A macro photo of an elongate, metallic green beetle on a pale purple flower with green fuzzy stem/leaves. Partially visible underneath the green beetle, there is a red and black bug which is poking the underside of the beetle with its needle-like mouthparts.

A cool behavior I've seen with at least two different mirid plant bugs and several blister beetle sp. - the mirid (Aoplonema sp.) is not preying on the beetle (Lytta sp.), but trying to "steal" some of the beetle's toxic bug blood, possibly to sequester the defensive chemical for itself. #Bugsky 🌿🐙

Great observation! Blister beetles play host to a lot of cantharidin-loving parasites. Many other beetles (especially anthicids and pyrochroids) take a nip of blister beetle toxin for their own. I've seen the aposematic mirids in cantharidin baited traps before, but never caught them in the act!

Light blue corner of a wooden structure, with two light brown chrysalids flanking a black, spiky caterpillar, hanging upside-down.

A little mourning cloak nursery in the corner of our garage door.

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Tiny snake on a rock.

We at least found this cute worm snake.

Soil washing set-up: a small hole in the ground. Two large buckets full of water, and a pile of paper towels to soak up the extra moisture.

Researcher skimming the floated organic debris (hopefully rich in arthropods) from the water’s surface in a 5 gallon bucket.

Saturday afternoon soil washing. We’re hoping for subterranean pseudoscorpions, but we’d be happy with a few blind beetles too!

Indeed. They’re everywhere here.

Through the microscope view of a petri dish of beetles in ethanol. About 30 specimens are visible, ranging from elongate long-horned beetles to very small stubby ptinids.

Some of the aftermath. A good night!

photo of a wooded lakeshore at dusk, with a blacklight and sheet in the lower right.

Blacklighting night at Lake Hartwell.

Maybe he wants it to get infested with a few tasty maggots before he eats it?

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They say its bite makes you comfortably numb.

Such a nice beetle! I think this is Chroaptomus, a philonthine.

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I like beetles, I like them a lot. So I’ve written a book about them to indoctrinate children. dk.com/products/978...

On the knapweed, is anyone looking at biocontrol? There are some specialist weevils that have been effective controlling it in other parts of North America.

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A small brown weevil with a very elongated snout or rostrum that allows it to bore into acorns.

A small brown weevil with a very elongated snout or rostrum that allows it to bore into acorns.

One of my avourite #beetles, the Acorn #Weevil (Curculio glandium).

Found last year on a survey at Abbey Wood.

What a lovely creature. They bore into acorns with their extended snoot (rostrum).

#weevils
#coleoptera
#entomology

Calliphorids clearing away the neighbour’s cat poo from our lawn.

Male Scathophagids basking on cow poo ready to mate so the females can lay their eggs while it is still nice and wet.

#WhatsTheUseOfFlies?

No.2 - they clean up!

Piles of poo, dead stuff? The #flies will clean it up for you. You’re welcome!

Cat 💩 on my lawn. Cow 💩 on the South Downs. All being worked on by flies.

If the flies didn’t do this you’d be up to your fetlocks in 💩

#diptera
#flies
#insects
#entomology

Nice photos of a fantastic spider! The flies are cecidomyiids, but beyond that.... who knows!?

always always repost ✨ONYCHOPHORA✨

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Handsome cricket. I can't hear the singing in the first clip you posted, unfortuately. Audio's fine in the second.

Wow! Excellent work! Congrats.

Pinned specimen of a large and beefy cryptorhynchine weevil, photographed head/on, displaying a pair of enormously dilated protarsi covered in fanciful golden hairs

Enlarged view of a single outrageous weevil foot, it looks like it’s covered in curling golden moustachios

Macromerus crinitarsus: no fancier feets on earth

I had to stare at it for a good minute on the beating sheet to figure out what the hell I was looking at. The male's palps almost made it look like an emesine reduviid as it walked around!

Lake Sturgeon spawning

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Was able to read it here. Thanks!

Microscope photo of two very elongate spiders, sides up, facing each other in a dish of alcohol. Very long legs project upward. Male is on left, as indicated by very elongate palps. Female's are much shorter. Most of body is golden brown, but the abdomen has brown lateral stripes and becomes darker toward the tip. Both have silvery patches on the tops of the abdomen.

Frontal view of male spider, showing very long palps with small apical segment. Dark, fairly large median eyes sit above vertical dark stripes on the front of the head.

Well, these bizarre spiders took me some time. Found these yesterday near Clemson. Looks like they're theridiids, Rhomphaea fictilium. I've seen pictures of similar spiders, but did not know we had them here. Spider folks agree?

An encouraging study on the ability of tropical forests to recover following severe disturbance. Seed-dispersing animals like birds, bats, and insects play important roles in regeneration!