The Darnest Bugs

I'm an entomology student from UQ in Queensland, Australia. I am in constant bewilderment over the incredible diversity of the class Insecta. 

[insectcuriosity-blog]

Trying out my new camera on some backyard bugs! 

[chestnutred]

My first fully grown black beauty stick insect!

[rhamphotheca]

Peruphasma schultei from Peru… so pretty @_@

[khrysdiebee]

It’s soooo black! Gorgeous!

[ornithoscelidaphiliac-deactivat]

just said “That is a good-lookin bug” out-loud

[chillyfeetsteak]

what a cute bug!!

[dragondicks]

oh my gosh I thought this was a sculpture or somethin! It’s a real insect?! Omg!!!

[insectcuriosity-blog]

A Trash Bug that I found on a lemon tree- Queensland, Australia

Part of the Chrysopidae family, this green lacewing larva collects debris and what appears to be several small snail shells on its back as protection against predatory insects and camouflage. Only about 2mm long, this little guy was very hard to spot and it took a while to get a good macro shot with my shitty camera. 

[typhlonectes]

These Photos Show the Stunning Diversity of North America’s Native Bees

In 2014, Clay Bolt, a self-described natural history photographer, started photographing bees in his Bozeman, Montana, garden after reading about colony collapse disorder, the phenomenon devastating honey bee populations around the world. Curious about what he’d captured, he found the bees in his photos weren’t honey bees, which are native to Europe, but rather two different species of native North American bees. In North America alone, Bolt was surprised to learn, there are more than 4,000 native bee species...

(photo: Metallic green bee, Augochloropsis metallica, collecting nectar and pollen from a black-eyed susan, South Carolina)

[typhlonectes]

GOOD NEWS:  Scientists might have finally found a way to stop the parasitic cancer wiping out Tasmanian devils

by FIONA MACDONALD

It’s no secret that the news has been pretty grim for the environment of late, and Australia in particular has had a bad run.

Not only has 93 percent of the Great Barrier Reef now officially been damaged by bleaching, one of the country’s most enigmatic animals, the Tasmanian devil, has been steadily wiped out over the past 20 years by a parasitic facial cancer, leaving less than 30 percent of the species remaining.

But researchers have just reported the discovery of several antibodies that seem to fight off the disease, providing some hope that we might finally have a way to save our favourite carnivorous marsupials…

(read more: Science Alert!)

photograph by Chen Wu/Flickr

[pigeon-feet]

better view of The Spider

Peucetia viridans, the green lynx spider. came over from california on a shipment of plants. 

[typhlonectes]

Dung beetles may have evolved to eat dinosaur poop

by Patrick Monahan

Modern-day dung beetles mostly eat the excrement of mammals: cows, elephants, you name it. But a new study hints at a reptilian source for the beetles’ original dung diet.

Using ancient fossils and DNA from 450 modern scarab beetle species, scientists now estimate that dung-eating beetles popped up at least 115 million years ago, 30 million years earlier than previously thought. At the time, the only mammals around were tiny and would have produced dry dung pellets—poor eating for a dung beetle (like the one above).

But the beetles’ origin does line up with the age of the dinosaurs and the rise of flowering plants…

(read more: Science Magazine/AAAS)

photograph: Large Copper Dung-Beetle (Kheper nigroaeneus) S40 West of Satara, Kruger NP, SOUTH AFRICA (credit: Bernard DuPont)

[sinobug]

Stinging Nettle Slug Caterpillars (Cup Moths, Limacodidae) by Sinobug (itchydogimages) on Flickr. Pu'er, Yunnan, China View my other images of Limacodid Caterpillars from China in my Flickr photostream HERE….

[insectcuriosity-blog]

One of the interesting things I learnt today about cicadas: 

I knew their life span underground was quite long (roughly 12ish years), but what I didn't know is that they only emerge from the ground to start their reproductive cycle every 13 or 17 years; which are both prime numbers. As pupa, they reach full size in the earth in 8 years but all emerge en mass at a “prime” time (excuse the pun). This evolutionary adaption allows them to evade predators (like the cicada killing wasp); who emerge every 2 or 3 years and live on. Cicadas are super cool. 

[mattoidal]

A peek inside a stingless beehive…

‘Sugarbag bees’ are the common name for Australia’s native and social stingless bees, which home themselves in hollow logs and produce these amazing hexagonal spiral combs to rear their baby bees in.

Inside the hive, there’s two main aspects of how the colony is set up – there’s the central spiral comb where the brood is housed, and the surrounding ‘sugarbag’ which is a complex arrangement of conjoined small resin pots, that the bees manufacture to hold their stores of honey and pollen.

Australia’s social stingless bees just got re-named recently, but I doubt this ancient and exquisite species noticed much. What was Trigona, is now Tetragonula. The bees remain the same.

read and see more pics at http://milkwood.net/2013/06/08/inside-a-stingless-beehive/

[invertebrate-science]

Family Halictidae- Sweat Bees

Halictid bees are small and often metallic in color. They exhibit a variety of social behaviors from solitary to fully eusocial. They get their common name, the sweat bees, from the habit of some species to land on the skin and lick up perspiration.

(Image sources: 1, 2, 3)

[sinobug]

Tawny Rajah Butterfly “Dragonhead” Caterpillars (Charaxes bernardus, Charaxinae, Nymphalidae), early- to mid-instar caterpillar (ABOVE) and late instar caterpillar (BELOW) by Sinobug (itchydogimages) on Flickr. Pu’er, Yunnan, China See more Chinese caterpillars on my Flickr site HERE…..

[skunkbear]

Not only are these pea-sized treehoppers amazing to look at - they sound like tiny dinosaurs. Scientists have studied their calls by pressing phonograph needles to the leaf stems where the treehoppers are often found. They send chattering, moaning calls through the plant to attract mates and warn other treehoppers about predators. I listened to those noises here and they are INCREDIBLE.

The treehoppers shown here are all members of the true bug family Membracidae. Image credits:

Thorn Mimic Treehopper by Yogendra Joshi Treehopper by H. K. Tang Alchisme grossa courtesy of Robert Oelman Ant-mimicking treehopper (Cyphonia clavata) by Andreas Kay Oak Treehopper (Platycostis vittata) by Matthew Cicanese Oak treehoppers with nymph by Ken-ichi Ueda

[npr]

These noisy critters are kinda cute. -Emily