The Stranger

(Non-Binary Binomial)

[herpsandbirds]

Tentacled Snakes (Erpeton tentaculatum), family Homalopsidae, Bangkok, Thailand

Aquatic and piscivorous

Rear-fanged, mildly venomous

The tentacled have a mechanosensory function, able to detect small movements in the water.

Photograph by Tommy Hui

[fandolion]

Some crunchy pics of iridescent bugs I've found 💚

[bogleech]

Scanning electron microscopy is awesome and I personally think the images it produces are gorgeous but objectively speaking I feel like it doesn't do any favors at all for the "scary" cultural image of insects, because I mean, here's a closeup of a carpet beetle in its true colors:

And here's an SEM image that comes up for carpet beetles on google:

And the thing about SEM images is that they aren't "photographs;" they are computer scans. They're 3-d digital models generated by scanning an object at the molecular level. Color is not preserved by this process, and if it were all the specimens would look like metal anyway (I'll explain this is in a moment), so images like this had to be colored artificially. This isn't done to recreate the true colors, but to make different body parts more visible as study material, resulting in scientific images of wacky blueberry fleas:

The subtly varying transparency levels of living tissues are completely lost as well, which is why the fine hairs of insects stand out more like cactus thorns in SEM imagery, and tardigrades look like opaque leathery things with no eyes:

...Even though a tardigrade actually has eyes, they're just under the surface of a crystal clear exoskeleton:

Another thing that probably contributes to the uncanniness of SEM images is also the fact that they can only show us embalmed corpses encased in liquid metal.

It's not possible to do this fine level of scanning "instantaneously" enough for it to work on anything that's still moving, so even when you see scanning electron images of animals in various lifelike poses, it's because they're preserved specimens that were carefully positioned, or they were live specimens basically "flash frozen" by a sudden dehydration process, mummified so fast they never knew it. Many specimens are then "sputter coated," meaning they're sprayed with a thin (like microns thin) layer of liquid gold, platinum or other fine metal in order for the electrons to perfectly bounce off of every subatomic detail and produce that perfect scan. So this is a live fruit fly:

And this is a fruit fly mummy with probably some sort of chrome plating:

[apsciencebylyn]

Sorta related: I feel some way about certain flavors of macro photography - the extreme close-ups, every shadow removed, every highlight muted, created using a thousand stacks... Don't get me wrong, it's beautiful, skilled work.*

But there's a reason I do what I do, and not that. I want people who may still be afraid of bugs to not just see beautiful machines, but soul. I want people to see the tiny living creatures, on their level, interacting with their environment. I try for more natural lighting where possible, minimal editing; I want my work to make my audience feel like they're tagging along with me on my walks through natural habitats and seeing all the weird things that call it home. I'm not sure one gets that out of the extreme close-up/etc sort of photography. People show me examples of such from time to time when I tell them I'm a macro photographer, and I'm usually just "that's cool" and forget about it? I don't mean any shade, it's just two completely different things in my mind and one is just much more rewarding to me personally.

Anyway, that's why I do this. I want people to see Bugs, not me. When I do my work well, I disappear, and there is only Bug. 💚

*there's also ethical problems with some of the people who do such things and unless I know someone is in fact an ethical photographer it's hard to give the benefit of the doubt and appreciate the work involved. There's ethical lines in what I do as well, of course, which I try to stay within. Another subject for another time, but for what it's worth.

[waspcup]

hello my name is Very tiny flying insect i see you’ve got an uncovered beverage outdoors. Can i fall into it and kill myself please please please please please please please please please please

[gastohand]

Beetles are really funky lil guys, I really love their colors and chunky lil bodies :) This oil beetle I did way back in 2021!

[bibyebae]

[onenicebugperday]

Giant antlion larva and adult, Palpares immensus, Myrmeleontidae

Found in southern Africa

Photos 1-2 by alexdreyer, 3-5 by hamishrobertson, 6 by frankgaude, and 7 by eugenemarais

[fandolion]

Incredible artist Julia Stoess makes these giant 100:1 insect models, I have never seen something more beautiful !

Definition of mastering your craft, they are PERFECT

[an-estranged-stranger]

A level of talent I can't even comprehend...

[darklight-owl]

People who like mantises but aren't that into entomology are always "orchid mantises" this and "orchid mantises" that. Overrated. Can we talk about Toxodera integrifolia for a minute:

(Image links because as much as it pains me I've never seen one of these beauties irl: 1 2 3)

Like how are these things real. Girl what is that thorax shape. Why are you wearing eyeliner. And the colors? Absolutely fire. This is a 10/10 insect if you ask me.

[le-tas-d-art]

H.R. Giger, Biomechanoid No. 99, 1969

[vugnasmineralblog]

Zincite | Świętochłowice City County, Silesian Voivodeship, Poland

[vugnasmineralblog]

Fluorite & Quartz Annaberg District, Erzgebirge, Saxony, Germany

[an-estranged-stranger]

Radiolaria: feudarians.

"The beauty of form in nature"

Ernst Heinrich Haeckel (1904)

[addicted2wasps]

Lots of Megarhyssa spp. ovipositing on dying beech! M. atrata and M. macrurus or greenei. I always enjoy seeing these Ichneumonids! Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

[queerism1969]

[olbaid-st]

Mandelbrot #213 Easy and slow UltraFractal6 Image 3840x2160px

[retroscifiart]

Art by the legendary Wayne Barlowe