Insect Picture of the Day

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This little weevil did the strangest thing. It was crawling across the kitchen counter last night, and I splashed some water at it, and the water flipped it on its back. Instead of scrabbling to its feet, it simply splayed its feet wide, like it was waiting to grab onto something.

I brought a toothbrush near. It latched on!

I’m kind of a jerk, though: I tonked the toothbrush on the side of the sink, knocking the weevil back off again. It landed on its back and calmly proceeded to repeat the previous behavior! This time I ran and grabbed the camera. By the time I took the picture above, it had started to relax its legs closed.

A touch with the toothbrush woke it up right back up, though, and again it latched on. So I took a picture of that, too.

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To those of you wondering, of course that’s not my toothbrush.

It’s my wife’s.

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I hope you have enjoyed my couple of days at the helm while that slacker, David, takes some time to do silly things like rest and relax. Pshaw!*

I started my days in charge with a picture of one of the rarest bugs I know, which was pretty cool, but wanted to end my stint with this, one of the coolest pictures I’ve taken.

See how it’s actually leaping into the air, just taking flight? I don’t know about you, but I think that’s awesome. I can’t really take credit for it, because something like that is purely luck. Still, I think it’s perfect.

*Seriously, dude, I’m not sure this is said enough: It is absolutely amazing and awesome that you took the effort to create this place, and that you put in so much time to make sure that it remains such a neat site. I’m honored to bee** a part of Insect POD. Thank you for trusting me with the helm while you took some well-deserved time off.

**No, I couldn’t help myself. Now bug off. *grins*

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Okay, so I don’t know a lot about bugs. David’s the expert around here, and I think it would be unfair to go running to him during his time off asking him to use Bug Guide to figure out what every little thing I find might be.

Plus, he stopped answering my emails after about the 16th one today.

So I’m turning to you! What you see in this photo is my finger, and something. I’m not sure what it is. You folks are smart, so I’m coming to you with my hat in my hands. What kind of bug is my little friend here?

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Aaron Wadley was featured with one of these the other day, all grown up. They decimated* his garden, and then moved to Delaware and did the same to mine.

What is it about my garden that makes these creatures want to come destroy it? Are the fruits and vegetables I grow really that tasty? I’ll never know, because the bugs eat them first.

*Yes, I realize “decimated” means “reduced by 10%,” but it still sounds cool, even if they did even more damage than that to his crops.

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This spider is big, scary-looking, and hanging around in my back yard every single night. With four of its cousins. They build beautiful webs overnight, destroy them in the morning, and do it over, and over, and over again every single evening.

Spiders are creepy, but above all I think spiders are kind of weird. Can you imagine destroying your home every morning, then building it again every night? Why wouldn’t you just leave it there?

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Okay, sure, it looks cute and innocent. It even looks kind of neat with that little black eye-spot on the back of its wing that’s intended to scare away predators by making them think they’re being watched.*  They float through the air almost effortlessly, and alight on a plant as though barely touching, weighing nothing.  Graceful, elegant, interesting.

I hate them so much.

Why?

Remember these guys?  They destroyed my crops?  These little creatures here, the Cabbage Moth, are their parents.  Not so innocent as they appear, are they?  Plus, they have that creepy little eye on their wing, always staring at you.  It’s just creepy!

*Predators are apparently very dumb.

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I was going to be late to class because of this amazingly odd-looking, awesome, bug, and even though I would have gotten some points knocked off my final grade it would have been well worth it.  I can only remember ever seeing three Praying Mantis’ in my life, and this is the third.  Never before did I have a camera in my hands (which I ran back into the house to get), so this was a great opportunity.

It feels weird to call an insect this big a “bug.”  It’s bigger than some rodents I’ve seen, but has armor plating and a definitely non-animal-like face.  If you’ve ever seen one fly you’ll see an interesting defensive display, where its wings are reflective on the under-side, catching rays of light and causing a rainbow effect.  I’ve seen it, and it’s effective as a defense because it’s disorienting and a little confusing/weird.

Personally, I think it’s an alien.

Jeremiah Fargo and I are cooking up something special for October, and he has graciously agreed to handle the daily posts this week so I can finish it up. Thanks, Jeremiah!

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Andrew Lin is back again. I think it’s pretty clear at this point that he’s doping his oregano with some kind of insect crack cocaine. Whatever it is, it gets him lots of opportunities to get great photos.

This is Strymon melinus, a hairstreak butterfly—notice the wing tails so thin they’re practically hairs.

What more is there to say? Andrew takes great pictures. Here’s the wallpaper to prove it.

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Andrew Lin sends in this amazing longhorn beetle photo. Here’s what he has to say:

This thing was huge. A good four, maybe five centimeters long, not including antenna, I walked past it in the early evening, just as it was starting to cool down, did a double take, then ran to grab my camera. It was in the exact same spot as when I first saw it (unlike a plethora of insects I noticed when I was without camera. Walking around the woods without my camera. What was I thinking???).

Okay, so the bug is just cool six ways from Sunday.

I’m pretty sure this is a longhorn beetle of some kind, which would make it a wood-boring beetle, but beyond that I’ve no clue. Anybody seen this guy before?