I was recently extremely blessed in being able to finally see one of my “bucket list bugs” as I’ve started calling them. (Not a real list, as I’m never one to be organized…)
But a friend alerted me to the presence of this big beauty and J gave me a leg up to take a closer photo with my measly phone camera and subpar photography skills. I found some eggs she had laid on the wall and I scooped them up in hopes I can look after them. She hung around with her admirers for a good half hour before deciding she’d lingered long enough and flew off into the literal sunset.
Cecropia moth, Hyalophora cecropia, largest moth species in North America. Bug haters, don’t interact!
What is the best looking ant? The most beautiful good looking ant of them all?
(If you need ideas let me know I have many)
Do I really have to pick just one? There’s so many good ones. I picked a favorite but I also have like 3 runner-ups and even more special mentions. Sorry you’re getting 4x as many ants as you asked for!
Anyways! Number one… the absolute winner in my heart… is Oecophylla smaragdina. They’re just so gorgeous and their color palette is perfect and they have such fun body shapes. I also love it when ant queens look significantly different than their workers. The contrast is so pretty
…aaand now for the runner ups! First we have the green headed ant, Rhytidoponera metallica. They remind me of jumping spiders with how shiny they are
Next up is the silver spiny ant, Polyrhachis schlueteri!!! These guys are literally perfect. They look like little drops of mercury. Maybe I’m just biased towards shiny silver as a metalworker, but there’s nothing about this species that isn’t gorgeous
And last but never least, we have Polyrhachis trapezoidea. I’m already an absolute sucker for yellow, and these guys pull it off so amazingly well. This ant looks like it shops as Sephora and I love that for her
Alright bestie now it’s your turn. I need to know your opinions on ant beauty RIGHT NOW!!!
I treat my hyperfixations like they’re drugs I have to get hits of to keep going but instead of shooting up heroine it’s just my blorbo, the 45 year old man, doing a silly lil dance
@onenicebugperday Bit of an unfortunate update, but not without hope.
A week ago as of posting this, Green Bean Casserole had a pretty severe mismolt. I think they fell and got stuck behind their favorite stick in an awkward position after leaving the exuviae. I only found and assisted them the next morning, but by then their exoskeleton had already hardened up. Thankfully all of their limbs are intact and functional, but, well... The situation is far from ideal, as you’ll see.
At first I was pretty worried they wouldn’t make it; they seemed to be struggling to move around due to the deformity, falling when climbing and generally looking wobbly. I moved them to a different terrarium set up for my flat headed snake Absinthe, both because of the softer substrate and the lack of skinks that might be bold and attempt to take advantage of a weakened mantis. I wasn’t even sure if food would be able to pass through their system, and they had no interest in prey at all, which wasn’t a good sign. However, with some adjustments to the layout of the temporary terrarium I moved them to, they did climb and manage to hang from the lid with some effort. GBC seemed like they were a fighter, and the day after the bad molt they accepted and ate a grasshopper, so I decided to see if I could get them to their next molt and hopefully allow them to recover.
They’ve since adapted to their new shape, and I’ve moved them back to their usual terrarium for easier monitoring and better sun access. They’re climbing and hanging without falling, eating well, and drinking water droplets from the screen lid when I water the terrarium. I’d say they’re about as close to thriving as they could be in this situation! Here’s how they’re looking today. Ignore the escapee grasshopper in the background, its jailbreak was short lived…
I do feel a bit mean for making this comparison, but…
Wrangling the Children onto some fresh leaves. The Cecropia Kids are over 40 days old and still growing, and I’m starting to worry they won’t pupate in before I leave on vacation . Granted, I’m sure everything will be ok but it’s in my nature to worry over multi-legged invertebrate children. I just love larvae.
(Forgive the frass, I cleaned it out shortly after getting all the cats onto fresh food)