Which one is your favorite?

it was suggested to me that i post my creations on this subreddit too :) hope u guys like my funky little guys

Figured you might like to meet her here!

A broad-headed bark spider (Caerostris sp)

Have you ever seen this guy?

This morning I found this but that I've never seen before and after researching, I'm quite sure it is a techina grossa. Does anyone know if these are invasive to the area and how one might've ended up here?

I'm not trying to identify this, it's a wasp and that's enough for moi.

I have a very irrational fear of wasps (spheksophobia?), but I've done my best to trap them and put them outside (without running away screaming ew ew ew like a little girl) ever since a bizarre interaction with one last year.

Right now I have two buzzing around my kitchen, this one is snacking on tiny bits of honey stuck to a jar in my tea prep area, and the other seems more interested in the water-filled dishes in my sink.

My only question is how might I best lure them into a jar so I can trap and put them outside? From what I read I don't think honey is good for them, and I suspect what they're really looking for is water. I have a jar with a few drops of water and a drop of honey sitting near the pictured wasp, and this time it's just ignoring it. It's easy to trap them when they cling to a flat surface, but these two are not cooperating.

Suggestions for safe and humane removal of wasps from house welcome. 🐝

​

Found this beetle while walking on mountain trail near Tbilisi.

After I took it and placed on more open place to take a photo, it curled up and played dead. After several minutes it scuttled away.

Its wings are reduced, so it cannot fly, and abdomen is quite soft on the touch.

Hello! I have a couple cocoons on my house, this one has gotten dark and I assume cooked ☹️. Has it expired? If so is there a way to preserve this?

Not sure if anyone here is an Australian local, but trying to work out what this is.

I posted here and another subreddit about some coppery egg clusters that appeared overnight trying to get an ID. Unfortunately(?) I took too long (2 day) to remove the eggs and they started to hatch into these worm things. Does anyone know what these are?

Location: South Seattle, WA, USA

A link to my other post with pictures of the eggs: https://www.reddit.com/r/whatsthisbug/s/N107S5EC6P

What kind of beetle is this?

It was nighttime inside a bedroom. It was black/brown, spotted wings and a very long tail/antenna. Also buzzed when flying like a loud wasp.

AAAS: "Honey bees inject venom with a two-stroke stinger," by Erik Stokstad.

"Unlike other poisonous animals, bees use a strange set of pistons to pump toxin." Note the 2 arrows in the screenshot of the 2 'pistons' beautifully depicted in the video. "[All] other venomous creatures—snakes, spiders, scorpions, wasps—squeeze poison from a storage sac and out of their fangs or stingers." 

"Honey bees instead use a piston-driven pump, something common in machines but very rare in nature." The business end of a honey bee stinger consists of two tiny lances inside a rigid sheath, extending from a venom sac. "When a bee lands [+ it has to first land] to sting, the barbed tips of the lances pierce the target’s flesh, causing the lances, sheath, + venom sac to rip from the bee’s body as it flies away." This move dooms the bee to die—and leaves behind an apparatus that can keep pumping venom into the victim. 

"More than a century ago, biologists noticed that before bee venom exits the stinger, it flows into a swollen bulb containing two pistonlike structures that are attached to the stinger’s lances." Although this tiny contraption had long been suspected of acting like a pump, no one had observed it in action. "In a paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team describes how it works." 

"Each piston is a flexible flap shaped like a baseball cap attached to the upper end of each lance, which extends into the stinger’s bulb." As one lance moves down, its bottom end drives deeper into the victim’s flesh, while the piston on the lance’s upper end extends across the bulb + forms a seal, like the rubber ring on a plunger in a syringe. "This allows the lance to push venom out of the stinger as it moves downward, while also drawing more venom from the sac into the bulb."

"On the lance’s way back up, however, the flap collapses, allowing the other lance’s flap to form a seal in the bulb + keep pushing venom out as the other lance moves downward." This back-and-forth allows the venom to flow out nonstop. 

"[Scientists] hope the piston pumps might inspire the invention of tiny pumps for biomedical devices." A silver lining as it were. From pain comes progress.

I live and travel around the Houston, Tx area and since around April of this year and still to this month, I've noticed a lot more weevils (inside offices/homes/even a store at the mall!)

Is anyone a weevil expert that can tell me if I'm crazy and it's a coincidence or are there really more weevils this year (or this time / times of year)?

Also, isn't that little horn so cute?

This guy was in my bathroom and I asked my husband to let him outside hut by the time he got there, he was already gone so now I’m just overthinking for us and our cats sake lol. I’m pretty sure not a recluse but want to be positive it’s nothing harmful. We live in Colorado if it helps! Probably about the size of a nickel or quarter all the way around

An interesting specimen for sure!