So, fun fact: some tarantulas keep little toads in their dens. The toad eats little bugs that could be harmful to the tarantula or vulnerable eggs and babies, and, well, with a bodyguard like that, nobody's going to fuck with the toad.

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/37293679

My city leaves the grass next to a river bank long and thousands of grasshoppers live there. It seems a little late in the year to copulate, but that isn't stopping this couple.

Madagascar hissing cockroaches!

Millipede munching on some cucumber!

Emerald flower beetles, also muching on some cucumber!

It was hard to get decent pics of bugs as a lot of the terrariums are somewhat dark and have moisture on the glass/walls, as my phone camera sucks, so no more bug pics unfortunately.

There was this event/exhibit thing tho, which featured GIANT BUGS

My favorite of them was this trapdoor spider that would come out if you pressed a pedal with your foot for a while:

It was fun watching how people would first see someone else press the pedal, go "ohh that's how it works!", then go do it themselves and be delighted when the spider would come out.

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/36960074

Found this pretty lady the other day while on a walk. I like how the light fell on her.

Location: Midwest USA

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/36959495

I found this little guy a few weeks ago when the goldenrods were still in bloom.

Location: Midwest USA

This is one of my all-time favorite videos of any insect.

Something about this glorious little animal just charms me to no end, esp. the part of the video where it is eatng. The motion of its antennas as it is going to town on the fly is as expressive as it gets.

It has, I think, the coolest face.

A little Phidippus Audax jumper that was in the garage, munching on some flies.. Photo by me.

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/36749192

I found more slugs on my hike yesterday and snapped a couple pics.

There's a tiny baby slug in this photo too.

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/36706818

I was in search of crab spiders and happened upon this ambush bug snacking on a fly. Like many other assassin bugs they inject a digestive enzyme into their prey to liquify their insides that they then drink up like a milkshake.

The humble Luna moth (Actias luna). This is an old photo from a few years ago in June. I've only ever seen this one specimen, but I've been enchanted since. He was quite a model.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhinastus

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/35133230

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/35133147

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/35133141

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/36004772

[repost because the image seemed corrupted]

This lil guy was buzzing on some stairs, and was pretty big too.