs.]

Micrathena gracilis, the spined micrathena spider!