Thorben Danke

Clouded buff, Diacrisia sannio. It worked; with a little patience, I was able to document the final phase. It was exciting to see how the larva developed a shiny, metallic head shortly before pupation.

Pale tussock, Calliteara pudibunda. The caterpillar is highly fluorescent under UV light and easy to find at night.

Box tree moth, Cydalima perspectalis.
Here you can see the white and black variant of the same species.

Hempitera, True bugs.

1 Backswimmer(Notonecta glauca)
2 Froghopper (Cercopis vulnerata)
3 Blue shieldbug (Zicrona caerulea)
4 Green shieldbug (Palomena prasina)
5 Red-legged shieldbug (Pentatoma rufipes)
6 Buffalo treehopper (Stictocephala bisonia)
7 Water scorpion (Nepa cinerea)

Details on a fly‘s head, incredible details revealed at high magnification. Usually unexpected… that‘s what i love about macrophotography.

Orange tip, Anthocharis cardamines. Five years after I found the butterfly, I was finally able to photograph the caterpillar and the pupa 🎉

Category: most beautiful insects on earth. Cuckoo wasps are one of my favorite insects. I love the play of colors and the metallic look. No pigments, just light refractions with surface textures in the nanometer range. These „colors“ never fade. Encased in amber, they last for several million years.

Wahl zum Wissensbuch des Jahres 2025

Ich freue mich sehr, dass unser Buch „Von Angesicht zu Angesicht“ dabei ist!

Ihr könnt uns sowie unsere Arbeit, mit der wir für biologische Vielfalt begeistern, mit eurer Stimme in der Kategorie „Ästhetik“ unterstützen: www.konradin-service.de/umfrage/inde...

🌱New green collage featuring lots of caterpillars. Most of these insects are hard to find in a green environment, but some of them glow in UV light at night. Have you ever tried it?

Hawk moths, or they big and beautiful caterpillars😍

Pappelschwärmer, poplar hawk-moth (Laothoe populi)
Lindenschwärmer, lime hawk-moth (Mimas tiliae)
Totenkopfschwärmer, death‘s head hawk-moth (Acherontia atropos)

One of my favorite insects: any kind of cuckoo wasp. These shiny, metallic flying gems always invite me to take a break and observe them, whether I’m out for a walk, in the middle of a conversation, or in a hurry. Simply fascinating.

A fresh hatched ladybug. Ladybugs are initially light and soft. The wings unfold to harden after being inflated.

Knee of a dung beetle, Anoplotrupes stercorosus. It is always amazing how many motifs such a beetle carries with it. You can lose yourself in it... and enjoy.

Bee under UV-light (365nm) The bee doesn’t really fluoresce like some caterpillars and in reality (for the human eye), the eyes shine much more than the hair. There is probably a shift in the wavelengths inside the camera. But still an interesting perspective. Heading up for eggs and caterpillars. 🥰

Hymenoptera, one of the four mega-diverse insect orders. Approx. 160,000 species in all colors

Mirinae bug, Calocoris affinis. Green wherever you look 💚 The offspring of this bug hibernates in the egg.

Some larvae I observed in the garden. These are the larvae of Hymenoptera. The larvae usually live on plants and resemble butterfly caterpillars. There are about 800 species of sawflies in Central Europe. I think the larvae’s eyes, or rather their dark outlines, give them a rather cute face.

German yellowjacket, Vespula germanica. Incredible details on and around the tongue of a familiar visitor at the garden table.

thanks Jason🙏

Bloody-nosed beetle, Timarcha tenebricosa.
Frontleg 🦾🦿⚙️A mechanical masterpiece.

#timarchatenebricosa #tatzenkäfer #insects #coleoptera #entomology

Snipe fly, Chrysopilus laetus.A characteristic of the males are the touching compound eyes. There is hardly any space left for the ocelli.

Platyrhinus resinosus. A fluffy beetle with a wicked look. But like many things, it’s just a matter of perspective.

Cuckoo wasp, Chrysididae, abdomen. These colors are created by thin layers of chitin that refract the light. These interference colors do not fade as long as the layers remain intact. These colors can also be found in some insects that have been encased in amber for millions of years.

Rhynchites caeruleus. These small, shiny beetles are currently easy to observe. They initially appear black to our eyes, but upon closer inspection, they remind me of liquid metal.

Death’s-head hawkmoth, Acherontia atropos. What was particularly exciting was the discovery of the forked hairs on the sides of the caterpillar (see second image). It also made it into our book, in a special chapter on death’s-head hawk moths.

Head of a small chalcid wasp at scale of 50:1. On the left you can see part of the compound eye, on the right an ocelle and at the bottom right part of the antenna.

A weevil from the genus Polydrusus. Like many other weevils, it also has the mysterious hole between its compound eyes.

Birds are particularly sensitive to this color. Red serves a warning function in nature. Red insects use it to signal that they are poisonous. Some are poisonous, others simply use the color.

Hoary footman, Eilema caniola. Here you can see part of the hind leg of this moth from the subfamily of the Arctiinae. These striking spurs are visible even with the naked eye.

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