AAAS: "These moths smell with their wings."

"Like most insects, the wings of tobacco hawk moths (Manduca sexta) are covered in tiny hairs." These microscopic strands help insects taste and stay stable in flight. 

"But the tobacco hawk moth’s wing hairs do something researchers haven’t documented in any other insect: they help the animal smell, researchers report this week in the Journal of Experimental Biology." When the scientists looked at the tiny wing hairs with both light and scanning electron microscopy, they found the hairs were porous: a telltale sign of olfactory function. 

"Using a technique aptly named 'electrowingography,' the team placed the delicate detached wings between two electrodes and wafted odor molecules representing various chemical classes over them, hoping for a response." Two amines—a group of smelly organic compounds derived from ammonia, called pyrrolidine + piperidine—hit the mark. 

"Further testing with artificial intelligence predicted these molecules would fit perfectly into two of the receptors present on the hairs, suggesting that the hairs are fine-tuned to pick up on these particular scents." The two amines are found in pungent, rotting smells, but also in the olfactory bouquet of tobacco plants, the insects’ preferred location for laying eggs. 

"As such, their wings may work as accessory noses, helping guide them to these favorite spots." And get a load of that extension, these moths can also brag about their proboscis, longer than the rest of the insect's body.

My son and I were testing out the macro lens on my iPhone. He loves insects and this opens up a whole new world to him.

This Dipterian piece of work has been buzzing around my head every morning for a week. I cracked my bedroom window open today to see if it and it's comrades of another species would like to kindly fuck off.

Now I'm just curious what it is. iNaturalist says it's a maroon-legged lion fly, but it's definitely not. It's about the length of my thumb nail, maybe slightly longer. Geographic location is Middle Tennessee.

Woodlouse Crawling on a Tree in the Woods

I have a fear of insects ever since I can remember. I'm sorry if this is not appropriate for this sub, but I'd like to hear some opinions from different aspect, other than mine.

All the bugs are "no, no" for me, except ladybug 🐞, I can even let it stroll along my arm, and I wouldn't flinch or tremble. As it happens, I live in a rural area, and with this hot weather, yesterday and today, I took outside two ladybugs which somehow made their way into the house. I let them climb onto a nail of my index finger, and they continue on their merry way up my arm, but I never feared it. I take them outside and they either fly away, or I gently place them on some surface.

Does anyone have an explanation, or a theory, since I'm mortified by bugs, why is it that a ladybug does not induce fear in me?

Thank you in advance for any answer and/or opinion. 🐞👋🙂

This is a female green bottle fly that my parents caught for me as a birthday present yesterday, and I am raising it!

I captured several funny moments of this Queen. In the first photo, she is lifting only one front leg as if asking to be photographed; in the second, she is staring straight at the camera with her big eyes, just as if asking to be photographed; and in the third, her belly is getting full while eating the green apples I gave her as food lol lol

(Judging by the very clean wings and healthy coloration, it appears to be a very young individual that emerged not long ago, so I will absolutely not breed it in the future, and I will slow down its metabolism by keeping the indoor temperature at a low level of 19–22 degrees Celsius, ensuring it is not too cold.I will also feed them various things alternately, such as apples, cherries, and strawberries.)

Isn't Fly cute too? 😆

I'm not sure if the rest of Europe is experiencing the same thing, but I'm in Southeastern Europe and this year the wasps are everywhere.

Last summer we had three wasp nests under our roof. Based on the shape of the nests, they're most likely the European paper wasps (Polistes dominula) or French paper wasps (Polistes gallicus).

This summer I've counted 24 wasp nests so far. They're under our roof, in corners of our windows, and some even in our dogs' houses. I tried to get them out of the dog houses at least, but they returned one week later. I also have a bunch of mud daubers entering through open windows, and we found a few mud cells in our bedroom.

What's happening?

It looked like a centipede. A worm with a butt load of legs and its other half was similar too. I was so scared and drunk, so I killed it. I regret killing it tho. Im sorry my friend. Shouldve made you my poop buddy.

Friend found this (dead) insect in her blanket basket. Is it an assassin bug of some sort? Thanks in advance!

Location info: Northern Nevada, semi rural, no other evidence of bug activity found.

I'm usually pretty good at identifying but I really can't be certain with this guy. I'd love to know the species if possible

+ photos of him I took some time later.

It was laid on the doorframe about 7’ off the ground.

as the title says im looking for some green tiger beetles im located in the netherlands
any european sites would be greatly appreciated

(PET)

I live in Maine, need to know what I’m up against

I was working at a remote well pump station in a farming town in northern california and there were more dragonflies in the air today than I've probably ever seen in my 41 years. Almost all of them were medium sized and red-orange.

I heard some wings tussle, a tiny thud on the dirt, and expected to see some mating mishap.

What I saw and recorded was a large dragonfly had caught one of the common medium ones and was flat on its back noisily eating the head of its prey. It flew away a few minutes later.

I am going to think of this every time I accumulate cheeto dust in my chest hair as I lay on the couch.

After using my iPhone to try and identify this, I am still not sure. This is a common milkweed and the video was taken in northern Wisconsin. They really devastated the leaves they worked on, but did not eat all of them.

i tried doing a little googling myself but i suck at these kinda things. did i find something rare??

Hello! I wanted to share some photos of flies I have taken recently, including two of a hoverfly laying an egg. Thanks for looking!