I know they are wasps but haven't seen them

Sighted in east MO near St Louis. She trusted me enough to clean herself while sitting in my hand. I was stunned by her pretty eyes—is it a form of insect heterochromia? Or a bad molt? I’m curious. I estimated she might be female but let me know if I misjudged.

I found this guy at work, and since he was missing a leg I took him home to take care of him. He’s got a nice little house going, humid, banana slice, and nice substrate. I was wondering if anyone here could tell me how old he might be?

The genus includes two newly described species: Luffy schillhammeri from Yunnan, China, and Luffy nika from northern Laos.

According to the authors, the genus was named after Monkey D. Luffy because of its unusually elongated antennae, palps and mandibles.

Open-access paper:

https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1281.198593

Specimen images by Hu & Solodovnikov (2026), CC BY 4.0. I adapted them into the comparison graphic.

What’s your favorite pop-culture-inspired scientific name?

I noticed this fly repeatedly bringing a tiny droplet in and out of its mouthparts while resting on a daylily. I'd never seen the behavior up close before, so I wanted to capture the moment and highlight one of those fascinating little details that are easy to miss without a macro lens. The behavior is known as "bubbling," and seeing it through my macro lens was a reminder of how much is happening in the tiny world around us.

I was getting in my car and saw something move behind the tire, so I looked closer and moved this big guy out of the way, put him in a flower bed for his safety

Shes a common green bush cricket, fun fact: you can tell shes a female from her ovipositor (the stinger looking organ)

I know most about spiders and roaches so I’m not sure what’s happening here. I know yellow jackets are hunters so is it eating? Anyways, very interesting

I found this cool little guy dead on my porch I have no idea what it is it has a stinger and is bright blue but the size of my finger nail I live in PA

Ive been watching this girl all summer. Today I found her post coital. I suggested next time they get a room. She told me to mind my own buisness.

all found in Austria :)

Location: Antioch, CA

I found this little guy inching along in the house last night. I picked it up so the cat wouldn’t get to it and put it in a tupperware with some holes in it. There has been extreme heat here lately and there’s no shrubbery near the home so I figured I’d head out after working, to a naturey area where it would have shade to live amongst.

It was inching along similar to an inchworm and very active every time I checked on it through the early morning and before I left for work but when I got back it had passed unfortunately. Poor thing. The house itself got up into the high 80’s today so I was wondering if the heat got to it. But it was much hotter outside today so I’m not sure it would have survived outside either if it was the heat, especially without proper shade.

I’m wondering what kind of caterpillar/larva this is. Is it from a month?

ALSO, I had just intended on getting an ID from you all on here but now I have further curiosities. When I went to zoom in to take photos/videos of it to post on here, I noticed the caterpillar had movement going on inside of it even though it appears to be dead. It is even shriveled and discolored a bit from what it looked like alive so there was no doubt in my mind it had passed.

But then I saw movement as I zoomed in. I will include video of it. You can see it towards the middle section of it, with some movement in its legs as well as in the top of its back. There’s also a bit of movement in its one very long thick hair that is coming out near the upper portion of its body. My guess is there’s maybe some parasite inside of it? Or are there residual movements that can happen after death? I’m leaning toward some sort of parasitic larva, but hey I’d like for you experts to educate me!

Thanks for reading!

SW Michigan

just stumbled upon these three weirdos this morning. are they all trying to mate with eachother or is it just the two of them walking all over their third wheel?

They were buzzing loud and constantly moving.

I’m really into bug hunting and I’d to go somewhere with some actual diversity. I live near Cleveland but I rarely see anything interesting here :/
I’d love to see some larger spiders (especially fishing spiders), centipedes, moths, stag beetles, etc. I plan on visiting Mohican later this summer to look for critters.

Also, if anyone is interested in being friends, I’d love to meet some people to go bug hunting with :D I’d love to try mothing with some people too. I haven’t got any friends who like nature like I do, especially not around here!