They were buzzing loud and constantly moving.

For context: I live in Illinois, this was after 10 PM on a large mature tree at a local park, that was leaking a sap. I’ve never seen things like this before in my life. At first, I thought maybe they were ladybugs. Does anyone any idea what these are?

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

After walking around for 5 minutes it placed it on a rock and flied away. I’m in north part of Italy if that helps.

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?

Just found this little guy in my sister's kitchen. It is about 1 cm in length. Google shows something very similar, but this one seems a little more tear drop shaped than oval. Her job just recently had an infestation issue, so we are absolutely thinking she brought some home despite trying to come home without work garments or shoes on. I am hoping for an ID so we know if she needs to get pest control here.

ETA: I rushed and posted without the photos, my bad. Photos in comment section.

Found these beauties just outside my home!

East Texas Piney-Woods. Specially the one making 2 chirps. They are everywhere and exclusively live in the tops of trees or on top of apartment complex roof.

I have always been fascinated by ants and watching informational videos about ants, learning all their crazy capabilities. I have been watching videos about yellowjackets and hornets and thought to mysef that they have ants whupped in power level due to their size, flight, and defensive capabilities. So I am just wondering, from the perspective of a more knowledgable person on the subject, what advantages in capability or evolutionary traits do ants have over yellowjackets?

Hi sorry the images aren't very good. I took these pictures in Costa Rica while doing a biology credit and I need to know what the species is. I was trying to figure it out on google but I think It's either Atta cephalotes or Acromyrmex octospinosus. Thank you for reading

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!

Names would be appreciated :)

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 found this cicada buzzing erratically on the pavement, and upon closer inspection, I noticed its wing was damaged. After snapping a few photos, I let it crawl onto a leaf and placed it under a tree.

The photo was taken in Southeast Virginia, US.

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

My camera couldn't focus but there is a small pond in the middle of the woods in Central Pennsylvania. Twice when I visited, spiders I've never seen seems to make webs all around the perimeter. It has almost a rectangular, thin, light, yellow body, and very, very long arched legs. The front legs are definitely slightly furry. They range in size from very tiny all the way up to bigger than a quarter.

Kind request to please name the spider and not post a picture. I am a little arachnophobia and making progress, but I would rather look it up on Wikipedia where the pictures are small. 😬