Shloop 𓅃

Rusty brown, long bodied cicada with transparent wings with a few spots. It is on a white sheet.

The cicada zoomed in. On the centre of the thorax is a black •w• mark.

Cicada next to band. Its body alone is as long as my middle finger

Largest cicada in the world! Megapomponia imperatoria (empress cicada) came to the moth sheet at Fraser’s Hill, Malaysia.

#bugsky #inverts

I do this a lot when showcasing insect specimens for some reason… one of the alarm clocks is active and the other reads 7:10. So yes in both cases it is moth o’clock.（:

A tan moth with a large body and long wingspan. It has a dark brown thorax, body and base of wing. At the middle section of the forewing and the apical margins of the hind wing creates of dark brown, somewhat straight border. It has eye spots at the lower end of its forewings. It has a large patch of pink on each of its hindwings.

The underside of the moth is tan, brown and near the body, yellow, resembling fallen autumn leaves.

I found this beauty dead by the road. It is Amplypterus panopus, one of the largest sphingids in HK. As a male, it only has a wingspan of 13cm, but females can reach 17cm. As it likely lived a long life, the moth is a bit battered and lost much of its striking colours.
#teammoth #inverts

Top view of a shiny black stag beetle with orange oval patches on its elytra. Its head has a bump on each side and mandibles expand outwards in a straight line and curve inwards, with “teeth” only at the end.

Diagonal, horizontal view of the aforementioned beetle, feeding on a brown jelly. Here, you can see its downward-curving mandibles and a large fork on its mandibles.

One of my favourite stag beetles (Hexarthrius parryi) 😇

Hailing from much of Southeast Asia, members of the genus are notorious for their fierce personality. They give off a powerful aura.
#inverts #bugsky

complex crab anatomy guide, covering the basic parts of the arms, legs, body shape, and tail.

complex bivalve anatomy guide covering the basic jargons of the anatomy, the shape, shell margin, and ribbed texture called sculpture.

complex crinoid anatomy guide focusing on the different jargons used to describe their body parts like the stalk, calyx, and arms

complex cephalopod anatomy guide primarily concerning the basic anatomy, eye shape, and how some of them are shelled while most are naked

Don't have an invertebrate artwork to post for #InverteFest?

I got you covered. I teamed up with multiple experts to create guides to comprehend various invertebrate anatomy.

Links to the full posts in the reply below.

Some of the guests in our bee-hotel this weekend. We offer rooms 2mm to 10mm in diameter that attract mason and leafcutter bees; and other solitary bees/wasps (including parasitic/cuckoo species). Also get a range of interlopers that just need a room for the night. Hours of entertainment! #Staffs

A head of view of a Cream-spot Tiger, showing feathered antennae and bright red hairs and black legs

The stunning underside of the Cream-spot Tiger moth, showing bright red, black and white patterns showing that its poisonous

Two alternative views of Cream-spot Tiger - cute or what! #mothsmatter #teammoth

i love u tiger beetle

Male wasps in May?!

Exact same species ‼️

A flat jumping spider when a metallic purple sheen. Its body is covered in shiny gold patches. It has enlarged forearms

Always excited to see this fellow when May returns. Irura bidenticulata 🙂 #inverts

I just counted 0 bugs on my 1.8km journey using the #BugsMatter app! I'm helping scientists measure #insect declines!

<i>Anoplotaenia dasyuri</i> Tasmanian Devil is a cute marsupial that packs a mean bite . This charismatic carnivore is found throughout the island of Tasmania and is t...

Tasmanian Devils: cute, bite-y, and full of tapeworms.

Despite hosting them in the *thousands*, these tapeworms seem to cause little to no ill effects on the Tassie devil's health
#Invertebrate 🧪
dailyparasite.blogspot.com/2021/12/anop...

A very large moth, with a missing left forewing. The right forewing tip is gone, its wings have turned a drab brown, its pink lines at the middle section of the wings still remain, and it has white triangles at each centre of its three remaining wings. The moth is as big as my hand which I placed next to.

This is a very fresh Polyphemus moth… not sure what part of it is damaged.

If you want damaged wings, check out this Atlas moth.

That’s because… they are horseshoe crabs! The juveniles prefer to live in the intertidal zone. The adults will surface to breed in Summer.

I think In CNC there is a trend for HKers to aim for species rather than observation count, probably because we can’t compete in other categories. We are one of the few tropical regions with relatively robust invert identification to take advantage.

Also very encouraging results from Macau! Almost 50% of their obs. Came from the 4 days of CNC

City Observations Species People Cochabamba, Bolivia 109,423 7,134 3,230 San Antonio Metro Area, United States of America 133,953 5,409 2,632 Hong Kong, China 37,571 5,033 1,110 Graz bis zum Vulkanland, Austria 52,591 4,830 487 Area Metropolitana La Paz, Bolivia 148,865 4,721 3,321 Dallas/Fort Worth, United States of America 72,035 4,339 1,853 Houston-Galveston, United States of America 45,062 4,202 1,228 Macao SAR, China, China 64,664 4,183 1,009

Hong Kong finished CNC with another third place in species‼️

We have always performed pretty well every year. I didn’t have many other chances to go out unfortunately, only ~80 species.

Due to a forecasted period of showers, Friday and Saturday looked a bit pessimistic, but it all turned out fine?

He can join the club as an honorary perfect being™️

Thank you for all the work to compile this 😅

A grey horseshoe crab with a shed facing diagonally on its abdomen, like a pair of horseshoe crabs mating. They are on sand.

A line-up of 3 horseshoe crab shells on a hand from big (left) to small (right).

Too view of the shed of a horseshoe crab, to the left of a significantly bigger horseshoe crab.

A horseshoe crab buried into the sand. A lump of sand is formed on top of where its body is. Only outline of the telson and a trail on the sand is visible.

Sea roomba (Tachypleus tridentatus) type of night ‼️‼️ they are much more common than I thought (we saw ~30 tonight), but the apparent decrease in population is worrying.

a promo image showing various pages from the book, each page showcasing different animals like a bristle worm, octopus, butterfly, and so on.

IT'S FINISHED!
The Art of #InverteFest April 2025 Edition
A digital art book showcasing the work of 86 artists from around the world, in celebration of overlooked invertebrate fauna.

Thank you to the human artists who contributed to our art book!

Download here drive.google.com/file/d/1JvEx...

New week is here #MilkTeaAliance & so here are the upcoming events for it.

Before we start though. @rsf.org released their #RSFIndex2025 on the state of press freedom & things are looking bad globally. In Asia-Pacific no country is now rated good
#JournalismIsNotACrime

rsf.org/en/classemen...
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A ghost crab with a deep red, boxy body and white, warty claws. It has eyes with slit pseudopupils and long horns coming from the top of its eyes.

Wowowoww. Super cooperative horned ghost crab. So handsome.
#inverts

Uraniidae are a quirky bunch of moths considering it’s not that big of a family.
While you may be more familiar with Lyssa, the subfamily Epipleminae are small and some fold their wings into a T shape at rest. This is Warreniplema fumicosta.

Peregrine Falcon

Kentish plover

Lesser Sand Plover

Blue Rock Thrush

Today's bird photos!
It was sunny today!
I mentioned yesterday that we found a nest, and the humans had set up a tent there....
#birds

🤫🤫

Good job to everyone who said B. Uraniidae. Now what is this?

A. Uraniidae
B. Zygaenidae
C. Papilionidae
D. Geometridae
E. Noctuidae

A beige moth with straight, thin wings spread horizontally, making it resemble a T with the vertical component being much wider than the horizontal. It hindwings, lined up with its body, is light-coloured and veined like a leaf.

Test your moth knowledge! What family does this moth belong to?
A. Bombycidae
B. Uraniidae
C. Pterophoridae
D. Tineodidae
E. None of the above
#inverts