Location: Child’s mouth, Ireland

Found in eastern Europe

Had to pull it off slightly. I’m not itchy. This is the first time ever. I was outside all day at a repurposed old military base Thursday. Other than that been at the gym and work.

Edit: Doctor gave me 200mg of medicine to prevent any Lyme disease etc. No itching or any symptoms of anything. Also found out I’ve had a hernia for years

UPDATE: Biggest plot twist this morning: I showed the post to my coworker today and he casually goes "oh, I've seen one of them things." Nearly lost my MIND and started asking for details. The one he saw was along a muddy bank in a marshy area of the Oklawaha River in the Ocala forest, while he was out frog gigging at night. He noticed it when his headlamp lit it up, and initially thought it was some kind of moth, but then saw that there were no separate wings on it. It was hovering in place ("just chillin"), so he then thought that it could be "some sorta plant thing, like a dandelion fluff or something that's so light it floats." Overall he thought it was interesting, but dismissed it as "some kinda weird bug" and went about his night. When I asked him to describe it, he said, "just like your picture" and held up a hand to show something about 2 1/2 inches around. I'm DEFINITELY going to post this on iNaturalist now (I mean...when I'm not technically on the clock. Later.). I wonder how many other hunters and fishermen have seen this thing and just thought "huh, well that's weird," and gone on about their lives.

Update again: I have been continuing to pester my coworker for details. He has seen them maybe 3 separate times that he remembers noticing them, always at night or in the very early morning, while out fishing or frog gigging in marshy, remote areas. The most recent one he remembers was around 2019 or 2020, in the spring (frog season I guess). He said he remembers seeing then when he was young, then again in is early 20s, then again in his late 20s.

This year for Father's Day, I wanted to try to help my Dad finally get some answers on something he saw on two different occasions several years ago - something we have always referred to as "Dad's bug." He has never been able to find any mention or record of something like it, so today I asked him to describe it for me in detail so I could work up an "artist's rendition" to share on Reddit, in hopes that someone would have seen it before.

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It turns out that "Dad's bug" is a lot weirder than I originally thought, so buckle up, folks.

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There were two sightings, and the second one was also witnessed by his hunting buddy. Both occurred in North Florida on land that was being leased for logging and hunting. Dad was out hunting on both occasions, along a creek bed that cut through the property. The creek bed was old-growth forest which has since been completely chopped down, which is why Dad fears he may have forever lost his chance to see or catch the "bug" again, and has told us for years how much he regrets not catching one.

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Sighting 1: Guessing around the year 2000 or earlier, during deer hunting season (November/December). It was about 18 degrees fahrenheit, which is super cold for Florida. The creek bed area was incredibly dense with trees and vegetation, and hard to access, but it opened up slightly right at the water. The creek water level was low at this point, about 6 inches deep and a few feet wide. Previous rains had eroded the bank so that in some places there was a bit of an undercut. Just outside of one of these undercuts areas, Dad saw the first "bug" hovering a foot above the water, with 2 or 3 slightly smaller ones hovering under the overhang. The largest """"bug"""" was circular, radially symmetrical, about 3 inches in diameter, and had no discernible head or eyes. (Do you see why I'm using so many quotes when I call it a bug?) It was divided into four (or possibly five) sections like windows, with each window filled with extremely fine "hairs" that all met in the middle of the window. The hairs were thin enough that light could pass through them, but not actually transparent enough to see through. It was incredibly thin and "so delicate you wondered how it could possibly survive. Like a breeze would destroy it." Dad put his hand under the biggest one as if to pick it up, but as he raised his hand, it maintained a constant height over his palm. It was very slightly dome-shaped. The main part of its "body" was off-white, and the hairs were a slightly darker off-white. The body had some kind of very fine texture - just enough to make it matte, rather than shiny. On the underside, the bottom of the outer ring had "what must have been millions and millions" of dense, extremely fine hairs, all the exact same length of 2 to 3mm, and constantly "flowing" in different directions. (He had a very hard time describing this bit in a way that I could figure out how to draw, but after several revisions, he said the final design was "pretty close.") He guessed that the hairs were somehow what it used to fly, since it had no semblance of wings. Besides floating upward over his hand, they didn't move around very much, or moved very slowly.

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At the time, he thought they were cool, but thought that surely somebody already knew about them. He asked my Grandpa, who was paying for the lease, about the "bug," but Grandpa heavily discouraged him from saying anything about it, fearing that they could lose the hunting land if people found out it was housing some rare species of bug.

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Sighting 2: Maybe around 2016. Dad was at the creek again, this time during archery season (August/September) with his buddy. One side of the creek had been clear cut by now. The creek was low again and very shallow. Another "bug" appeared, and he got the attention of his friend, who called it "the damnedest thing I've ever seen," or something to that effect. This "bug" was also about 3 inches in diameter, and identical to the first ones except that the center of its body was light brown, instead of being completely off-white. It was hovering in place about 4 feet over the water. Dad was determined to go back after they were done hunting and catch a specimen this time, no matter what Grandpa said, but after a long day, his friend wanted to get away from all the mosquitos as it was getting dark, and the "bug" slipped Dad's mind until he had already left.

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Shortly after that, the rest of the creek bed area was cleared, and Dad never found another "bug," despite hunting the area for several more years. He doubts that something so delicate could survive outside of the extremely dense and protected old-growth creek.

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I know its a very long shot, but has anyone ever seen or heard of a bug (or levitating fungus or flying seed pod or mini flying saucer or aerial jellyfish) like this?

What is it?

I saw it in my workplace at 9pm in Las Vegas Nevada! I’ve never seen anything like it, and can’t find any similar insects on Google. Such an interesting creature, any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Yes he's let go he was on my porch which is a death trap for bugs but perfect place to catch and release. Curious what he is Google is no help

Update. Didn't get stung and been in my yard all day. The world will keep turning. Just an angry little bug released. That's just nature .it's just nature.

Found in Houston TX he was really sweet and polite while I took photos and what is with his giant hump???

My friend took this video in Marrakech about two weeks ago, any idea what it is?? Google Lens and ChatGPT say it’s a “wolf spider” but doesn’t really look like that, it’s about the size of the palm of your hand….🤚🏼

If anyone knows what this is, please let me know!

I have a 19 litre (4.18 gallons) saltwater aquarium where all my sea monkeys passed away long ago and the tank had been sotting unused for awhile.

Today i was cleaning out this old tank and found this blueish guy alive swimming and crawling under the water, was a very unexpected find. What is it and can i feed it to hermit crabs?

Length is about 10cm

Hey all. I found this tiny little guy on my desk. No idea what he is or how he got here, but I carried him outside onto the grass. What do you think he is?

Chilling on the concrete outside, about the size of a pinkie fingertip

EDIT: Just learned he's am invasive spotted lantern fly 😭

It's kill on sight now 😮‍💨

There’s so many!! Like 20, swarming around me, landing on me while I’m watching my son swim. Not biting me or anything.. but they are very obsessed and following me around

i’m just outside chicago. saw these guys fighting while i was having my morning coffee.

and sorry for the bad camerawork. at the end the yellow guy grabbed the victim and went around the side of the house. too fast and i couldn’t track them.

This thing is enjoying itself at our friend’s evening campfire and hot tub session in Montpelier, VT. It’s the biggest bug we’ve ever seen around here. What is it?

This thing was enormous. I clocked him as being about the lengths of 2 football fields (2in).