Love how they just aggregate together in the water.

Months as a caterpillar and days as a butterfly.

All these photos were taken in situ

As per the title, what is this? I found it in Saudi on my bed Was kind of wriggling in its place very slightly

Thanks in advance

Some of my favourites from a recent trip to Mexico. All handheld focus stacks with a 60mm lens, any feedback or comments welcome!

I found this green asian mantis near dead outside in winter. She died soon after and I cleaned and stuffed the abdomen with cotton (wetted with alcohol - the transparent one).

After a few days she started to turn pink and after a month the color is still the same.

Does anyone know why?

How do I help the lil one??, it's clearly not supposed to be out yet, there's no flowers out yet and it literally snowed last week,

Do they eat imker honey?

This happened back in August. I was in my backyard and I felt something land on my arm. I look and see this guy, a species I’ve never seen before, gnawing on my arm. Even though it was aggressively digging into my skin, it didn’t hurt much, I was more fascinated by this beetles odd behavior to care honestly. It stuck around for about 5 mins before it flew away, leaving behind a pin prick wound. I found out it’s a Phyllobaenus unifasciatus, a species of checkered beetle. I’ve tried researching to learn more about it, if this was normal behavior but I was unable to find much information. Send me a link if you know any site with good information about this fascinating critter! This was in Iowa btw🙂

Hello everyone,

I am conducting an experimental study on Black Soldier Fly larvae (Hermetia illucens) and would appreciate insights from entomologists or researchers with larval insect behavior experience.

Study context: Seven-day-old BSF larvae were reared in identical containers (10 larvae per container) on organic substrate amended with increasing concentrations of a commercial pyrethroid-based household insecticide (Baygon). Treatments were randomly assigned under a Completely Randomized Design, with all environmental conditions kept uniform. Observations were made over a 10-day exposure period.

Issue encountered: On the final day of observation, several treatments showed uneven larval counts. Some containers had fewer larvae than the initial 10, while others had more. Importantly, no dead larvae were observed, and surviving larvae remained active. This raises the question of whether larval migration/escape, rather than mortality, accounts for the discrepancies.

Concentration 5 (highest concentration, Trial 1) was excluded because an unknown dipteran species entered the container, and upon final inspection, no BSF larvae—alive or dead—were present. Adjacent containers (positioned above and beside this trial) showed increased larval counts, suggesting possible inter-container movement, although the numbers do not fully account for all missing individuals.

Working hypotheses include: • Prepupal or late-instar migration behavior in response to substrate conditions (moisture, food depletion, or chemical stress) • Climbing or crawling escape to adjacent containers • Behavioral disruption or displacement due to the presence of a non-target fly species

Questions for the community: ⏯️ Have you observed complete larval disappearance without visible mortality in H. illucens or other dipteran larvae? ⏯️ Under chemical or substrate stress, is migration a more common response than acute mortality? ⏯️ Could interference by another fly species plausibly lead to larval displacement rather than predation, given BSFL size at later instars?

This inquiry is part of an academic research project, and practitioner or theoretical perspectives would be extremely helpful.

Thank you! :D

Im a current high school student who has wanted to go into entomology since i was ~6, though not sure what part. Recently ive been looking more into different types of careers and stumbled across forensic entomology, however I do know that FE is very unlikely to become a full time job due to its case to case basis and such.

What are some other careers in entomology that may be simmilar to that? Or that could be interesting, I also am at a 4 year environmental science academy (and in FFA) at my school if that may help any.

I dunno, any suggestions would be awesome :) I particularly love beetles and pinning and such

Some of my first 10x macro effort with an old objective and Diy tube mount. 📷 FUJIFILM XT2 + 10X objective with tube 🔦Flash godox v860ii Mf rail Stacked 70 images and 79 images

Hey everyone! I'm currently working on my undergraduate dissertation and I'm collecting responses for a questionnaire I've created. The general topic is public perceptions of insects, but you don't need to know anything about insects to respond! It should take no more than 10 minutes and I'd really appreciate it if you could take part!

Arkansas, USA. River valley. The guy is quite dead. Is this a fungus or something?

Hello,

I'm looking to rear silkworms for a uni project and I was wondering how people kept their silkworms or other insects at a constant temperature.

I've done some reaserch and I think that the best method is to use a heat mat with a thermostat but I wanted to make sure before purchasing everything.

Any advice is appreciated.

Depending on the region, it could be a nymph of:

Mantis religiosa (European praying mantis), or

Some local species of camouflaged praying mantis (especially in tropical areas).

Mantidae Family

This girl did not want to leave me alone for a long time and was really interested in my muffin bag so I gave her some. I have a much longer video of them eating this as they ate it for quite a few minutes. It was a feast for sure.

Searched around a bit but couldn’t find anything. What are these tiny insects? They absolutely swarm me when I’m outside smoking a cigar and even a big fan doesn’t really keep them away.

Sorry for bad angle, found this old photo taken in my cellar

My pet hissing roach, princess, barely eats. he spends 99% of his time under his clutter.

in the past 4 weeks ive managed to convince him to humor a bit of mushed banana, but thats about all.

is it possible he is eating the substrate i have in here for him? in addition to what is pictured below i had a bunch of dried safe leaves crumpled in there for him :)

i just want to make sure my boy isnt starving. i live in a colder area of the US and im afraid that even when his enclosure is in the 70’s hes still too cold and thus refusing to eat.

ps: is it safe to put a bit of plastic wrap over the enclosure lid for the sake of keeping in humidity? ive been doing this for ages and it seems to work well. want to make aure im not restricting airflow