Entomologize

hmm

I don’t know why this caption made me laugh so hard

Nature valentines.

Thanks to my Patrons for your support.

today's bug thing is this beetle cardigan by dr.beetle on instagram!

i just learned that a bunch of insane robber fly enthusiasts went and gave common names over a thousand species of north american robber flies.

some favorites: River Ruffian, Mexican Fancyfoot, Painted Pixie, Pretty Bandit, Metallic Micropanther, Texas Goggle Eye, Hairy Twigsitter, Siberian Sandpirate, Arizona Red Eye, Blackstabber, Dwarf Rusty Robber, Giant Marauder, Northern Tyrant, Little Lion Fly, Boreal Assassin, Texas Micropirate, Fiery Raider, California Rainbow Robber, Hell-hound Sandpirate

Nothing better to brighten up a grey winter's day than a splash of colour and some sparkle. 🙂

Metallic watercolors: lisilinka watercolors Watercolor paper: Hahnemühle Britannia Watercolors: Schmincke Horadam

Mystery Webs!

I come across these webbed-up fungi occasionally. They look quite like the tent-webs of some moth and sawfly larvae, but differ in occurring later in the year; enclosing a fungus instead of a food-plant; not being full of specks of caterpillar dung; you also rarely see any living (or dead) creatures, eggs or pupae in them.

The cleanness of the webs and the way they are restricted to a particular fungus might make you think you are looking at a grey, fuzzy mould.

To find out what was making these, I took a piece home and kept it in a vivarium. Checking on the vivarium in the middle of the night I spotted a small mealworm-like creature moving through the web, leaving a slime trail behind it. I caught it and put it in an empty enclosure where it soon started fervently weaving by bobbing its head back and forth at an impressive rate, extruding silk from spinnerets on its snout. In the morning, the new enclosure was full of webs, and the larva resting in the middle.

I believe these larvae are fungus gnats of the family Mycetophilidae - a large family of small, rather plain flies with thousands of described species, most of which lay their eggs on fungi. I haven't found much witten about the function of the webs: maintaining a humid atmosphere; excluding other small creatures; catching spores for consumption have all been mooted. The larvae also seem to be able to move smoothly and rapidly through their silk network.

can someone help me ID this bug? *posts a pic with the camera 6 feet above a bug the size of a fingernail*

@onenicebugperday

Yes those are my favorite types of submissions ;)

“Is this a brown recluse??”

This species of moth (Myrmecopsis polistes) is one of the most impressive wasp-mimics in the world. The moth's narrow waist, teardrop-shaped abdomen, black-and-yellow patterning, transparent wings, smooth appearance, and folded wing position all mimic the features of a wasp. Unlike an actual wasp, however, it does not have any mandibles or biting/chewing mouthparts, because it's equipped with a proboscis instead, and it has noticeably "feathery" antennae.

There are many moths that use hymenopteran mimicry (the mimicry of bees, wasps, yellowjackets, hornets, and/or bumblebees, in particular) as a way to deter predators, and those mimics are often incredibly convincing. Myrmecopsis polistes is one of the best examples, but there are several other moths that have also mastered this form of mimicry.

Above: Pseudosphex laticincta, another moth species that mimics a yellowjacket

These disguises often involve more than just a physical resemblance; in many cases, the moths also engage in behavioral and/or acoustic mimicry, meaning that they can mimic the sounds and behaviors of their hymenopteran models. In some cases, the resemblance is so convincing that it even fools actual wasps/yellowjackets.

Above: Pseudosphex laticincta

Such a detailed and intricate disguise is unusual even among mimics. Researchers believe that it developed partly as a way for the moth to trick actual wasps into treating it like one of their own. Wasps frequently prey upon moths, but they are innately non-aggressive toward their own fellow nest-mates, which are identified by sight -- so if the moth can convincingly impersonate one of those nest-mates, then it can avoid being eaten by wasps.

Above: Pseudosphex laticincta

I gave an overview of the moths that mimic bees, wasps, yellowjackets, hornets, and bumblebees in one of my previous posts, but I felt that these two species (Myrmecopsis polistes and Pseudosphex laticincta) deserved to have their own dedicated post, because these are two of the most convincing mimics I have ever seen.

Above: Pseudosphex sp.

I think that moths in general are probably the most talented mimics in the natural world. They have so many intricate, unique disguises, and they often combine visual, behavioral, and acoustic forms of mimicry in order to produce an uncanny resemblance. Moths are just so much more interesting than people generally realize.

Sources & More Info:

This is the best wasp mimic moth I think I've ever seen, and there are a whole lot of them

Zamarada Geometer Moth (Zamarada sp.), family Geometridae, Bukit Lawang, North Sumatra, Indonesia

photograph by Nicky Bay

I heard a commotion of buzzing in the long grass, so I went in there in my pajamas because I thought it might be a wasp attacking something (cool), but it was just a bottlefly getting upset because there was a sticky seed on his wing

of course I peeled it off for him, he's my neighbor

reconstruction

There's something a little comforting about finding the same rare wasp species which made you obsessed with wasps, at the same location, on the same boardwalk, at the same time of year, the past 4 years. My favorite Mope, Uropelma formosum. 💙

warm like a summer day 🧡

Newborn velvet worm crawling on its mother By: Raymond A. Mendez From: Natural History Magazine 1985

Most velvet worms are social by the way and form multi generational packs where the largest females are in charge and share food with all the babies 🙂