**See pinned post at the top of my blog for submission guidelines and other info.**
A blog dedicated tothe love of bugs.One featured bug post per dayplus lots of submissions.Submissions do not count towards the one (1) nice bug per day!
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FAQ
Run by: Taylor (ex0skeletal-undead) (he/him)
Luna moth header/background by Clara McAllister.
@ascendeddragonsage submitted: A truly incredible number of amphipods were swimming through and gathering around a culvert in a creek. Just sharing, but we're reasonably sure it's Gammarus Lacustris for the record
That's a lot of pals! I hope they all know I love them. I don't know anything about amphipods, so I'll have to take your word on the ID.
@ghoulhugs submitted: CW for dead bug and really gross details.
I had a question about what's happening to the caterpillars in my backyard. The other day, I accidentally left an empty cup outside. When I went to get it, there was a caterpillar around the rim. I poked at it to see about relocating the caterpillar, but it... melted against my finger. It turned from a caterpillar to goo with hardly any pressure being applied. I was disturbed, but didn't think too much about it.
Today, I was outside and saw this little caterpillar on the side of a panel we have outside. This time, I used a flimsy blade of grass to very gently prod it when I didn't see it moving. This was the result. It just completely melted.
I would think it was a molt, but it had actual guts. A web search isn't helping because the results just want to talk about how they liquify in the cocoon, which I don't think is related to this? Is it possible some disease or chemical is doing this to them? 😭
I would say most likely a virus or bacteria. There are a few of them that will make caterpillars turn into goo, but this one looks a lot like baculovirus to me. It makes the caterpillar climb high up and then die and liquefy, dripping virus down onto whatever's below it to keep spreading it to other bugs.
Also found a brown recluse in my dorm bathroom a few weeks ago. Fortunately, it seemed to prefer hiding in a specific cabinet, so I just … temporarily declared it the spider’s cabinet. The sign was taken down a week later, and I found no sign of the spider after that. I can only assume maintenance killed it. Hope its death was quick. And at least it got a little private hidey-hole for a few days.
I like to believe someone was nice enough to relocate it outside, which is safe to do if you're not using your bare hands :)
A selection of friends found recently. Unfortunately, the luna moth was probably dead. The bee was relocated off the sidewalk after I took the photo so she wouldn’t get stepped on.
A great group of pals! Glad the bee was safely relocated. As for the luna moth, adults don't live particularly long anyway, so hopefully he got to mate before perishing.
@thewirewitch submitted: Found this on a stick ion my backyard and suspect it may be from/for a bug! Not sure what exactly it is and was wondering if you might know.
Location: Ohio
Yup, it’s a mantis ootheca! This one looks like a Chinese mantis.
i already deeply love woodlice and isopods in general but you do not know how ELATED i was at the armored woodlice post. THEY CAN HAVE SPIKES???? THEY CAN BE POINTY??????? the world's smallest punks <3<3<3
Orion (p***************[email protected]) submitted: HI!! i saw this spider and have no idea what it is, this was in rio (southeastern brazil), it is relatively close to sea level and around 5 centimeters??? sorry but i couldn’t really get a picture of it from the top and thank you
A beautiful woman! She’s an African hermit spider. Obviously non-native, but still lovely. There’s some color and pattern variation between individuals but here’s an example of the other side:
My brother has a terrarium for carnivorous plants with two pitcher varieties and butterworts. Along with them, he began to catch spiders around our apartment to house in there. They live off drain flies that wander in, springtails that live in the tank's moss, and houseflies that he catches in the summer. Mostly Yellow Sac Spiders live there (but we did house a male Marbled Widow at one point). The first two we kept note of were females we named Getrud and BoneyMomma620. Both died of natural causes, but not before BoneyMomma620 had some babies. Most eventually left the terrarium (I saw a few walking around the bathroom nearby). One of them now lives where Getrud did, beside the butterworts.
Since we never had a male that stood somewhere we could continuously see him, we had to name him. Here are some blurry pictures of Giuseppe.
My brother has obtained a second terrarium where he plans to put a millipedes and some isopods. He has the plants in it already. I can update you when that happens, if that's okay. :) I am just proud of his little bug projects.
What a fun little home for some spidies! Hello to Giuseppe, he is very beautiful. I would caution against putting millipedes with isopods, though. VERY HIGH chance the isopods will devour the millipede(s), especially while molting.