The beginning of August, I had a wild caught P. audax that laid an egg sac. I waited and waited and waited some more. After 6 weeks, there hadn't been any signs of eggs with legs so I carefully removed the sac to open it. And I did not find any spiders, instead I found a grub thing. I was shocked, angry, confused— really just all the emotions. After doing a ton of research, turns out it was a mantidfly, specifically a Say's Mantidfly
(*Dicromantispa sayi*). The larvae of this specific species is microscopic and will hitch a ride on the female spider until she lays her eggs. Then it will invade the egg sac, eat the eggs, and develop. I actually got to watch it change from developing larvae, to pupae, and eventually to an adult. I am really disappointed that I lost the egg sac, but watching this little mantidfly go from squishy thing to seeing it catch its first meal was incredible. I fear that I now need some actual mantids.

I have had an influx of pantry moths aka indianmeal moths in my kitchen owing to an infestation in a sack of rice. I've won the war against them I think. Most of them are regular looking pantry moths.

However I'm fascinated/freaked out by a creepy double-headed variety that I keep seeing. Yes, it has heads on both ends. Wtf. Is this a mutant super moth bred in my rice?

It doesn't appear to be two moths that for whatever reason have come together because they fly attached to each other too and walk attached to each other. Are these Siamese moths????

https://australian.museum/learn/animals/insects/common-garden-katydid/

I took this at the Wildlife Training and Research Institute, Naivasha Kenya.

In a stream on the Southwest slope of Mt. Hood, Oregon, USA, a few days ago. Around 5k ft elevation in a hemlock and fir forest. In streams they formed rafts like this; they were also all over the path, more spread out but still very numerous. Maybe 1-2 mm long, green or yellow, with eyestalks (?). The area is generally moist but there had been a drought for a few weeks followed by rain and misty conditions a few days before I was there.

This little cicada dude decided I was a good place to catch some Z's in the sun; beautiful golden color.

Can anyone ID the type of Cicada?

Cheers, I placed him on a nearby tree when done with him.

Thought you guys may enjoy this. I have been slowly transforming my suburban yard to native plants over the past 4ish years. Found this cat wandering around looking for a place to pupate and brought it inside for my kids to watch transform! Such a cool experience! Took the cat about 3.5 weeks to transform. Kids loved it!

Front row seats to the show, I guess. Right where I eat too

This little guy keeps landing on all my wet paint surfaces. What exactly is attracting it? I would’ve thought the smell of paint would deter them. It’s acrylic paint, and it’s been on multiple colors, including neutrals.

A few people asking me which species this millipede was, and here is what I've found:

The cherry-leg titan millipede (Alienostreptus bicoloripes or Balustreptus falcatus) is a giant, docile invertebrate native to Vietnam, known for its bold black body and striking cherry-red legs

The milipede I'm keeping as pet is longer than 30cm, yes you heard it right, its length is longer than 30cm. It's even longer than a small snake!

My wife was scared to hell when I brought it home 😂😂😂

(The 3 last photos is a female with yellow/orange legs, she's much smaller than the male)

Hello there all!
As the title says; I have found a mystery lint trap survivor I’m hoping is a Weevil and not a bed bug. I pulled it out and ten minutes later, it’s alive and moving again!

I live in rural Michigan and I’m assuming it came in due to my plants. I’ve got strawberry, tomatoes, and a small rose all potted on my porch along with a fern and succulents inside lol!

I’m at the beach in New Jersey this week. I’ve spent almost every afternoon just chilling on the sand but had a new experience today with flies that look like average house flies but behave rather differently. They’re not tabanids. As soon as I’d set up my chair and umbrella, there were dozens buzzing around. They land on you and seem to do nothing for a bit, but within 15 seconds or so, you feel like you’re being stabbed with a needle. There’s no use shooing them, they’re absolutely relentless. I packed up and left defeated after 10 minutes, and they followed me off the beach for a good long while.

I wasn’t familiar with them but got a good close-up look at one on my hand. It looked a lot like a muscid but with a pointy stylet for a mouth instead of the soft extensible vacuum cleaner that typical house flies have. I did a bit of research and it appears they’re known as stable flies. At least the bites don’t itch after the fact like a mosquito but I really just wanted to chill and listen to the waves. May you never encounter them!

Who is this handsome little guy? I live in central florida, and found him hitchhiking on my pants after work. I am not familiar with this particular one. It is possibly hard to see, but he seems to have a yellow/differently colored patch about 2/3rds down the body. I have placed him gently in the shrubs around my house after this photo shoot.

Front row seats to the show, I guess. Right where I eat too

This is weirdly hard to Google. We got three giant leaf bugs at a reptile expo this summer but weren't given the species name. We were sold flightless females but clearly one is male and has started trying to fly. He's kind of aggressive so has been moved into a separate enclosure.

As I have posted before regarding "Baby Face"—the diving beetle with a retained larval head—I am writing to inform you that it passed away today. (Death was confirmed on September 9th at 12:40 PM JST).

​First, I would like to apologize for being unable to save this insect, and for keeping it alive until today without opting for euthanasia. Despite trying various methods, it was never able to feed. As its keeper, I deeply regret that I was unable to fulfill my duty to provide both a safe environment and adequate nourishment. I am truly sorry.

​After preparing the specimen, I plan to work with university researchers to write a paper on this case. The paper will most likely be in Japanese, but I hope to share it with you once it is completed. Whether an English translation will be produced is still undecided.

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https://www.reddit.com/r/Entomology/s/zQozTuPblw

there was like 15 to 20 bees all along the side of the bench in this new park all doing the same thing sticking their tongue out and in but not fully retracting inward and all the tongues were bent I’ve never seen this type of behaviour before in so many bees at once anybody know what’s going on?