earthlynation:

(via 500px / Luna on Birch by Bob Jensen)

Reposted from http://ift.tt/1AJ14uF.

northwestnaturalist:

Scelolyperus schwarzii Chrysomelidae

Missoula, MT
June 15, 2014
Robert Niese

This tiny (5mm) leaf beetle is common in moist forests throughout the Pacific Northwest west of the Rockies. They seem to be particularly fond of hanging out in Hydrophyllum flowers.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/103916805428.

lonelyetntomologist:

Hanging jewel wasp by Nikola Rahme on Flickr.

Reposted from http://ift.tt/1nRHuZL.

libutron:

Insect eggs: Brush Footed butterfly

A tiny egg of the Brush Footed butterfly, Helcyra plesseni (Nymphalidae), a species native to India, China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea.

Photo credit: ©KUO1968 | Locality: unknown (2014) | [Top] – [Bottom]

Reposted from http://ift.tt/11nHM0m.

guardian:

Eyewitness: A green-eyed damselfly appears to pose for Remus Tiplea’s camera as it perches on flower petals in his back garden. (Remus Tiplea/Barcroft Media)

Reposted from http://ift.tt/1xYmBzp.

urbpan:

eusoniptera:

Glass katydid (nymph)

Source: The Amazing Glass Katydid

Welcome to Planet Earth, the best one.

Reposted from http://ift.tt/1wNQZNn.

buggirl:

Little Black Widow I caught today for a video I’m making about my research. I shall name this one Linda.

Largely as a result of reading the research into How Badly You Have to Scare a Black Widow to Get Her to Actually Bite You, and then thinking about that research, I had a moral dilemma the other day.

Back story: I used to be pretty arachnophobic. My biggest freak out came late one night on a graveyard dispatch shift for a private security company, when I was alone in the dispatch center and a really big spider (like, only slightly short of tarantula-sized) crawled onto my shoulder without my realizing it, and I caught sight of it out of the corner of my eye and freaked the fuck out.

But a girlfriend who thought spiders were cute and adorable and liked nothing more than letting a tarantula crawl on her arm, and then about 30 years of steady work at observing and trying to better appreciate spiders, including being the designated spider-wrangler when a cobweb spider had set up housekeeping in the shower and needed to be removed, got me to the point where I can observe, and even handle (at need) a spider without there being a lot of drama.

But I drew the line at black widows. When finding them in the woodpile or the corners of my messy garage, I continued to kill them. It would elevate my heart rate and make me feel squeamish and guilty, but I’d do it.

Two days ago, though, while putting my bike away in the garage, I saw one. It was an adult female, hanging out on a cobweb in the front spokes of my wife’s bike, against which I normally lean my own. She was shiny black, and I leaned in closer to confirm, and yeah, red hourglass.

And I hesitated. The knowledge that she almost certainly was not going to bite a human unless very strongly provoked, to the point of actually putting her in legitimate fear for her own life, made me feel like killing her would be a morally questionable act. And I was okay with the idea that I could make that call for myself. But I also was pretty sure that my wife would disagree, and would argue that letting that spider continue to live in our garage, with the corresponding increased risk of a member of our family being accidentally bitten, outweighed the moral qualms I was feeling.

And those competing concerns were pretty evenly balanced in my mind, such that I actually stepped away for a minute to think about what I should do. And it’s embarrassing to admit, but one consideration that also factored into my thinking was this: if I _didn’t_ kill the spider, I was morally obligated to tell Linda where I’d seen it so she’d be forewarned about it being there. And that would mean I’d also have to either admit that I’d chosen to let it live (which was a decision I wasn’t looking forward to defending to her), or lie to her that I’d tried and failed to kill it (which would have crossed a different moral line I wasn’t interested in crossing).

So having thought through all this, I’d reluctantly come to the conclusion that I probably was going to kill it. And so I walked back to where I’d seen the spider and… she’d retreated out of sight into the clutter behind the bikes.

So I didn’t do anything. (And significantly, I didn’t tell Linda about it. Which, as I write this now, I think I need to fix.)

So. I don’t think anyone else will necessarily understand or approve of my mental contortions over all this. But seeing this image reminded me of it, and I wanted to share. If anyone has bothered to read this far, I’m interested in hearing your opinion.

Reposted from http://ift.tt/Wof39e.

dendroica:

Morpho didius upper wing surface scales (by linden.g)

Reposted from http://ift.tt/1porZWc.

exponential63:

fireofspring:

adoptpets:

adoptpets:

Who’s a pretty boy? You are, yes you are!

Bee covered in pollen resting in the heart of a crocus flower.

Nature-loving photographer, Boris Godfroid, uses macro photography for close-up shots, posted to his website boris.godfroidbrothers.be

Happy 1st Day of Spring!

Plant some flowers for the bees.

actually worker bees are females but still carry on

fireofspring Thanks for pointing this out. :) Tumblr, where everything pretty is male…

Also adding a reminder that bees and their habitats are  endangered. From theconsultantblogger: ‘Anyone who kills a bee when they do so much for our environment needs their head thoroughly examined.’

 

Reposted from http://ift.tt/1lFXVDx.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/72092324082.

astronomy-to-zoology:

Ampedus quadrisignatus

….is an endangered species of click beetle that is native to Europe, ranging from France throughout central Europe to the forest-steppes in the Ukraine. A.quadrisignatus is a obligate saproxylic species as its larvae develop in rotten chestnut of the genus Castanea and other trees which hold lucanid beetle larvae. The beetles will feed on these larvae and typically predate A.scarabaeoides. The larvae will pupate in autumn but the adults will remain in the pupal cells throughout the winter months. Like most click beetles the adults posses the ability to click by snapping their ‘neck’ this allows them to right themselves and escape the grasp of predators.

Ampedus quarrisignatus is currently listed as endangered and faces threats due to forest explotation, mostly the removal of dead wood. It is also dependant on specific prey species which are declining

Phylogeny

Animalia-Arthropoda-Insecta-Coleoptera-Elateridae-Ampedus-A.quadrisignatus

Images: www.nhmus.hu and Nikola Rahme

I’ve been a member of the click beetle fandom since the age of six.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/63175901444.

rhamphotheca:

A Filbert weevil (Curculio occidentis). Collected from a Live Oak tree (acorn pictured) in Knowland Park, Oakland, California, USA

(photo: Kaldari)

What a cutie.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/58700225101.