crabs are literally being forcefemmed by barnacles every day and no one ever talks about it

sacculina makes me go a little insane honestly and not even for strictly transgenderly reasons... its life cycle involves attaching itself to a crab, producing eggs in place of that crab's eggs, and using the female's natural "egg dispersal" technique to, well, disperse its own eggs; but what do they do if they attach to a male host? give up and die? of course not, they simply instigate a hormone cascade that fundamentally changes the crab forever. easy!

and this is just what being an arthropod is like most of the time. bugs get parasitized like CRAZY. theyre the worlds most hijackable machines and you better believe the biosphere is taking advantage of that fact

and, sure, you know what, its yuri. fuck it. theyre raising kids together. this is the ideal liberal family: barnacle mother, absentee barnacle father, and beautiful transgender crab mother

a FRIEND is a type of WEIRD BUG that you can LOVE

iridescent entimine weevil, Compsus auricephalus

Leaf-footed bug, Bitta alipes, Coreidae

Found from Nicaragua down through Ecuador

Photo 1 by pedro_alonso, 2-4 by seigmond, 5 by theo_michael_schmitt, 6 by johndeitsch, 7 by hsgzoe, 8 by stivensaldarriaga, and 9 for scale by fatroosterfarm

クロハネシロヒゲナガ、Nemophora albiantennella、4月29日、名古屋市

ヒメジョオン　Erigeron annuus

Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia: vol. 2 - Insects. Written by Dr. Bernhard Grzimek. 1984.

Internet Archive

Things that make me happy, on a day I need it:

Fuzz-bum going in for the snack

HI, HELLO

No this isn't a #BugSex entry, this is just a male sawfly (Sterictiphorinae) with branched antennae.

ohhh I love baby mosquitos so much...I wish I could just look at them wiggle and give them little treats forever. I wish we did not need to fight them for public health. little wiggly fuzzlets guilty of nothing

I'm still fussing with it here and there, but

Here is the official cover reveal for my upcoming book, THE CICADAS OF NORTH AMERICA!

Preorders are available NOW at www.OwlflyLLC.com/publications !!!

more things that people on inaturalist do

Nugget Planthopper 🖤

(pine needle for scale)

behold

(Stagmomantis carolina)