Endless Swarm

Endless Swarms Most Beautiful: A field-book of invertebrates and their effects on artwork and culture, culled from the internets. More insect words and images at The Endless Swarm blog.

[dimetrodone]

I love Cooloola monsters so much they look like really chunky Jeruselum crickets 

[nuclear-warrior]

The grandeur of 1950s giant invertebrate science fiction cinema.

Them! (1954) Tarantula (1955) The Black Scorpion (1957) The Deadly Mantis (1957) Beginning of the End (1957) Monster from Green Hell (1957) The Monster that Challenged the World (1957) Earth vs the Spider (1958)

[ultramanultimo]

@heyhowyadoingpally

[ketrinadrawsalot]

[strangebiology]

A fireworm! (gif’d from vid)

[typhlonectes]

Deck the halls with billions of baby red crabs

When Christmas Island was over-run by one of the biggest returns of baby red crabs late last year, it was one of the best Christmas presents photographer Chris Bray could have asked for.

Dictated by the lunar cycle and rain, all indications were this spawning would occur at 4.00am on Christmas morning, so we had booked to fly in a few days early. As is often the case, though, nature had other plans and the crabs marched a month early! Although initially devastated, this cloud had a silver lining: the billions of miniscule baby red crabs drifting out at sea miraculously started to return to the island just as we flew in…

[buggirl]

Omg.  What is cuter and weirder than this Darth Vader Jumping Spider???   It looks like an evil minion.  I love it.

Photo by the amazing Piotr Naskrecki

[adorablespiders]

“Luke, I’m adorable”

[thenoidbag-deactivated20160905]

The height of my creative powers.

[usgsbiml]

Cow Killer.  

This is the common name of this group of mutillids or Velvet Ants.  Named for their extremely painful sting.  Going along with the pain is the fact that it can extend its sting such that it can reach over its back.  This is why this species is bright red.  It is telling the world that there are consequences to picking it up.

This bad boy, is actually not an ant, rather it is a type of wasp.   The males have wings and no sting, the females have no wing, but have the sting.  Not sure of the species.  This one came from Arkansas from our correspondent FT.

All original pictures completely public domain and available at our Flickr site:https://www.flickr.com/photos/usgsbiml/

Photography Information: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-_yvIsucOY

Follow us on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/usgsbiml/

sam droege, bee servant

[realmonstrosities]

Evan’s Sea Spider (Anoplodactylus evansi) has the blues!

This is rickety, wobbly-kneed beast is the scourge of east Australia’s sea slugs.

The sea slugs try to defend themselves. They eat corals, sponges and bryozoans, they take over the poisons and stinging cells, incorporating them into their tissues for use against their own predators.

But it doesn’t work. Not against Evan’s Sea Spider. It may only be a couple centimetres long, but this sea spider has guts of steel. And, of course, it’s a sea spider so its body is so tiny that half of those guts are in its legs.

Also there’s a whole lot of blue on those legs! They’re very important legs.

… Image: WoRMS Editorial Board

[realmonstrosities]

The Blue Leg Centipede (Ethmostigmus trigonopodus) has the blues!

Ahhhhh! You can always rely on centipede legs for something special. Red legs, purple legs, yellow legs, stripy legs and now, in this east African species, blue legs.

The search is finally over.

…Image: Frupus

[tiffanybozic]

Took this pic this morning of a symmetrical mouth of an echinoderm at calacademy. Awestruck by the patterns and details, esp. the fringed plates around the mouth. So beautiful right?! #seastar #echinoderm #echinodermata #seacreatures #inspiration #calacademy #purple #tiffanybozic #nature

[fuks]

[werewolfkyloren-blog]

@snakegay

[chalkandwater]

For two weeks each year, the termite mounds on the Brazillian Cerrado light up the night. The source of these lights are not the termites, but headlight beetle larvae. The larvae live inside the outer part of mound, only emerging during the few weeks each year when male and female termites take flight. The glowing bodies of the larvae draws the termites like moths to a flame, allowing the larvae to grab and devour them. The larvae collects as many termites as they can and place them in their larder within the mound, which needs to last until the next flying season. This very limited availability of food means that it takes two years for the larvae to turn into adult beetles.

The Hunt (Episode 5: Nowhere To Hide, 2015)

[thewhitedeer-deactivated2019110]

“Evolution III”

[tiffanybozic]

More Sslithery ssslender sssalamanders! Can’t get enough of em! #batrachoseps #batrachosepsattenuatus #salamanders #inspiration #process #tiffanybozic (at Baltimore Canyon, Larkspur)

[tiffanybozic]

Happy Holidays! Here’s a peek of the painting I’m working on. Thank you nature for sharing your salamanders with me 🌎🌲🍃🦎

#process #acrylic #painting #workinprogress #sneekpeek #detail #maplewood #illustration #nature #tiffanybozic

[shitpostempire]

[kasaron]

@systlin

[membracid]

Love. It.