#BREAKING: the witch hazel flowers are fully unfurled. These flies are taking advantage—I was surprised to see them out and about!
New Ant Lab video with a slew of different insects in flight!! https://youtu.be/gDI5g3rd0Ls
A long-legged Ichneumonid wasp with multi-colored stockings for #WaspWednesday
Manitoba, Canada.
#wasp #insect #Manitoba #Hymenoptera #Ichneumonidae #bugstodon
Baby got back.
American Pelecinid Wasp (Pelecinus polyturator).
Manitoba, Canada.
#wasp #insect #InsektenSamstag #bugstodon #insectodon
The Death's-head Hawkmoth (or Acherontia Styx) is iconic. In antiquity, moths and butterflies were said to represent a person's soul. Today they often represent rebirth, and cycles of life and death. In this design I've tried to incorporate some of those themes with the inclusion of a Latin language riddle (also known as an Aenigma).
Getting really into #cocoons lately. #insects #bugphoto #bugstodon
Two species of Clown Weevils, genus Eudiagogus, members of the short-nosed weevil clan. This group is very diverse and often brilliantly colored and patterned. These two are dull compared to other short-nosed weevils. Many species are flightless. Adults eat leaves and larvae roots.
I miss you (hummingbird hawk moth outside my doctor’s office in early November). #insects #bugphoto #bugstodon
oh shit it's #WeevilWednesday
BEHOLD: this majestic _Poteriophorus imperatrix_ observed in the Philippines by Claude Chavand: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/38706476
#iNaturalist #bugstodon #insects #beetles #weevils • #Coleoptera #Curculionidae #Dryophthorinae
#WeevilWednesday: i'm out of weevil pictures of my own so here's an image with an incredibly powerful aura by Kai Squires (squiresk on iNat). Species is _Parasalcus latissimus_, seen in Daintree National Park, Queensland, Australia.
#iNaturalist observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/218587854
#bugstodon #insects #beetles #weevils • #Coleoptera #Curculionidae #Cryptorhynchinae
I miss you (usu-tabi-ga moth I saw on the fence at work last November) #insects #bugphoto #bugstodon #moths #mothstodon
You know you’re running out of bugs to observe when you start to get excited about aphids. But look! Aphids! Specifically, these ones are Lachnus tropicalus, the Great Chestnut Aphid. They’re way up in the branches of my work’s lone chestnut tree, where I think they’re getting ready to lay eggs. #bugphoto #bugstodon #insects
Amid everything else, it's #WeevilWednesday. Found this tiny one under a log in the park.
#bugstodon #insects #beetles #weevils • #Coleoptera #Curculionidae
Tiny scene from the garden: a _Prenolepis imparis_ ant carrying aphid(?) prey. These cold-tolerant ants are the rulers of the garden, but despite their numbers they have never given me any trouble.
At the urging of @nev I'm contributing to #WeevilWednesday with a metallic green Polydrusus (formosus?) weevil.
Today, more than ever, you deserve a weevil. That's right, it's #WeevilWednesday. Post 'em if you got 'em.
Found this striking little metallic blue weevil yesterday in High Park near oak savannah. Likely _Aulacobaris lepidii_ (https://bugguide.net/node/view/945003), an introduced species from Eurasia.
#bugstodon #insects #beetles #weevils • #Coleoptera #Curculionidae #Baridinae
I decided to go back and see if I could find that beetle again and get more pictures, and I did!! While these beetles have potent chemical defenses in the form of caustic oil they secrete, this one was quite placid and let me get up close with the clip-on phone lenses, even crawling onto my hand at one point.
The mite mostly stayed under the beetle's chin, but occasionally ran around its head.
A passerby asked what I was looking at and I am afraid I was not the best or most observant conversationalist, as I was busy taking all the pictures I could get, but he seemed familiar with the concept of phoretic mites at least, and remarked that perhaps the mites gained some benefit or protection from the beetle's secretions.
This BugGuide observation <https://bugguide.net/node/view/31709> seems similar?
#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #mites #bugstodon #insects #beetles • #Acari #Parasitiformes #Mesostigmata #Coleoptera #Meloidae