Tag: bugs

usgsbiml:

Beautiful, but scary.  

This is the Spotted Lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula).   An impressive 2 inch exotic Fulgorid type thing from China and Southeast Asia, it is a bark sucker and can do tremendous damage to smooth barked woody plants.  The Ag folks are concerned about things like apple, peaches, and grapes, but there are indications that other native plants may be at risk.  

Currently found in 6 counties in PA, efforts to eradicate it are ongoing, but it continues to spread.  Any sightings of something like this should be reported to your local Ag Extension Office if you are in the U.S.  One final note is that this species favorite late season host is Tree-of-Heaven (Ailanthus altissima).   Another reason to remove this exotic wherever it occurs.

 Photos, in part, by Sydney Price.  Specimen from USDA APHIS.  I would love to have additional fresh specimens particularly of the strikingly colored nymphs.

Source: usgsbiml

What insect is the smartest, like the ability to rationalize Idk something like orca smart

cyan-biologist:

The real question here is “what is smart?” because rationalizing is something we as the human species invented in my opinion (what is “good” and what is “bad”). Anyhow, the question is still interesting, let’s look at the phylogenetic tree shall we:

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Following the “if the clade is younger, the animals are more adapted/advanced”-argument, flies, butterflies and hymenoptera should be most “intelligent”. I think intelligence can be “measured” in cognitive behavior, and we know some examples of moths reacting to chemical cues. But this is not “real learning”. 

Bees, bumblebees, wasps and ants are however capable of learning behavior. In nature, these animals live in colonies and are able to protect other individuals altruistically and care for larvae that are not even from their own. In addition, bees have developed the interesting “bee dance” in order to communicate about food-sources, and if I remember correctly, bees even learn the dance from other workers. Orchids even have some interesting co-evolution going on with inexperienced bees, indicating that bees can learn which flowers they can visit. 

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In lab-settings, some ethologists have figured out how to learn a bee/bumblebee something, look at this list of rules/things you can do with bees!

So, to answer your question:

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waltersandmurdock:

feynites:

sweaterweathercub:

apinchofsanity:

pipistrellus:

kuttithevangu:

Honestly the mere fact that some people refer to Daddy Long Legs as “harvestmen” is creepier than 90% of all deliberately created horror but like the worst part is that the alternative is calling them Daddy Long Legs

#WHAT ARE THEY HARVESTING #I AM HAUNTED AND VEXED

They are harvesting our sorrows

True harvestmen, and not cellar spiders which are the other Daddy Long Legs, are truly omnivorous- known to eat everything from spiders, to fecal matter, to leaves and fungus… But one of the singularly most interesting habits of a particular European species is their almost symbiotic relationship with beehives– particularly man-made beehives. When a bee dies inside the hives, workers will remove the the corpse to just outside the hive just before dark. And the harvestmen? Well, they live up to their name.

So what you’re saying is that they are the grim reaper for bees.

The grim beeper

arr-jim-lad:

rebel-against-reality reblogged your post:i can’t believe people still think those gross…

If not ladybugs, what are they?

harlequin ladybugs.

it’s one of the world’s most invasive insects, they stink and bite and breed like crazy, and they actually endanger real ladybugs.

I understand why people don’t know, though. I’ve been interested in bugs since I was a kid and I only learned that these guys aren’t “real” ladybugs a few years ago. At the very least, it seems they do actually eat aphids, which is why they were spread globally in the first place (unlike some other intentionally introduced species that fail at their intended purpose). Why people didn’t just use local species that do the same thing, I have no idea. Species becoming invasive after introduction for human use seems to be a recurring theme throughout history, unfortunately. Cane toads are another bad example.

haemat:

things to say to bugs when science finally unlocks the secrets of human-bug communication:

  1. im not hurting you i am taking you to a safe place
  2. do you eat weird crumbs cause i found some im willing to share
  3. you can bite me if you want but id rather be no-bite friends
  4. i like your big colorful eyes, very stylish
  5. please dont crawl into my sleeves
  6. (sings a duet with a cricket)

cyan-biologist:

bogleech:

holy shit this ambush bug convergently evolved the same claws as a crab!!!??

I’m sure some people are like “yeah don’t a lot of bugs have that” NO, THEY DON’T, this is the first I’ve ever seen this in an insect!

The only source I can find is just this blog, but I can’t find a latin name. They do provide a comparison between this and the forelegs of other ambush bugs:

The “crab claw” in this photo though looks like even yet another species from the first one. Is it a whole group like this?? I have no idea

This. is. Awesome.

Tribe Carcinocorini, apparently!

Source: bogleech