What is the strangest insect you’ve found?

Dead Blue Deer

Dead Blue Deer

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Apr 29, 2020
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Weird bugs are my favorite bugs. It takes a lot for me to be surprised by any insect these days (raised by an entomologist) but occasionally I'll find something totally new to me.

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Forked fungus beetle (Tenebrionidae)

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The larva of a firefly, Microphotus sp.
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Stranger than the insects themselves are their behaviors. Parasitism is one of those really weird things. I once found a dead jerusalem cricket in a puddle of water, and there was a horsehair worm (similar to a Nematode) swimming nearby. Turns out they have a very elaborate life cycle that involves a couple different hosts, the cricket being the final host. The worm controls the cricket's behavior, leads it to water, then bursts out of it, killing the host. A pretty grim way to go.

Although the gnarliest thing I've ever seen in the field was a large, living praying mantis that was parasitized by fly maggots. Her abdomen was so full of them and you could see them moving inside her. I'll spare y'all the photo of that because it still haunts my nightmares! :eek:
 
Slappy

Slappy

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The strangest things I’ve found in my yard was two 4-5” centipedes, idk what type as I was a child. They were colorful so I think they were tiger centipedes or “common desert”. They were scary as hell. Found a eucalyptus long-horn beetle recently, wish I kept it :lol:
Rat-tailed maggots. Yuck. They’re sometimes in containers I have floating pond plants in.

found a few whip-tail scorpions camping, tarantula hawk (and it’s victim) while hiking.
haven’t seen any recently, but have found several Jerusalem crickets in the past.
Several camel spiders and scorpions in Africa
oh and tsetse flies, when we’d kill them sometimes a maggot the size of its entire abdomen would pop out.

tarantula hawk and victim were the only ones I documented, through very poor video late in the game.

 
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A

Arthroverts

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Aron W said:
Had to take a double take there for a second! 😂
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Its funny how many people do have to take double-takes. L. niger and L. neoniger are probably the most viewed ant species names for that sole purpose, and not because they stand for species that have fascinating lifestyles.

Thanks,

Arthroverts
 
L

legsfordays

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one time I was looking for crawdads and found a bunch of empty tubes of rocks in the stream. I was very confused so I took them home to try and figure out what made them. When I got back to the house I discovered one of them was inhabited! By what I soon learned to be a caddisfly larva! Needless to say, I ran him back down to the stream.
 
Aron W

Aron W

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legsfordays said:
one time I was looking for crawdads and found a bunch of empty tubes of rocks in the stream. I was very confused so I took them home to try and figure out what made them. When I got back to the house I discovered one of them was inhabited! By what I soon learned to be a caddisfly larva! Needless to say, I ran him back down to the stream.
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I see lots of those when I go crawdading lol I also see mayfly larva which are pretty cool looking.
 
A

Arthroverts

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I found several of those as well recently, along with some small aquatic leeches. Fascinating creatures.

Thanks,

Arthroverts
 
jrh3

jrh3

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You will be surprised by whats just around your house at night if you live around the woods.

Take a bed sheet and hang it up outside and shine a light on it, leave it overnight. To really get the full experience make a bucket funnel under it. With a light in it too. So many neat insects.
 
Slappy

Slappy

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legsfordays said:
one time I was looking for crawdads and found a bunch of empty tubes of rocks in the stream. I was very confused so I took them home to try and figure out what made them. When I got back to the house I discovered one of them was inhabited! By what I soon learned to be a caddisfly larva! Needless to say, I ran him back down to the stream.
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You ought to check out the jewelry made with the caddisfly larva! They raise the larva with pretty gemstones and rocks, then once the larva is done with it they sell it (I think they wait... 😅)

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Damn 1%
 
A

Arthroverts

Arachnoking
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Slappy said:
You ought to check out the jewelry made with the caddisfly larva! They raise the larva with pretty gemstones and rocks, then once the larva is done with it they sell it (I think they wait... 😅)

View attachment 349155
Damn 1%
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I've seen that, its super creative. What they sell for is not super creative however ;)...
However, I still don't think these are more beautiful than the natural, wild versions.

Thanks,

Arthroverts
 
TheOnlyScout

TheOnlyScout

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Aug 7, 2020
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Oh, man. I really hope bringing dead threads back to life isn't a faux pas here, because this is my jam.

The weirdest ones I've seen around my house are robber flies, mole crickets, and horsehair worms.
Robber flies and horsehair worms had me so confused as a child. Hahaha. I remember pouring over my bug book looking for them. Didn't help that my grandfather called robber flies "Witchdoctors." Also didn't help that the "pocket guide" I had was maybe 600 pages with four pictures on each side. That's a lot of insects to dig through.

Now, cool ones?
Once I found a tortoise beetle in my mom's yard. That was an awesome find. I can't remember what I ate yesterday, but I definitely remember finding a tortoise beetle when I was 9. That made my year.
Also spitting bugs and spiny orb weavers. I love my spiny orb weavers. They're so chill, and the way they float sticks to act as web anchors? I can't. It's awesome.
 
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