alienbath - Tumblr blog

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My wedding rings came in today and I wanted to show them off. They stack!

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Another little iridescent cutie

(Source: INaturalist)

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Say hello to all the lovely bugs today!

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The bug juice account on tiktok really knows what will make me spend money

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Not a request but a little drew some bugs, and I tidied them up. so here

ladybug

inchworm

moth sit

snail hide

caterpillar hai

waving caterpillar

the caterpillar is a Japanese emperor. :)

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I love it when these guys are silly. They love to poke their faces out of this hole

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So far the most popular thing I've posted is a picture of a moth that looks like a hornet. So to try and replicate the most likely short-lived fame:

This is a woolly caterpillar

You might've seen these guys crawling around.

THEY TURN INTO TIGER MOTHS

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this Mud-dauber Wasp chose our windowsil to build her nest! after a bit of investigation of me and my camera, she graciously allowed me to photograph her while she worked on her construction.

in the photos above, she has arrived with a ball of mud collected from somewhere nearby. this nest isn't for her to live in, but for her young to grow and pupate. in this mass of mud she will craft several individual cells, and provision them all with the paralysed bodies of orb-weaver spiders. each cell will have a single egg laid on the first spider, before being sealed off with more mud.

here, she picks the next spot to deposit her ball of mud, using her mandibles to smooth it onto the structure. when the larvae hatch, they will consume all the spiders in their respective cells, before pupating and then emerging as adults wasps.

each time she finished with a layer of mud, she would take a moment to groom her forelegs and antennae, before flying off to repeat the process. these photos were taken earlier in the Summer, and as of posting this, the adult wasps have yet to emerge.

Covered-cell Mud-dauber Wasp, female (Sceliphron laetum).

[alienbath]

just a few geophilomorph centipedes today

found nearly anywhere with soil (their name means earth-lovers), these are the most successful and species-rich order of centipedes.

you’re unlikely to see any unless you dig, and this bunch was sifted out of old soil and put in a container for release. while geophilomorphs are caring mothers that guard their many babies, these juveniles and adults wouldn’t likely be associated so closely or touching one another naturally—but given that I only inspected three small pots, can coexist at very high densities!

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It's weevil time!

(Source: Reddit, on r/weeviltime by agoscmkr)

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Look at her. The slay, the cunt, she's everything.

(Source: mantisuniverse.com)

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What was in the air yesterday to get my nipples pierced on 4/20?

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The fascinating relationship between ants and aphids. Some species of ants farm aphids, protecting them from predators and eating the liquid they secrete.

(Source: West coast seeds)

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Cicada (Tacua speciosa), family Cicadidae, found in SE Asia

photograph by EnnisFei (@ennisanna_fei)

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skippers(hesperiidae)

they are so cute. just look at those eyes

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too few people are gushing over them

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It’s funny to me looking back and realizing how much I hated any bugs and now I’m finding more species, trying to learn about them and really enjoying it.

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The urge to buy beetles and raise them never leaves me

(Source: David’s Beetles)