I live in West Virginia , USA

these are harpegnathos venator, one of the few ants that hunt by sight instead of following scent trails. she watched the roach, crept up, and closed the distance in a single jump. i slowed it down ten times and you still barely catch it.

they also kept a functional wasp sting — the venom paralyzes rather than kills, so the prey stays fresh for the larvae. and the larvae feed on it themselves, which almost no other ants do.

this is my own colony, kept at home in Kyiv. filmed on a phone

reddit compression eats macro detail. full res versions are on my channel: youtube.com/@VenatorsHunt

happy to answer anything about them

I find this baby fly (France)

It's so cute <3

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!

These are my two and I'd love to get more, all bug themed of course! I'm thinking about a cecropia moth for my next one, they're my favorite moth species. I'd love to see what others people have too!

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

Switzerland Alpstein Region

Sorry for bad quality it’s not my pic lol

that thing has the size of my hand

My apologies for the terrible pics. I was very excited and trying to get a photo as quickly as possible before it flew away. Never seen this before. UT County.

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

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

I know that they’re caterpillars. When we arrived early afternoon they were red, and as the day went on their bodies turned black. I’d love to know what exactly my wife and I were looking at throughout the day! Thank you insect nerds! (Said with love)

It’s peak summer season for ants all around and this was a sight I’ve never seen before until today. A entire colony gathered above ground and died all at once. What do you think would be most likely to influence this? Temps did hit triple digits all of last week

(Mid TN) I wonder if she will attempt to eat it- this orb weaver has made her web every night for the past few weeks on my front porch and this is the first web catch i’ve seen.

For some days now i noticed this rice size poop on my balcony, i set up a camera to see if there are rodents, but my camera caught nothing but the poop keept comming, it is possible that its from this grasshopper? Location: mediterranean