So You Like Bugs...

coolbugs:

Bug of the Day

Went mothing last night so of course the highlight was not a moth but a MOLE CRICKET! How cool is this thing??? Look at those claws, those are digging claws! This was one of three that showed up at the moth light.

stewarti1:

Now that’s camo! On a recent hike north of Putnam, IL I found a large number of these pygmy grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Tetrigidae). While similar to “normal” short horned grasshoppers in appearance, these adorable little critters are typically about 1cm or less. Most species have absent or greatly reduced wings, unlike their Acridid cousins, in favor of a robust ability to swim which aids in their abundance near bodies of water.

An entomologist at the Illinois Natural History Survey, a former employer of mine, recently discovered a new species of pygmy grasshopper in Miocene amber that has much more developed wing structure suggesting developed wings as the ancestral trait. I’m also quite fond of the fact that Dr. Sam Heads named the new species after David Attenborough, a hero among naturalists!

typhlonectes:

Greater Angle-wing Katydid (Microcentrum rhombifolium), Houston, TX

When I came to work yesterday morning, this insect friend was waiting for us on the front of the house.

In much of the rest of the United States, where colder temperatures have set in, these tree dwelling katydids have disappeared, but here in the south, where we have milder temperatures, they still sing their lispy “dzt” and click calls on warmer nights.

photograph by Paxon Kale

toddjdreyer:

Celithemis elisa / Calico Pennant

crosstimberlake:

Here be dragons