#bug photographs

[whatnext10]

Colorful Little Shield-Backed Bugs are True Bugs, Not Beetles

Colorful Little Shield-Backed Bugs are True Bugs, Not Beetles discusses the beautiful shield-backed bugs, often also called jewel bugs. It shows several photos of one particular species of these insects.

Black and Gold Last weekend the weather was quite pleasant in the early evening, so I took advantage of that and went on a short hike in the Gothe State Forest behind my house. When I returned home, I took a little time to pick some of the blackberries that had started to ripen early. In the process of picking berries, I came across this pretty little shield-backed bug (Orsilochides guttata). It…

[artifacts-and-arthropods]

Strange Bedfellows: these unprecedented photos show a leafcutter bee sharing its nest with a wolfspider

I stumbled across these photos while I was looking up information on leafcutter bees, and I just thought that this was too cool not to share. Captured by an amateur photographer named Laurence Sanders, the photos were taken in Queensland, Australia several years ago, and they quickly garnered the attention of both entomologists and arachnologists.

The leafcutter bee (Megachile macularis) can be seen fetching freshly-cut leaves, which she uses to line the inner walls of her nest. The wolfspider moves aside as the bee approaches, allowing her to enter the nest, and then she simply watches as the leaf is positioned along the inner wall.

Once the leaf is in position, they seem to inspect the nest together, sitting side-by-side in the entryway; the bee eventually flies off again to gather more leaves, while the wolfspider climbs back into the burrow.

The leafcutter bee seems completely at ease in the presence of the wolfspider, which is normally a voracious predator, and the wolfspider is equally unfazed by the fact that it shares its burrow with an enormous bee.

The photographer encountered this bizarre scene by accident, and he then captured a series of images over the course of about 2 days (these are just a few of the photos that were taken). During that 2-day period, the bee was seen entering the nest with pieces of foliage dozens of times, gradually constructing the walls and brood chambers of its nest, and the spider was clearly occupying the same burrow, but they did not exhibit any signs of aggression toward one another.

The photos have been examined by various entomologists and arachnologists, and those experts seem ubiquitously surprised by the behavior that the images depict. The curator of entomology at Victoria Museum, Dr. Ken Walker, noted that this may be the very first time that this behavior has ever been documented, while Dr. Robert Raven, an arachnid expert at the Queensland Museum, described it as a "bizarre" situation.

This arrangement is completely unheard of, and the images are a fascinating sight to behold.

Sources & More Info:

Brisbane Times: The Odd Couple: keen eye spies bee and spider bedfellows in 'world-first'

iNaturalist: Megachile macularis

[pink-pony-boy]

I hiked through the park today

[120daysofsodomm]

[unacunatura]

june22🌱2024 | eyes of Lina

[celestialmacros]

Large Chestnut Weevil (Curculio proboscideus)

August 20, 2024

John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge, Tinicum, Pennsylvania

Always amazed what I find on the boardwalk railing out in the middle of a freshwater tidal marsh.

[charmed-n-zesty]

A walk in the forest.

[seabeck]

One of my neighbor's honeybees

[miyrumiyru]

Moon Moths (Genus Actias) - Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum)

I'm so glad that maple tree is becoming a resting place against the ugly streetlight for them!

[spiritofthemeadow]

ig - afternoondreams

[fairytaleprincessart]

[whatnext10]

Milkweed Assassin Bugs are Great Hunters and Pest Controllers

Milkweed Assassin Bugs are Great Hunters and Pest Controllers features a milkweed assassin bug that was found hunting in a patch of tickseed flowers. It describes the bug’s range, diet, hunting styles, and the author/artist’s feelings about the bug.

Searching Inside I really love the abundance of tickseed flowers that we have all over the place right now. Not only are the flowers themselves really pretty, but the pollinators adore them. So if I want to see and photograph bees, wasps, butterflies, and heaven knows what else, all I have to do is find a patch of these flowers. The other day I stopped at a bunch of them and as well as…

[textless]

In early summer I noticed some spiny, bright red hopper nymphs on the datura in the backyard. Within a week or so, they started turning into orange, fin-shaped adults. I had never seen anything quite like them.

I rarely try to identify creatures or plants because I am lazy and forgetful. I just like looking at them, not looking them up. But these are so striking that they were easy to find.

They are Antianthe expansa, or keeled treehoppers, and the very first photos that popped up were taken in the neighboring county.

I've read that they can eat tomatoes and eggplant, but these have only seemed interested in datura (another nightshade relative), and I mostly grow it because it brings all the insect boys to the yard. So, we're all happy.

Cochise County, Arizona, June 2024.

(If you'd like to see an insane number of additional photos...)

[honeyrosepetals]

corpse flies

[120daysofsodomm]

[cavalier-consciousness]

+ lymantrine moth