The Bug Menagerie

Parrots are overrated, I rather prefer a good Mantis

Southwestern BC, Canada. We think he's a European mantis.

I took this a little while back with a macro lens I had on my old phone. I was amazed at just how close I got, there are lots of very visible features here that I'd entirely overlook seeing a grasshopper minding themselves out in the world. I'm appreciative they stood still long enough to take the picture, as you might imagine even some tiny movement would've made this a blurry mess.

A Red Spotted Purple, aka a Whirt Admiral, showing off the underside of its wings. Marked with reddish Orange spots over a gray to deep blue to black gradient.

These butterflies use mimicry to blend in with more dominant species in their area. This one is mimicking an Eastern Black Swallowtail.

Perhaps Tigrosa georgicola?

A spider I happened to notice a while back while out and about. Its markings and size caught my eye, as it was very different from the spiders I typically see around here. I doubt they are rare, but it was new to me and I wanted to get a close up picture. It might not look particularly close, but it's a phone camera with no optical zoom. I was only a couple of inches from the subject and didn't want to disturb them.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/3964876

There are so many local names for this insect: water strider, water skipper, water skipper, water bug... got any more?

It was chilling on a Paulownia tree in Southeast Pennsylvania, U.S. I post more critters on my Pixelfed if anyone's interested.

Cicada killer wasps

I think they're both males, because the females are bigger. The males technically can't sting (and the females only do if you're really asking for it), but it's still scary to get up close to one.

#wasp #CicadaKiller #insects

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A gray hairstreak caterpillar on my false indigo bush (amorpha fruticosa). It took a little while to identify it because they turn the color of whatever they eat and are normally green. This little guy is purple because it was only really eating the flowers. Florida, USA

Also a shout out to the kind people who maintain the Alabama butterfly atlas for helping identify this caterpillar.

How do I format in italic if I want to add the scientific name?

A hover fly, not hovering.

It landed right on my gate as I was about to open it this afternoon, practically begging to have its portrait taken. Look at that beautiful compound eye.

#notabee #hoverfly #bug #fly #insect #macro

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A bee enjoying some clover.

Taken this morning.

#bee #clover #pollinator #macro

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Crossposted from [email protected]

A mantis hanging out on some swamp sunflower. Florida, USA.

One of my caterpillars successfully made it to adulthood and was drying out it's wings on my Stokes aster.

[OC] A little jumping spider.

I remember when I was trying to take this photo the spider jumped on the lens and I might have screamed.

#spider #jumpingspider #arachnid #macro #fediphoto365 #pixelfed365

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Gulf fritillary caterpillars on my passion vine. Around two dozen of them made it to butterflies this year! Florida, USA