A couple in camo and a cicada?

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Cicadas are one of my favorite insects.

Eastern Click Eyed Beetle

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    The Hummingbird Moth is probably the weirdest insect I ever saw.  Years ago my dad and I saw one marked exactly like a bee, like the one in the video.  For five minutes we stared at it and couldn't decide if it was a Hummingbird or a large bee, possibly a queen.  We were both wrong. Years later, after Dad had passed, I read about the Hummingbird Moth. Essentially what we had was a Moth imitating a bird imitating a bee.  Amazing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdyape_1Js8

We actually have a colony of Argentinean cockroaches (and some woodlice and springtails as a clean-up crew) and they aren't particularly weird to look at but watching them is fascinating. I've come to the conclusion they are the guinea pigs of the insect world. They trundle about, are terrible at climbing, aren't all that smart, are always looking for something to snack on and I have no idea how they survive in the wild.

One thing about them that really makes me question how they've managed to survive for so long is that they are experts at drowning themselves. I had already heard about this so didn't provide them with a water dish and instead just made sure they got lots of fruits on a little plastic tray so they still got moisture.

A few babies managed to drown in some pooled orange juice on the tray. Less than a mm deep. They live in a rainforest! Boggles my mind. I still kind of think they are adorable even if they are as thick as two short planks.

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The assassin bug!  I see them in my yard from time to time. Nasty little suckers were the inspiration for the brain sucking bug in Starship Troopers:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduviidae

rhino beetle

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cicada has made its exit by splitting open the back of its exoskeleton

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I've told this story before but one time my wife and I were at a river in the Dallas area and the cicads were so loud we were having to yell at each other just to hear each other. It was awesome.

I have some pics of butterflies from the museum, when I find them Ill post them.

Walter, is this one of your interests? Insects?

all natural things in creation. plants, animals, fish, reptiles, insects, birds, agriculture, pastoralism, nomadism... you get the picture. my SO and I practiced semi nomadism for at least six years using goats (the symbol of anarchy) and plants for our main source of sustenance.
what works well today, in the west is agriculture, hunting/gathering, pastoralism and semi nomadism.
just saying  :)

Kick wrote on Sep 2^nd, 2018 at 4:21pm:

We actually have a colony of Argentinean cockroaches (and some woodlice and springtails as a clean-up crew) and they aren't particularly weird to look at but watching them is fascinating. I've come to the conclusion they are the guinea pigs of the insect world. They trundle about, are terrible at climbing, aren't all that smart, are always looking for something to snack on and I have no idea how they survive in the wild. One thing about them that really makes me question how they've managed to survive for so long is that they are experts at drowning themselves. I had already heard about this so didn't provide them with a water dish and instead just made sure they got lots of fruits on a little plastic tray so they still got moisture. A few babies managed to drown in some pooled orange juice on the tray. Less than a mm deep. They live in a rainforest! Boggles my mind. I still kind of think they are adorable even if they are as thick as two short planks.

Woodlice, or potato bugs do have one really weird feature, gills. If you can flip them over, you see a white, spongy attatchment on their rear. Those are the gills. This is why they have to stay in moist soil. The gills have to be wet in order to work

https://i.imgur.com/FPPNISK.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/81xO62u.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/QDEPzRO.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/v82bAkT.jpg

My phone camera doesn't do these pics justice. They were a lot prettier in person. Especially the second one.

   This big guy is the Stag Beetle.  We used to find them all the time in Jersey when I was a kid.  I guess they're still around but I don't see them as much now.  As long as you pick them up from the back they are harmless.  They are huge.

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Don't have a clue

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walter wrote on Sep 16^th, 2018 at 9:20pm:

Don't have a clue

"I'll take creatures that attacked the Enterprise for $500 Alex."

The Bombadier beetle. It has glands in it's body that produces chemicals. One is Hydrogen Peroxide, the other is Hydroquinine. When agitated, it can combine them and shoot them out at boiling temps. Not pleasant.

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  Me after having beans for dinner.

Atlas Moth from Malay.

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Wow!

saw this on a wooden fence today

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it's a moth.

hope not a hawk moth.

why ?
hawk moths are cool :-)

they lay eggs that hatch horn worms

The mole cricket looks like 2 different species glued together.

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They can swim, fly,  dig, climb.

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@ Jauke

That is one weird insect  :o

Definitely weird.

Meganeura:  An ancient Dragonfly ancestor with a wingspan of 28" or 70 cm.  Now that's a big bug.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meganeura

Rat Man wrote on May 24^th, 2019 at 12:55pm:

Meganeura:  An ancient Dragonfly ancestor with a wingspan of 28" or 70 cm.  Now that's a big bug. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meganeura

I think this is one of those  ;D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcyZ8pnAwcQ

@ joe_meadmaker

L0L, thankful they went extinct  :)

The ultimate- Arthropleura. An 8 foot long 21 inch wide centipede. It died out in the Carboniferous.

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   Though not actually insects there were sea scorpions that got up to 27 feet long and spiders with bodies the size of football helmets in prehistoric times. Four foot long land scorpions could also be found.

We don't see many of these in the mtns

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