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There are three wings, so I guess it lost one of them. There's also a big hole in the head (shown in last pic) and some of the legs appear to be missing. Sorry for the shitty photos, I took them on my phone.

Found while splitting bitternut hickory

I'm in the middle east in case that helps narrow it down. Very hot few days probably have something to do with it.

Where are they coming from? Are they hiding somewhere in my apartment? They seem to be flightless. They are all the same size and very small, here's one on my finger for scale: !

I've lived in Australia for over 5 years now and I've never seen this bug before. Tried all sorts of Google search keywords to no avail.

Found it hanging on my window. I live in Central Victoria.

Does anyone know what this is?

Thanks in advance.

Dragonfly liftoff captured at 5000 frames per second.

Video credit: Joris Schaap / CC BY 3.0 @bugs #photography #nature

It re-swallowed the water after this photo. Would anyone happen to know why it would have done that?

I appreciated the fact that he let me get this close to him while eating.

Small white spherical eggs, with small orange/brown dots, are laid in straight lines on a cactus spine

What kind of spider is this?

A big ol T. aspersa that snuck up on me in the garden. Didn't see her little friend until later

I found a few finishing off the last of the parsley for me. I didn't want to burn an ultraball on them, so they're still out there in the tall grass

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/zwd2248hi4dk79zb7xqwy/20230909_080115599.jpg?rlkey=n57wle4fcosmryw2b984elx87&dl=0

Found in rural NC, Piedmont area.

Found it on my tomato plant. I'd seen them before in sizes up to 4-5 cm. They eat the tomato leaves like crazy. And (naturally) poo a lot. Some black granade like aggregates. Once grown they molt into a moth that I saw a few days ago. And now my tomato plants are again riddled with these buggers.

This photo was done with the help of a stereoscope. The grid squares are 4mm inside, and 5mm outside the lines. So this juvenile has about 1cm.

I'd love to ID them. Any advise on how to control them without pesticides is also welcome.

!

I think it's a root borer beetle

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/1976428

> ! > !

(OC) Cross post from c/pics

They love milkweed. You can attract them to your yard if you plant some. I've personally raised large colonies of these for research, they're truly remarkable insects for a number of reasons, beauty of both the larvae and adults being chief among them.

One of the more common issues that plague the Monarch is Ophryocystis elektroscirrha, a parasite that can be identified by examining a body-dust sample through a microscope. OE is passed on via spores that are consumed, and if an animal is affected by OE and undergoes metamorphosis, it will emerge with a number of defects that often lead to reduced lifespan or imminent death.

Sadly, in research environments, the only way to deal with OE outbreaks (a sign of poor control) is to euthanize the animals to contain the spread of spores. This is typically done using a freezer, which ostensibly allows the animal a peaceful death by slowing down its metabolism and numbing its senses.

Tiger beetles are notable for one thing: their speed. They can move up to 9km per hour, which given their size, is spectacular (a 1:125 body length per second ratio).

Because they run so fast, they can be observed pausing after short bursts. Scientists suspect this brief respite is a way for the insect to get its bearings. But, like a lot of entomology, there are other ideas...

This little guy chomped down on my pepper before burrowing underground.

These aquatic insects are intimidating-looking, with large modified forelimbs. Although they live in the water, they're air-breathers, and like virtually all insects, can fly when necessary. The modified forelegs, referred to as "raptorial" (predatory) legs, have a similar function to that of mantises — they grab and secure prey to be consumed. Preferred prey is soft-bodied, but Giant water bugs don't need to discriminate, given how powerful they are for their size.

However, unlike a praying mantis that chews its prey with a traditional insect-mouth plan made of many mandibles, since Giant water bugs are Hemiptera, they have a straw instead of "teeth." This means that they, like some assassin bugs and spiders, rely on injecting digestive juices into their immobilized prey, then sucking up the now-digested innards.

In my personal experience, these things are scarier than they look, but they're absolutely capable of pinching or piercing you with their forelimbs, and they move fast in the water. I personally stay away from them.

They're huge. But they only experience this form for a very short period of time! Most of their life is spent underwater in their larval stage, where they hunt other animals and cling to objects to manage currents.

In their mature form, shown, they aren't even really interested or capable of sustaining themselves. Indeed, they just wither away and die. It's sad, but for insects, the dramatic life cycles are part of what makes them so special.

These are photos of slides and sticky traps featuring various Chalcids, mostly Fairyflies, from a research project many years back.

>The Mymaridae, commonly known as fairyflies or fairy wasps, are a family of chalcidoid wasps found in temperate and tropical regions throughout the world. The family contains around 100 genera with 1,400 species. Fairyflies are very tiny insects, like most chalcidoid wasps, mostly ranging from 0.5 to 1.0 mm long.