#bugs in amber

[thesleepyblueocean]

Take it moment by moment, and you will find that we are all, as I've said before, bugs in amber.

Kurt Vonnegut

[caprin-fishie]

Amber mantis with a amber mantis plan ✨💛

[forestkodama]

Entomologists have been dealing with bug misidentification for as long as we've induldged the brain's drive to make nice neat categories for things. Some of the oldest misidentifications are still on record from antiquity (think "bees" and rotting flesh), which still happen to this day. So many flies, beetles, hell even a few moths, get mistaken for bees and other wasps. This is pretty much what evolution selected for anyway: Big lumbering mammals with nimble grubbing digits learned pretty quick that the black and yellow stripey flying things can pack a punch if threatened, and sure enough, despite not being equiped to also pack said punch other black and yellow stripey flying things also didn't die as frequently, though very far in relation to wasps. So it is a commong and easy sort of astonishment to provide laypeople with knowledge that not everything that is black and yellow striped is in fact a wasp, and it is always hilarious to find mistakes in news articles and picture books of "bees" that are, in fact, flies.

Another common misidentification is dragonflies and antlions. A lot of people only encounter antlions in their larval stage, as sort of Sarlacc-beasts hiding at the bottom of the sand pit. If you grew up with sandy soil or someplace like, you might have passed some time in childhood throwing ants into the pit to watch the antlion jaws snap them up. The adults, however, look much like giant lacewings (which to the same order they belong). They often don't fly about unless they must, which their long membraneous wings folded back over their long slender abdomen. Their wings often have hairs (like moths, which they are somewhat closely related) and are sometimes pointed, with the hindwings just slightly different shaped, with the hingwing smaller than the forewing. However, when put in a collection, their wings are often spread, and they superficially look very similar to dragonflies (whose wings are always spread open, the hindwing often larger than the forewing) or danselflies (whose wings are [almost] always closed like a book and similiar sized). The easy give away are the antennae though: Dragonfly antennae are pretty small, while antlions are long and distinct.

A lot of art confuses antlions for dragonflies, possibly because they have an aesthetic slenderness to them while also possessing the visible antennae, while most people know insects should have. I see antlions declared dragonflies in home decor and tattoos, which never fails to make me giggle.

This time now, I was struck unawares. I was completely unprepared for it.

I'm home sick with COVID, indulging in some Doctor Who fanfiction aka Outlander, and as I start the thrid season, the "dragonfly in amber" comes back around for the plot point it is.

Except it's not a dragonfly.

It's a fucking antlion.

The hilarity of it temporarily cured my COVID.

It does not matter, necessarily, to the plot, what kind of bug it is. Once could argue that this old bug trapped in amber is symbolism for time travel, and a migratory, far-flying dragonfly would better represent the journies of the protagonists in their drives to always find each other, for which a fairly sessile antlion would undermine a bit. Dragonflies, too, are sometimes considered to be human souls off to their afterlife, and as far as I know, no such similar belief are attached to antlions.

I find it more amusing, however, how much identification of wild plants was relied upon for various plots, and this was such an easy misidentification to make.

Anyway that is your friendly neighborhood bug lady's COVID induced info dump for the day.

[7yearsago]

The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth.

Unknown

[paulgadzikowski]

[Image description: A colored cartoon of the scene in the OP. Portions of a human's face and pick can be seen mostly offpanel with the pick positioned above two broken pieces of amber. Two beetles or roaches are walking off talking. One is saying, "How long do you think we were in there?" The other is saying, "If that meteor is still coming I'll scream." End description.]

cracks open a piece of amber and the bugs inside crawl out and walk away completely normal

[pien-art]

together forever :)

what if we were little bugs holding hands encased in amber forever and ever :))))

prints available here :p

[onenicebugperday]

Red amber snail, Succinea newcombiana, Succineidae

Photographed in Hawaii by brendanwang

[jesterable]

ok so i played the game, immediately blacked out after chapter 1, and woke up and this was on my screen

[witchrealms]

(x)

[kcamberart]

Self-Preservation

[bug-molars]

Only one Ruby mage?

[sweeterthanficstion]

chat. dad!leon with a cute lil baby he calls 'bug' because she loves spending time in the garden and always shows him whatever critters she's managed to scavenge...

[angremlin]

I think Chapter 33 of Amber Skies in its entirety out of context might be one of the best pitches I could make for @cryptotheism's Amber Skies

[promniight]

Amber Sugar and Sugar Glass stills for the upcoming bug update for Pastrydash….who want bugsh🐝ts 😛😛😛

[spiny-ant]

dinosaur ant (N. macrops) stimboard would be really cool!!!

Graaaaagh

🦖-🦖-🦖|🦖-🐜-🦖|🦖-🦖-🦖

[starryspngs]

Amber Source: X / X / X / X / X / X / X / X / X