Arthropod Photo of the Week: April 16, 2025
Eggplant horned planthopper
Leptocentrus taurus
Hemiptera: Membracidae
By Vijin Varghese, Kerala, India
#arthropodPOTW
#entomology #insects #photography

This is why you should allow the dandelions in your garden to grow.

This is one of the most beautiful hoverflies, Eupeodes luniger.

A tumbling flower beetle, Mordella sp., feeds from an aster at UT Austin's Stengl Lost Pines Field Station. #Beetles #Mordellidae #Coleoptera #Pollinators #Insects

A Moore's Ace (Halpe porus) spotted on the Wallace Trail at Dairy Farm Nature Park, Singapore on 21 Dec 2024. I rare butterfly, this one choose to settle on the hat of a birder. Poor chap had to stay still while we took photos of it.

On iNaturalist [ https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/255752277 ].

This might be a record for me: 16 mason bee cocoons in a single nesting tube. The ones on the left are larger and likely all females. The smaller ones on the right are males, who emerge first and then wait for females to come out. It's really cool how hymenopterans can control the sex of eggs they lay (males are from unfertilized eggs). Osmia georgica. #InsectHotel #BeeHotel #bees #cocoons #insects #pollinators #hymenoptera #osmia #haplodiploidy

Luna moth at work! Luna moth at work! #insects #bugphoto #bugstodon

Two Belgian teenagers were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser known species.

@AssociatedPress reports: https://flip.it/RnLBW2

Speckled Wood butterfly today in #Bath #Somerset #UK.
#Nature #Wildlife #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #WildlifePhotography #Insect #Insects #Butterfly #NatureCommunity

Found a "types of bees" poster at Goodwill yesterday. I'm guessing the artist wasn't really into the task because the honey bee makes three appearances. Some appear to missing their second pair of wings. And venation of the red-tailed bumblebee is a complete mess. I decided not to buy. #bees #honeybees #goodwill #illustration #insects #art #thriftstore

bee and mushrooms it must be spring!

The Madagascan moon moth also known as the comet moth is native to the rain forests of Madagascar. The adult moth cannot feed and only lives for 4 to 5 days.
https://theweeowlart.etsy.com/listing/1870107696

#FediGiftShop #ScottishArtist #MastoArt #CreativeToots
#Moth #insect #insects #InsectArt #InsectDrawing #OriginalArt #Drawing #PenAndInk #ColourPencil #MixedMedia #Artwork #TraditionalArtist #ArtFromScotland #GiftIdeas #ArtShop

Wildflowers could be absorbing toxic metals that pass on to bees, study finds https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/apr/16/wildflowers-absorb-toxic-metals-bees #Wildflowers #Environment #Pollution #Wildlife #Insects #Science #Cities #Bees

Biologist Auke-Florian Hiemstra made a surprising finding while examining museum specimens: caddisfly larvae from the early #1970s were already incorporating microplastics into their protective casings.

These #underwater #insects normally build tubes from pebbles, sand, and plant matter. Finding plastic in 50-year-old specimens from non-urban streams shows how long these pollutants have affected even relatively pristine ecosystems.

Learn more: https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/microplastic-pollution-found-in-a-caddisfly-casing-from-1971

Deze beesten zitten eitjes te leggen op m'n aardbeiplanten, waarna rupsen de bladeren beginnen op te vreten.
En wat doe ik in plaats van die beesten dood te slaan? Fotootjes maken om op Waarnemingen.be te plaatsen.
#aardbeibladwesp #insecten #insects #insectodon

If any of you nature photographers ever capture images of insects with badly damaged wings, email them to Andrew Mountcastle at Bates College. He studies how insects crash into things and has made a public request (on Bluesky) for pics. He wants them for presentations and promises to add credits. Email via link. #insects #wings #photography #macrophotography #biomechanics
https://www.bates.edu/faculty/profile/andrew-m-mountcastle/https://www.bates.edu/faculty/profile/andrew-m-mountcastle/

Coltsfoot, the very first flower

'Wenn es Frühling wird' #FotoVorschlag

Free Linear Space – space little animals, bugs, ants

https://dimalinkeng.blogspot.com/2025/04/free-linear-space-space-little-animals.html

#retrogame #retroprogramming #freebasic #space #galaxy #verticalshmup #spaceshooter #little animals #ant #insects #ufo #arcade #caterpillar #cocroach #spacefriends #linear #2dart #drawing #8bit #msx #msdos #16bit #gamedev #devlog

Reading a paper about cloth moth evolution. Really interesting!

At the end of the intro, they hypothesize co-evolution between humans and synanthropic moths. Well, that sounds very unlikely but ok I guess?

Like, recent adaptations maybe, but co-evolution seems a bit extreme.

Also I would expect it to be only in the moth, it sounds unlikely that there would be any impact on human evolution besides cultural practices...