let me share a little story about a remarkable wasp that I encountered yesterday in our local deserts I stumbled across her, and scrambled to get a few crappy photos .... but then realized that she had a burrow, perhaps a better photo op was possible ?? here she is at her burrow entrance.

An ALIEN on earth!? 🤯👽 CHECK OUT this insane Treehopper from the Peruvian Amazon! 🌳 Membracids are known for their bizarre shapes and protrusions, but this genus goes to a whole new level! It is thought this crazy C shape is to aid in camouflage to avoid predation from birds! 🐦😳

The beautiful Titaea lemoulti from Ecuador. Titaea moths sit on leaves during the day, but if disturbed they display an interesting escape response: they fly high, then suddenly stop and slowly glide down to the ground like a falling dry leaf. It's very difficult to find the moth in the leaf litter!

I'm heading off to my next adventure in Ecuador so I will be quiet here for a while. In the meantime, I'm going to leave you with this video of a fringe tree frog (Cruziohyla craspedopus) I found on my previous visit to Ecuador. I never get tired of seeing them, such an iconic species!

Notodontid moth caterpillar (Rhuda decepta) from the Ecuadorian Amazon. The spine is all for show, it's soft and squishy! This is one of the most visually striking caterpillars you can find in the rainforest, however you'd be disappointed to learn the adult moth is brown and quite boring looking.

Gives a fresh new meaning to "we are so, so screwed"

If you know me you know that I LOVE leaf-mimicking katydids. Here's Typophyllum morrisi, one of the smallest species from the Ecuadorian Amazon. The male looks like a rigid dried leaf. First pic shows an extremely rare color morph where the limbs are green. Second pic shows the typical color morph.

I’ve seen over 50 of these in August already but I love it every time I get at eye level with these laser beams. Oriental Whip Snake  -  Ahaetulla prasina

Caladenia discoidea - Dancing Spider Orchid Endemic to the southwest of Western Australia, this distinctive orchid was growing in a sandy area east of Perth #orchids #ozflora #wildoz #nativeplants #inaturalist #bloomscrolling

Look at this creature, chinchilla in an emo phase

Special edition (today) versus original edition. Much has changed: I’m doing my own casting, have better tools, and have better understanding of finishing. Inside, these bugs are totally different—the rear pairs of legs are now cast separately and assembled to increase control and details. Growth!

What a pretty boy! 🥰 male soldier fly, #Stratiomyidae #Microchrysa flaviventris Avery Co., NC

Deep in the Malaysian rainforest in the dead of night, Bell's anglehead lizard (Gonocephalus belli) appeared to be in an intense conversation with a stick insect. No insects got eaten in the making of this image.

It's the last week of August so it must be #InverteFest time! This praying #mantis was seen in a coastal area north of Perth, likely a Mallee Grass Mantis (Archimantis sobrina) it has impressively spiky raptorial forelegs #ausinverts #wildoz #mantodea #bugsky #inverts

With larvae weighing over 250 grams and adults weighing only a quarter of its larval weight, Megasoma rex is the heaviest insect in the world. It is split from Megasoma actaeon in 2018, based on small morphological differences and geographical isolation. #invertefest

Happy #InverteFest! I know a lot of the artists who follow me have some beautiful inverte art they can share. Here's one of my favorites because crab... always 🦀

Gliophorus psittacinus, the parrot mushroom, looking a bit dreamy 📷 Canon 5D Mk III Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM M, f/2.8, 1/40, ISO 800 Stack of 38 images 11/24/21 Olympia area, Washington #mushroom #fungifriends #mushrooms 🍄📷 📸🎞 🌿🌱 🟢 🍄 🍄‍🟫

What great big eyes you have, Piazurus. - "All the better to see you with, my dear" the weevil replied. And what great long snout you have. - "All the better to.. drill into woody branches with" Piazurus is a small weevil with eyes so big they take up its entire head. So it can stare into your soul

Just an incredible sight 🥹

The white witch moth (Thysania agrippina) is arguably one of the largest insects in the world by wingspan (~30cm), competing with the Atlas and Hercules moths. Photos like this one make it look small, until you notice the katydid (4cm), spitting spider (1.8cm) and ground beetle (1cm) in the photo.

Dead leaf or BUTTERFLY!? 🤯🍂 Zaretis sp. from the Peruvian Amazon! 🦋 This one got very comfortable on our sweaty clothes and hands! 😅 So lucky!

A beautiful flower beetle (Cyclidius lacordairei) from the Ecuadorian Amazon. Normally, true flower beetles are encountered much less frequently in the rainforest compared to other scarab beetles. Even with multiple visits to the same site spanning across 20 years, I have only seen this beetle once.

🐙🌿Phidippus tyrelli jumping spider, who looks like he's playing peekaboo but is actually using his palps to keep his eyes shiny clean. I like catching jumping spiders doing this, because it's endearing, plus you can better see their colorful chelicerae (mouthparts that end in the fangs). Usually--

I heard it was razzle dazzle Wednesday, so here's a neat little protea flower I photographed over the weekend. People often associate my flower images with sea creatures, but this one looks to me like it's coming at us from outer space. 🪐 🌺 🔭 #flowers #photography

This amazing crab spider from Ecuador (Epicadus granulatus) has the exact size, color, and texture of a fern's sorus (=spore patch), which helps it blending in with the fern leaf both to avoid detection by predators and to ambush passing prey insects. It's also a plus that it is super cute 😊

A good illustration of the trochanteriid flattie spider, Plator nipponicus

I met one of these species in person when I was 12yo - it was reared as a lab animal at a university I visited. Mind-blowing mimicry!

Illustrations for an exhibit, some beasts and how to capture them

Hemikyptha marginata, the Loki treehopper (relax, I just made that name up), sports long curved horns on his helmet. At 2.5cm he is the largest membracid in the world. Also, he has an army. (of ants) ...but we have a hulk. Eurymetopa obesa is a jacked conehead katydid that lacks a cone but has 💪

I can't wait to get bitten again by this absolute stunner so I can take more photos like this one! Soon, very soon 🤩 Beautiful bloodsucker. Sabethes mosquito from the Ecuadorian Amazon in mid-bite. This photo was highly commended in the 57th Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition in 2021.

Worker ant, bronze, finished at last. Got her to sit for a proper portrait.

Pterostylis barbata - Bird Orchid One of our more unusual looking orchids is just starting to flower. This orchid has a long, feather-like labellum with thread-like branches and a distinctly thicker end #orchids #ozflora #wildoz #nativeplants #bloomscrolling #inaturalist 🌿🌱

forbidden cabbage (but seriously, look how cute it is!)

Structure > Tornadoes I said what I said

In the darkness of the early hours in a Malaysian rainforest I found this stunning Jungle Nymph. I’ve wanted to see one since I had tiny pet stick insects as a kid. This is a very big insect

Me: I'm gonna plant native wildflowers and attract lots of pollinators! The pollinators:

Yesterday I drove to Empire Ranch Road right as the setting sun peeked through from west and illuminated the belly of the storm! I have a handful of shots similar to this but this is my favorite!

a male Habronattus americanus jumping spider from the Mt Hood OR region, from earlier this summer some "classic" males are, well, classic in certain places we saw 100s of these spectacular little animals

a globally rare blind harvester (Speleonychia) moves slowly through the perpetual darkness of a shallow but lengthy lava tube, far southern Washington

This pretty leaf-mimicking katydid is Hetaira smaragdina. It belongs to the Pycnopalpina group, consisting mainly of delicately-built species. Instead of mimicking broad tree leaves like other leaf-mimics, this group mimics small and narrow bush leaves, often featuring fake sunburn and fungus spots.

watch a tiny crab getting excited about a new hat

earlier this year we described the species Cybaeozyga furtiva from the Klamath Mtns Geomorphic Province of far northern CA at time of description, the male was unknown. here he is, from the type locality my son earned $10 for this find, later discussed how he'd like to go to a salary arrangement

Here's a beautiful green chafer (Anomala albopilosa) from Japan. There's a long story behind this photo and what I was doing in Japan, but the character limit prevents me from pasting it here. The conclusion of the story is still very important, so I will include it in the following post -

"How to fall in love with an ant sculpture", an illustrated guide

Paranomala cupricollis is a shining leaf chafer found in many types of habitats across north and central South America. Because it is fairly common and brown it receives less love and attention compared to its green relatives, but I think it is simply stunning! Like a piece of copper jewellery.

Atergatis dilatatus, I guess🦀

Following my previous post, some people asked me how come it is more difficult to find the brightly-colored spiny devil katydid (Panacanthus varius) compared to its relative. This photo shows why. Despite the intense colors, it is well camouflaged on moss-covered branches in the cloud forest.

sushi