insect nightlife

critter sideblog

[memeartisan]

[ur-daily-inspiration]

OMG LOOK AT IT

[truthsinwhispers]

@noxsylvania

[aplpaca]

This is a Green Ant Hunter (Cosmophasis bitaeniata), a type of jumping spider found around Indonesia and Australia! They actually are that metallic!

Their exoskeletons contain similar hydrocarbons to those of the Green Tree Ant (Oecophylla smaragdina), and the ants seem to treat the spiders like members of their colony, which the spiders take advantage of to sneak in and eat their larvae

[onenicebugperday]

Predatory bush-cricket, Saga pedo, Saginae, Tettigoniidae

Found widely throughout southern Europe and into central Asia

Photos 1-2 by pops34, 3 by kgrebennikov, 4 by Sylvain Gamel, 5 by maylandia-curtis, 6 by morhed, 7-8 by maksim_stefanovich, and 9 by efarilis

[5oil]

[goonsoftware]

Don’t forget to leave out a saucer of milk for your centipedes

[foxsnails]

Hello tumblr i have a new fun activity for u

Link is here! Any responses would help me out a ton!

[foxsnails]

Getting a lot of absolutely wonderful responses, thank u!

[titania-saturnine]

@onenicebugperday

[apsciencebylyn]

Ya girl has been published 👀👀

My gynandromorph amazon ant find and photoshoot is featured in the fall edition of the American Entomologist journal! Just a perfect bizarre creature ❤️🖤

(Polyergus longicornis, male alate/female worker split)

[collapsiblebrain]

She is enjoy her lunkch

[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

[toadalchaos]

[onenicebugperday]

African giant skipper, Pyrrhochalcia iphis, Hesperiidae

Found in Western Africa

Photo 1 by desertnaturalist, 2-3 by rdb123, 4 by emskakoon, 5 by kdbishop69, 6 by muir, and 7 by botalu

[crevicedwelling]

I’ve been seeing these fluffy wax-tailed cixiid planthoppers all through spring, always in close association with Aphaenogaster ants. however, these ants are Lasius, and I think they may have adopted this flock of cixiids after the Aphaenogaster left the area.

presumably, both ant species drink the honeydew produced by the planthoppers, and in return they get a safe place to live and easy access to the tree roots from which they themselves drink. cixiids’ waxy plumes detach at the slightest contact to gum up a predator’s jaws, yet I’ve never seen any ants with wax stuck to them.

this mutualistic relationship comes to an end when the planthoppers mature, leaving the ants to go drink sap from aboveground plants. they also leave behind their wax tail and develop big eyes and glassy wings.

this is a Melanoliarus seen nearby. I’m not sure if it has any relationship to the juvenile cixiids pictured, but if not they’ll probably become something that looks very similar.

[crevicedwelling]

I wonder what that’s like for the Lasius, a genus that usually tends tiny portable root aphids and collects their honeydew, suddenly coming across a lost flock of Huge Fluff Animals left behind by the Giant Scary People and going “ok sure I guess we can milk these too”

[crevicedwelling]

roach and orb

(female Blaptica dubia, orb. 2018)

[crevicedwelling]

these photos were taken on May 24, 2018!

happy roach and orb day, here’s some more of her. her descendants live on today, although I think Iost the orb

[parkarts]

Wasp-posting-wednesday!!

Ever heard a wasp tantrum before?

She (a great golden digger wasp, sphex ichneumoneus) was trying to dig a hole for her offspring, but the blades of dead grass were getting in her way. So while trying to grip and tear them out, she was buzzing and huffing which made it look as if she was having a tantrum. Pretty funny and cute. Turn up your volume to hear her squeak!

[taxonomytournament]

Taxonomy Tournament: Insects Finale!

Coleoptera. This order is made up of beetles. It is the largest of all orders, containing 25% of all known animal species. Members include ladybugs, fireflies and hercules beetles

Hymenoptera. This order is made up of wasps, ants, and bees. Their mouthparts are adapted for chewing, or in many species have become a proboscis for sucking nectar.

Which clade of animals is better?

Coleoptera

Hymenoptera

Show results

Voting ended onMay 9, 2024

[cynopter]

Of course it comes down to these two...

For anyone who wants to see this matchup play out in the battlefield of academia, I actually saw a paper recently (apparently written by some aggressive Hymenoptera lovers) which challenges the factoid that beetles have the most species!

They cite the disproportionate attention naturalists have paid to beetles (not sorry ❤️) and reason that parasitoid wasps must be more numerous than we think:

"If parasitoid wasps are ubiquitous and most hosts are attacked by many different species, why is there any debate at all about the Hymenoptera being more diverse than other orders?" (Forbes et al. 2018)

I find the passion in this paper very entertaining. They're even hesitant to admit that Coleoptera could be the second most speciose order. (And who do they nominate for that title instead? Diptera, of course. I'm willing to hand over the crown to Hymenoptera, but if you're telling me the flies also outnumber my precious beetles I'm gonna need a minute...)

Quantifying the unquantifiable: why Hymenoptera, not Coleoptera, is the most speciose animal order - BMC Ecology

Background We challenge the oft-repeated claim that the beetles (Coleoptera) are the most species-rich order of animals. Instead, we assert

[taxonomytournament]

Taxonomy Tournament: Insects

Lepidoptera. This order is made up of butterflies and moths. It is the second largest order (behind beetles) making up 10% of all described species of living things. They have large triangular wings and a proboscis for siphoning nectar.

Hymenoptera. This order is made up of wasps, ants, and bees. Their mouthparts are adapted for chewing, or in many species have become a proboscis for sucking nectar.

Which clade of animals is better?

Lepidoptera

Hymenoptera

Show results

Voting ended onApr 23, 2024

[onenicebugperday]

Idioctis parilarilao: A new species of Intertidal Trapdoor Spider from Taiwan

One of only a few species of spiders known to live in marine intertidal zones

Info and images via: Yu et al, Journal of Arachnology on 6 October 2023

[mossworm]

ostracod laying on her side while casually eating fish flake like a classical roman noble reclining on a lectus