ISAAC THE DOG

Day 10 of #InsectAdvent & we are wrapping the presents

What about this bling covering - The genus Formosia (Tachinidae) have some of the most striking bodies. Its not for showing off but to hide in the mottled forest light (hiding as we do under a tree) their 'presence'

@royentsoc.bsky.social

A few months ago I shared this beautiful and mysterious hawkmoth caterpillar from the Amazon, and it seems that now more than ever we are finally close to revealing its ID thanks to @gwentomologist.bsky.social, who decided to rear it to adulthood. I highly recommend following this story on IG!

A dry, warm (10 degrees) day brought out quite a variety of invertebrates at Cali Heath @yorkswildlife.bsky.social reserve this morning. Just a few here...Pisaura, Curculio, Brachypera and Notostira perhaps. @ynuorg.bsky.social #ukwildlife

Dioxyna bidentis

Dioxyna bidentis.

#Diptera #VC55

Pale tan planthopper nymph on rotted wood, just a little sub-shaped creature with a ridiculous thick tail of waxy fibers longer than its body

Convergent evolution invertebrate tailfeathers

(Planthopper nymph 🤍)

Microneta viaria female

Microneta viaria.

#Arachnids #Spiders #VC55 #macrophotography #macro #OMSystem

Four species of Hawk-moth were recorded in the garden this year. Elephant Hawk-moths have only started turning up in the last couple of years since we planted the Jasmine #teammoth

1/2 #speciesaday no. 679 is Euophrys frontalis. A very common jumper in open habitats. Identifiable throughout much of the year. Adult males have magic wands for front legs and red-ringed eyes (think Paul Daniels with hay fever). Striking white on the top of the palps too! I just love salticids!

"This cladoceran can’t swim, but it can climb trees! It never leaves contact with the substrate, even when sufficient water is present, as in the culture vessels. Here it crawls over the bottom and assiduously crawls over or through the detritus, chiefly by the action of the trunk limbs with occasional assistance from the postabdomen. The antennae seem to function more as balancing structures, like halteres, in that when the animal is erect on a horizontal surface, such as the bottom of a petri dish, the antennae vibrate rapidly without seeming to contribute in any way to the forward movement. The animal moves slowly and deliberately. Even when undisturbed it undergoes long quiescent periods, sometimes with no movement of any of the trunk limbs. Disturbance, such as from touching with a needle, results in cessation of all activity. I n this possum-like condition live animals can be removed easily from cultures with an ordinary tungsten loop."

drawing of Bryospilus repens terrestrial water flea. It is very round and has one eye

"The Non-swimming Chydorid Cladocera of Wet Forests, with
Descriptions of a New Genus and Two New Species" Frey 1980. what do you mean they just ooze around the world

A close-up side view of a black and brown fly with large eyes on yellow flower stamens, with a blurred dark background.

Arthropod Photo of the Week: December 3, 2025
Thick-legged hoverfly
Syritta pipiens
Diptera: Syrphidae
By Robert Kunter, Sachsen, Germany
#arthropodPOTW

Its day 2 of #InsectAdvent

I think that this little fly ate too many mince pies! Welcome to Platyna hastata - whose bum maybe as wide as they are long!

Soldierflies or Stratiomyidae are some of the most eye-catching of the flies.

@royentsoc.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social

flat color cartoon drawings of several thrips, small insects which may have four wings or none. clockwise from top left: a thrips with very complex fringed wings, a thrips with large crab claws, two drawings of thrips with no wings and a dark brown front end and tan back, and a long and thin black thrips with red legs

photos of the real animals that are drawn in the previous image; Arachisothrips has large and complex wings, Stephanothrips is wingless with a dark brown head and thorax, Idolothrips is very long and thin, and Carcinothrips has very large crab claw-like forearms

thrips

photo of Tasmanian mountain shrimp by joeysantore on iNaturalist. It is dark brown and a few cm long, similar to a crayfish but lacking chelae

photo of syncarids by beschwar on iNaturalist. they are tiny white eyeless creatures with long bodies.

there's an entire superorder (very big category) of crustaceans called Syncarids, and like 99% of them are tiny white eyeless sub-millimeter things living in cavewater, except in Tasmania, where they just casually live on the surface world like regular shrimp. infuriating

Here's the lad at the end of a 9-inch journey to a female. He's got wings but he just derpily ambles along the tree bark with the singular mission of finding the Source of those pheromones and then get scraped off as the lass crawls into a crevice for the winter

tubercle burrowing crayfish is found in southeastern Australia and is mostly dark yellow and orange in color, with a very tiny face

picture of tubercle burrowing crayfish by sneaker1 on inaturalist

Macro photo of a large, slender, skinny black ant walking on the ground with her mandibles stuffed full with several termites.

On Thantsgiving, the ants eat too much.

A rare photosynthesizing sea slug has been found off N.S. Here's why scientists are excited | CBC News Researchers believe Elysia chlorotica holds promise for medical advances, but it's been too elusive to study.

A rare photosynthesizing sea slug has been found off N.S. Here's why scientists are excited #NovaScotia

Researchers believe Elysia chlorotica holds promise for medical advances, but it's been too elusive to study

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

#Arachnids #Opiliones

Small moth in flight, overall beige in color with dark brown blotches. Short antennae, legs trailing beneath and behind as it flies from lower right to upper left, shadow beneath on wooden window frame.

A Banded Sunflower Moth, Cochylichroa hospes, in flight. Cheyenne Mountain State Park, El Paso County, Colorado, USA, July 25, 2017. #FlyFriday #EastCoastKin #bugsky #moths #moth

Presumed Callitula pyrrhogaster, a tiny wasp with a shiny red gaster and very dark (almost black) green strongly sculptured head and thorax. The legs and antennae are orange. #UKinvert #wasp

A view under the microscope of the same presumed Callitula pyrrhogaster, now deceased. #Hymenoptera

A side view of the same presumed Callitula pyrrhogaster.

Is it safe to call this Callitula pyrrhogaster or are there any confusion species? I can't find a relevant key but it looks like other photos of this species and it's supposed to be distinctive. It's 1.5mm long and was found by suction in late July in grass at the edge of wet woodland in Norfolk.

You're a good man, Arthur Morgan.

"Defensive behavior of a make Calodromus mellyi", photo by S. Bambi from Orback and Bartolozzi 2017

lest we think that tenebs are the only beetles who like to get weird with it, here's the brentid weevil Calodromus with his signature defensive move (stick he leggy out)

Lateral macro of a small fly in ethanol. The thorax is dark while most of the head, legs and abdomen is orange/yellow.

A dipterist's dipteron, the elusive Borboropsis puberula. The only member of the family in the UK. Restricted to the Scottish Highlands. This one from Ben Lawers is probably the 7th UK record.

#Diptera #Entomology @dipteristsforum.bsky.social

An Oxytrigona cagafogo fire bee launches from her nest in subtropical Brazil.

When I took this photo in 2012, the resources available for species IDs were sparser than now, and I often left images unprocessed if I couldn’t figure it out.

Turns out I’ve got buried treasures!

Tiny pink and cream colored cube under 2mm stuck to the surface of a leaf. There were several, scattered around randomly, but the photo is cropped to show the one that was in best focus. The second picture shows a bit of my thumbnail in the corner, with sparkly nail polish.

Tiny pink and cream colored cube under 2mm stuck to the surface of a leaf. There were several, scattered around randomly, but the photo is cropped to show the one that was in best focus. The second picture shows a bit of my thumbnail in the corner, with sparkly nail polish.

Diminutive fairy wombat poop. Tiny cubes under 2mm on each side.

These are egg sacs made by a spider in the family Theridiosomatidae.

They made yesterday’s hike special. Finding something I’ve never seen before is such a thrill.

🌱 #nature #macro #spider

Tiny black jumping spider under a yellow flower, upon which a mottled orange and black butterfly is snacking

The tiny child under a petal of the yellow flower, peering at you

Tiny child thinking one day I will be big enough to snack on the butterfly 🖤

#EmotionalSupportSpood

like this post to find out what type of slug moth you are

Picture of a spider on a wire railing. The spider has an extended and quite pointy abdomen

Picture of a spider on a wire railing, top view. The spider has an extended and quite pointy abdomen

One for #Archtober (before I miss it altogether!)

This South Pacific Orb-weaver #spider is in the genus Acroaspis, possibly A. olorina given it was seen in Western Australia.
#ausinverts #wildoz #bugsky #inaturalist #nature

A couple lil pink baby stinkbugs emerging from their eggs onto a plant stem that looks covered in cotton candy.

BRAND NEW SENTENCE LEVEL RESEARCH

Dinidorid stinkbug females are armed with leg holsters containing cordyceps species that they use to inoculate their egg clusters & grow a fuzzy fungal blankie that excludes parasitic wasps.

There is a LOT going on down there! #虫🌎

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Red-green Carpet (Chloroclysta siterata).

One more picture from the other day of the Red-green Carpet. Compared to the other picture, I think I like this one better.

#teammoth #mothsmatter #moths