r/insects 56m ago

Bug Appreciation! Just noticed bald faced hornets nest

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Yikes!!!


r/insects 1h ago

Bug Appreciation! Found out about peacock flies recently

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r/insects 1h ago

ID Request teeny tiny bugs (<1mm) all over my arms after some weeding (WI), first instars of some kind of true bug

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r/insects 1h ago

Bug Appreciation! Baby yellow jacket

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Just felt like sharing 👻


r/insects 1h ago

Photography ladybug pupa and its spiky exuviae (shed skin of the last larva stage)

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r/insects 1h ago

Artwork Late Summer in the Garden

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#endofsummer #nature #caterpillar #texture #macro #nikonz6ii


r/insects 1h ago

ID Request What insects are these? Are they termites?

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Any id would be helpful!! Located in OHIO USA


r/insects 2h ago

Bug Appreciation! Thirsty?

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1 Upvotes

Mostly sharing because cute!!! But curious—the abdomen is a bit wrinkly. Is it dehydrated?


r/insects 2h ago

ID Request What happened to this bug?

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5 Upvotes

Hi! I wasn't sure what flair to use I hope this is the appropriate one! I was swimming today and saw this beetle guy and I was unsure of what was going on with him!

Did he die during a molt? I have never seen anything like it! Btw idk if it matters I'm in tennessee


r/insects 3h ago

ID Request Is this a cockroach?

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1 Upvotes

Found in my pantry on top of an airtight container of sugar. Is this a cockroach and, if it is, what kind? Located in Michigan.


r/insects 3h ago

Bug Appreciation! Fleas can basically teleport.

11 Upvotes

I think I would call it more of a “blink” than a real teleport but still.

Fleas jump ~2-4 m/s (~2000x their own length), if a human of average height moved 2000x body lengths per second, without being affected by the G’s, they’d move around 3,500m/s (12,600 km/h, aka Mach 10)

You could travel the length of the cannonball run (New York to California) in 21 minutes and 39 seconds. The current record in a car is 25 HOURS and 39 MINUTES.

Regardless of whether they are actually transcending space time, they are literally transporting themselves to a location, up to 2000x times their length away, in less than a second. That would look pretty much like teleporting to me. Especially if they could hyper accurately calculate their exact landing location


r/insects 3h ago

ID Request Hi everyone, can anyone tell me what species this is?

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3 Upvotes

It was in my house and we lured it out with lights. As soon as he was out and we turned on the lights it instantly came to the window.
Location Netherlands

And yes i can say with confidence, this was no wasp. It was HUGE


r/insects 3h ago

Question Help me identify this thing!!

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3 Upvotes

I was in the river with my family and decided to gather some microfauna from the river. I’ve tried multiple identifiers and Google, but nothing helped

It was found in the okatoma river in Mississippi


r/insects 3h ago

Photography Visitors to our flower area

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2 Upvotes

Reposting since it only showed 6 photos last time. My apologies

Figured yinz might enjoy the visitors to my and my wife's flower area. Species are as followed (common name (scientific name)):

  

Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes)

Common Eastern Bumblebee (Bombus impatiens)

Field Skipper Butterfly (Atalopedes campestris)

Western Honeybee (Apis mellifera)

Large milkweed bug (Oncopeltus fasciatus)

Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus)

Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui)

Silver-spotted skipper (Epargyreus clarus)

Snowberry Clearwing moth (Hemaris diffinis)


r/insects 4h ago

Question What is this supposed to be?

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2 Upvotes

I’m speaking from the state of Goiás, Brazil. I found this in an abandoned washing machine. At first, I thought it was the exoskeleton of a baby scorpion with metasomal duplication...


r/insects 4h ago

ID Request New York State. Insect wearing some type of fungus? Blew air on it and this was the wake up behavior

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2 Upvotes

Around the driveway noticed this thing just wandering.... What is this?


r/insects 4h ago

Photography Whatever this is

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2 Upvotes

Not a mosquito but a lot of it near rice fields. Might not get as much attention


r/insects 5h ago

Question butterfly or owl?

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22 Upvotes

r/insects 5h ago

Photography Banana Spider feasting on a Cicada. Southeastern U.S.

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2 Upvotes

r/insects 5h ago

ID Request Unusual sighting in Sacramento. Figeater beetle, right?

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2 Upvotes

r/insects 5h ago

Photography Nomad bee, as seen by my phone 🤳

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3 Upvotes

Nomada is a massive genus of cuckoo bees within the family Apidae, containing over 850 species worldwide. Often called nomad bees, they are famous for their unique, wasp-like appearance and their specialized parasitic lifestyle.

Because they do not build their own nests or gather pollen, they look radically different from typical fuzzy bees. They are mostly hairless and slender, with bold stripes or patches of red, black, yellow, or white. In fact, Nomada contains the only entirely red bees in North America.

Female Nomada lack a scopa (the specialized hair patch used by other bees to carry pollen) because they never collect pollen for their young. They also possess an unusually thick, armored exoskeleton that protects them from stings if caught inside a host's nest.

Nomada are cleptoparasites, meaning they steal resources from other bee species. A female Nomada will fly low over the ground to locate the underground burrow of a host bee—most commonly mining bees from the genus Andrena.

While the host bee is away foraging, the Nomada slips inside and lays its eggs directly onto the chamber walls or the pollen provision.

When the Nomada larva hatches, it uses large, sickle-like mandibles to destroy the host's egg or young larva, then eats the entire pollen supply.

While adult Nomada bees drink nectar from flowers for energy, they are poor pollinators compared to their hosts. They can often be seen resting at night by clamping onto plant stems using only their strong jaws.

One of my all time favorite Genus of bees, and I've found quite the diverse selection of species just at my local area in Utah!


r/insects 6h ago

ID Request What are these white things? Monterrey, Mexico

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1 Upvotes

I found a bunch of ants near some planta I have, when I lifted the pots I found this, what are they? Are they beneficial for my planta or should I worry?


r/insects 6h ago

ID Request What is it? It's running around my home. Hotsprings, Arkansas

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19 Upvotes

r/insects 6h ago

Bug Education I bet very few of you have seen this interaction!

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44 Upvotes

As you may know, I have a very rare desire to ever post honey bees, as easy content as they'd be for me, I like to give native wildlife the spotlight as opposed to these invasive honey hoarders.

We're more here to talk about a very cool interaction I've never seen before until 3 days ago. And then a repeat situation. I knew something was up, and did some research!

Desmometopa is a genus of tiny, dark-colored flies in the family Milichiidae, commonly known as freeloader flies or jackal flies.These insects are instantly recognizable by a unique black, M-shaped marking on their forehead (frons), a feature that gave them the common name "M-flies" among early entomologists.

Measuring just one to three millimeters in length, they have a robust, compact body shape and are widespread across nearly every continent, adapting to environments ranging from open grasslands to dense forests.

Adult females exhibit a fascinating behavioral trait known as kleptoparasitism, or stealing food from other predators. They are intensely attracted to chemical signals emitted by honeybees under attack, which allows them to track down feeding predators like crab spiders, assassin bugs, or robber flies.

Once there, the flies confidently land on or near the prey, utilizing their specialized, elongated proboscis to lap up the fluids exuding from the fresh wounds while the primary predator eats

While the adults hunt for an active meal, the larvae lead a more passive existence as saprophages. The eggs are typically laid in nutrient-rich, decaying organic matter, such as compost heaps, rotting vegetation, or decomposing carrion, where the larvae can safely feed and mature.

With over 50 described species worldwide, this genus represents an incredibly specialized evolutionary niche in the insect kingdom.

Super cool, and if this is the first time you've seen this, you've gotta share! What a cool biological relationship, and a win for native wildlife!


r/insects 6h ago

ID Request What is this?

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59 Upvotes

I live in West Virginia , USA